How do you tell people from out of state, even if they aren’t standing around looking at historical landmarks?
Even if it’s not literally true, I always think that I can tell that the out-of-staters are the ones befuddled by the freeway onramps, going 40 mph at the merging point and waiting for an opening.
This can be interesting even for people like Coldfire and other “furiners.” What are do people from different states/provinces do that mark them?
Ask if we take American money.
Ask to see the polar bears (or penguins).
Ask how far above sea level we are. (Well, let’s do a little experiment. I’ll push you off the wharf, and I’ll time how long it takes you to hit. Then, using 32 ft/sec/sec, we’ll calculate how far above sea level you were…)
If it’s tourist season, what’s the bag limit?
In Southern California, you notice if people refer to the freeways by a letter and a number.
To wit, “How do I get to I-5?”
A native says “How I get to the 5?”
Or “How do I get to the Golden State?”
There are only a few places where you can tell out-of-staters, and none are places people want to go to.
That’s why.
In the state of Washington, if anyone’s still wearing a jacket in June, they’re definitely not from Washington.
You say “Oh-reh-gone.”
You see them going 50 in the middle lane on the last hundred miles or so of 95 going north towards D.C. in Virginia, and they invariably are from South Carolina, and apparently have never seen a three-lane freeway before, let alone one with bumper-to-bumper traffic going 75. (EVERY SINGLE TIME I drive up there I see one of these cars.)
I live in Georgia but I learned to drive in L.A. and that stretch of 95 doesn’t scare ME.
Sure tipoffs:
mangling the state name, e.g. Ill-uh-NOISE. The s is silent: Ill-annoy. (Easy mnemonic there!) Or Oh-hi-YUH. It’s not hard: Ohio.
taking pictures of boring things. My favorite was an entranced Japanese couple pulled to the side of the road, photographing miles of dead-level corn and soybean fields. I thought their car had broken down and stopped to offer assistance. They explained (quote) “they’d never seen that much nothing before!”
Hey, gotta love it! Keeps life interesting.
Veb
Well what I was told (I never really noticed this… or maybe I did but it didn’t connect) in Calgary the natives call Prince’s Island Park, Princess Island Park because they know where it is and assume it’s called that… the tourists call it Prince’s Island Park cuz they look at the maps and that’s how it’s on there.
That might be true :D. It’s really easy for Minnesotans to tell if someone’s from out of state. All you have to do is talk about your favorite childhood game “Duck, Duck, Goose” (in MN, it’s “Duck, Duck, Gray Duck”–I have no idea why), or call sweetened carbonated beverages “soda” instead of “pop”, or say “What’s that?” when people are talking about lutefisk. I have lived here ten years, I graduated from high school here, and I am still in some ways “branded” as “not from around here”.
**… or say “What’s that?” when people are talking about lutefisk. **
::spluttering with laughter::
They aren’t “talking about”–they’re gagging. And the actual quote is, “OmiGOD, what died?!”
Lutefisk is a taste cultivated only by the few. No, not Minnesotans: maggots, vultures, carrion-eaters, etc.
Uff da!
Veb
I must beg to differ.
I mean, I see your point, but, as a sure tipoff? Yesterday took picture of sand. And a dead tree. And a mobile home. And I’ve pulled off the road to photograph a storefront or a roadside graveyard (very, very common up here). Photography is about seeing things, particualrly the things you usually stop seeing because they become too familar.
The proceeding message was brought to you by the Society of Photography for Spiritual Enlightenment. Thank you.
People driving less than 70 in the fast lanes of the 405 during rush hour often have out-of-state plates.
Middle-aged couples in matching shorts and T-shirts.
They look at guacamole and want to know how to eat it. (I actually saw this.)
Their cars have little dealer plaques on the sheet metal (usually on the deck, or just below it), even if they have California plates.
That’s if they can move on the 405 at ALL. 
Boy, did I hate that road.
People who drive at speeds under 35 going down well paved and heavily traveled canyon roads and hit the brakes on every curve! Grrr!
Depends on where you are, I guess. I take the 405 from the 10 to the 22. It sometimes slows near LAX, and often at the South Bay Curve. But mostly it seems to move along fairly well in the mornings, and also in the afternoon if there are no crashes. After the 22, the 405 comes to a screeching halt; but I don’t have to go that way.
Johnny LA wrote:
[hijack]
Yes!! Apparently, some car dealerships (not in CA, obviously) actually tack their own logo on the back of the cars. I find this so bizarre. A person is spending thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, and the dealer gets to deface the back of this car with their own logo? “Free advertising”? I don’t get it. If it were me buying such a car, I’d insist that the dealer logo be removed, or I’d insist on a discount, before I’d buy such a car.
[/hijack]
Also, the 405 is a big freeway, there are parts of it that are just fine.
People who ask how to get to “KISS-A-ME” (Kissimmee, FL, just outside Ratland, er, Disney World), and then leer at you like it was a request (a la Groucho). [It’s pronounced “kuh-SIM-me”, and my retort is, “Sure, if you can tell me where Okahumpka is on the map.”*
People who say, “Well, we did Animal Kingdom when we first got here, MGM Studios yesterday, EPCOT today, and tomorrow, we’re going to DisneyWorld.” [“Um, DW is the whole complex, you mean Magic Kingdom?” “Yeah, that’s it.”]
People who ask for “I-92” (Rte. 192 is the main drag entrance for the DisneyWorld complex, Rte. 17-92 is miles away from Disney and parallels I-4).
The confusion is understandable. Main roads in the area are:
We just usually draw a map.
Oh, speaking of maps – people who say, “Aw honey, we don’t need a map, we were here 5 years ago, and I still have the map from last time. They couldn’t have changed much.” …Oh ye of little faith…
It’s easy to spot the Nor’Easterners down for vacation, besides having a fish-belly white complexion, it’s when they ask directions for “da shore” when they’re on their way to the beach.
sigh I KNOW the 405 is a big road, and if anything the traffic I’ve seen in DC is worse than LA. (My family lives there, so I seem to end up there several times a year.) But I will never forgive the 10/405 interchange because once I got stuck at the top of that giant ramp coming from Santa Monica…for 45 minutes. POST-Northridge. And I have a very active imagination.
Yikes.