# When you tell people where you are from , what do they usually say? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570 "2018-01-13T22:16:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/101 "2018-01-16T19:38:42Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I’m reminded of a story from the early 1980s, that the tourism folks in Kansas City were trying to figure out how to broaden their appeal to tourists. So they conducted some focus groups in New York to see what people’s perceptions were about KC. > > The answer was “none.” The average New Yorker - as [the famous magazine cover](http://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/view-from-9th-ave.jpg) pointed out - had literally no perception Kansas City, and no interest in learning about it, much less visiting it. KC was known for steaks and not much else I thought? Why would anyone fly to KC? You might stop if driving cross country, especially in a RV but fly there? Not sure what they expected with the survey. I have some minor interest in seeing the ballpark & the Negro League Hall of Fame but I’m that kind of baseball nut. I doubt most people know where the Negro League Hall of Fame actually is. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/102 "2018-01-16T19:48:21Z")
Iowan here, living near Washington DC. I used to get a lot of _Field of Dreams_ references. Now I get a blank stare, or maybe, “I was there once. Or was it Idaho?” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/103 "2018-01-16T20:26:29Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > If I’m out of the area, I’ll say that I’m from DC just because it’s easier\*. But I would \*never \*say “me too” to someone who told me they were from DC! How bizarre! > > \*I’ve found the usual reaction to be “oh.” I think most people are just happy I named a place they’ve heard of/can picture on a map. In the 90s, I once told a bank teller that I was getting ready to go live in Belgium for a few years. Her response: “Gee, I hope that’s not near Iran!”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/104 "2018-01-16T20:32:59Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > In the 90s, I once told a bank teller that I was getting ready to go live in Belgium for a few years. Her response: “Gee, I hope that’s not near Iran!”. :smack: Oh, my. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/105 "2018-01-16T20:55:57Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I’m reminded of a story from the early 1980s, that the tourism folks in Kansas City were trying to figure out how to broaden their appeal to tourists. So they conducted some focus groups in New York to see what people’s perceptions were about KC. > > The answer was “none.” The average New Yorker - as [the famous magazine cover](http://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/view-from-9th-ave.jpg) pointed out - had literally no perception Kansas City, and no interest in learning about it, much less visiting it. But everything’s up to date! I’m from Appalachian Ohio. Some people say “I’m sorry.” Most are more interested in what that’s like. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/106 "2018-01-16T21:49:53Z")
> [@wonky](#): > > But everything’s up to date! They got some crazy little women there and I’m gonna get me one. ---
**Author:** ![Buttercup\_Smith](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buttercup_smith/32/473_2.png) [@Buttercup\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buttercup_Smith)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/107 "2018-01-16T21:56:43Z")
Almost everyone I speak with on a day to day basis that does not know me will ask me where I am from. I live in extreme south Florida but am from middle Georgia. It’s the southern accent that I cannot seem to ever get rid of. ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/108 "2018-01-17T02:42:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If I tell people I’m from New York, they assume I’m from New York City. When we told our friends and family in Baltimore that we were moving to upstate NY, we received one of two responses, one, “OMG, I hope you don’t become Yankee fans”, um, NO, we were born and raised in Bawlmer, long time Oreo fans, and, “OMG, I’ve heard NYC is horrible”, um, we moved almost exactly as far north of NYC (175 miles) than where we lived in Bawlmer (183 miles)…New York is a big state…and NYC is in the furthest southern part… ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/109 "2018-01-17T02:46:51Z")
I was told that people who live in Manhattan (and parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn) believe that Boston is a district in Queens. You know, near JFK. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/110 "2018-01-17T02:49:35Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I was told that people who live in Manhattan (and parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn) believe that Boston is a district in Queens. You know, near JFK. I really don’t get the joke. Could you please explain? ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/111 "2018-01-17T02:50:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > At science fiction cons, people laugh when I say I’m from Schenectady. Someone once saw it on my badge and thought I was joking. > > It was because of and old genre joke that SF writers get their ideas from a post office box in Schenectady. LOL, waving hello from across the river about two miles from Kurt Vonnegut’s former house… ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/112 "2018-01-17T02:53:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I really don’t get the joke. Could you please explain? I was looking at the New Yorker cover that **kunilow** posted earlier, which only looks westward. If their view of the outside world is that myopic, what do they imagine to be eastward? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/113 "2018-01-17T06:41:41Z")
Dragons? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/114 "2018-01-18T22:40:03Z")
“Really? You don’t sound like you’re from New England. I would’ve thought you were Canadian.” Which is something most people I know raised in the southern half of New Hampshire have also been told. We don’t sound particularly Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570/115 "2018-01-19T01:46:05Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > When I was a kid I told someone us kids were from Kentucky. He said “You’re a bunch of hillbillies!” > > I calmly said “We’re from Lexington,” and he said “Oh, then you’re not hillbillies.” > > I knew other kids who’d told people they were from Kentucky and got questions like “Do you eat with a fork? Do you use a flush toilet?” All I ever got mentioning KY was “What’s in KY? I can’t think of anything.” “Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken…” “Oooh, right!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-tell-people-where-you-are-from-what-do-they-usually-say/806570.md?page=5)