Prompted by this recent thread about washaterias, I started thinking about the odd terms I’ve heard since moving to New England. Mind you, I’m not talking about things like soda vs pop, or y’all vs yinz…this is about other things. Can I define that category more clearly? No, I can’t, I’m doing it by exclusion (see above).
When we moved to Massachusetts, we lived in the Boston suburb of Watertown, a block from a spa. Did we go there to get reiki? No, we went there to buy soda or snacks, because in New England a spa can mean a local, family-owned convenience store. This spa, by the way, is where I also learned in New England that some local shops shut down for all of August while the owners go on vacation.
Another localism that threw me was the first time someone said they were stopping off at the packie, which is short for package store, which is a term for liquor store. Package store seems to be more broadly-used per the linked article, but in Texas I really only remember liquor store.
So, whatcha got? Is there a local institution-type-thing around you with a regional name?
I grew up calling the store that sells alcohol the “State store,” because in PA only the state could sell wine & spirits. If you wanted beer you either went to the distributor for a case or you had to do a convoluted song and dance at the local bar. (You could buy 2 six packs but they had to be in a brown paper bag. If you wanted more, then you had to make a separate transaction, again with the bag.)
If you’re at a (local) restaurant in Springfield, Illinois, and the server offers you a horseshoe, she’s not offering you a metal device intended for an equine. She’s offering you a very specific, very local kind of sandwich.
‘Party store’ is used in Michigan for beer & liquor store. Some were drive-thru, and they do mean thru, between the walls front to back like a barn.
Here in Chicago, a Package Store would probably mean a bar or tavern that ALSO sells closed packages for off-premise consumption, a case of beer or bottle of whiskey.
In parts of Cleveland (not even the whole city), a “deli” is the local term for a bodega (a small store where you can get maybe get a few food items of dubious quality, but can definitely get cigarettes and the like).
I remember the term package store from when I was a kid in Massachusetts and upstate New York. That puzzled me because I didn’t know what kind of packages they sold.
In Texas, maybe just South Texas, we call a convenience store an ice house or ice station.
I’ve heard “party store” all over. My understanding is that it implies a supermarket-sized store, as opposed to a plain “liquor store”, which might be more modest.
I am familiar with “package store”, and with package stores, but I’ve never heard anyone actually use the term. I would only use it in a context where, for some reason, I needed to disambiguate it from a regular bar or liquor store.
In my experience, in both Cleveland and Montana, a “party store” doesn’t sell booze at all. They sell decorations (balloons, “Happy Birthday” banners, etc.). Maybe pavilion tents and the like, too, or amateur DJ sound systems.
Creemie - a Vermont term for self-serve ice cream Uey - A Boston term for a u-turn, typically used in the phrase “Bang a uey” Frappe - Boston style milkshake. In Rhode Island it’s a Cabinet. Rotary - Everyone outside of New England calls them Roundabouts or Traffic Circles Spukie - A submarine sandwich, also known as a Grinder
In San Diego when I was growing up, “liquor store” was the default term for any convenience store that wasn’t a chain like 7-Eleven or AM/PM, because they all sold liquor. The one down the block from where I grew up had a deli counter that served sandwiches made to order, which I guess would make it more like an NYC bodega.
Up here in the Pacific Northwest, the regionalism that outs you as a Socal expat is when you refer to the the freeway as “the 5” instead of “I-5”.
My dad grew up in Watertown! Watertown HS graduate, even. I’ve never been to Boston myself, but I’d like to visit at some point and see the streets he grew up on.
