In Cleveland, there’s a freeway that’s right up next to the lake. The east end of it is part of 90, and the west end is just a state route. But the whole thing is “the Shoreway”.
The bit of 90 just west of where it becomes The Shoreway (at Deadman’s Curve), passing through downtown, is “the inner belt”, even though it isn’t really a beltway.
West of that, 90 is just 90.
Cleveland also has a pair of notable streets, about 100 blocks either side of downtown, named “West Boulevard” and “East Boulevard”. Neither one is ever referred to as just “West” or “East” by locals: We always use the full name.
I have fond memories of neighborhood bodegas in Brooklyn. Want a candy bar or soda but only have a 20? If you’ve been in there enough they know you’re good for it and tell you to pay next time. Perfect for buying a 6 pack for the weekend. Girlfriend is visiting and her period comes a little early? They’ve got that covered, no need to walk all the way to the pharmacy. How about when your pregnant wife has a craving for a random canned fruit or vegetable? They’ll ask if the baby’s been born yet when you come in. We have one in our inside the Beltway suburban DC neighborhood, but I don’t think anyone else calls it that. Nationality of the owners tends to vary by neighborhood. The first I mentioned was owned by Syrian immigrants, the second by folks from Bangladesh, and the one near us now (as well as most convenience stores in the area) are owned by Ethiopian immigrants.
In addition to tampons you could buy condoms aspirin, cold tablets and toothpaste. too I’m sure along with pet food, bread soup cans and frozen burritos.
I can get all this purchased at a mi party store including beer gas wine liquor and lotto. But one doesn’t have to walk a mile inside to get it. Go to the Meijer’s for the big grocery trip
Farm stores in Florida were drive thru open air establishments that sold dairy products including the ice cream and bread presumably from local farms.
I was a bit shocked when a friend from Massachusetts mentioned going to the “packie shop”. Here in the UK “packie” (or “paki”) is a pejorative for someone from Pakistan. The UK corner shops sound a lot like the New York City bodegas, usually run by immigrant families.
My friend lived up on 205th in the Bronx, and when I visited the bodega across the street I thought there was nothing I needed that I couldn’t find. Stocking a place like that must be an art.
I still say that, sometimes. My mom worked at one of these, and occasionally, in the summer, we went to work with her, but had to hide in the stockroom, among the soda etc. All the candy we could eat and all the comics we could read, though! Some St Louisians hate our being called “The Lou” however. I think that nickname originated with a radio station (probably one owned by a NYC corporation)…not sure about that, just my own theory or maybe I read it somewhere.
I was born and raised in and around St Louis, and I should know some good examples of local talk, but I will have to search my brain a bit more. We also referred to the Mississippi as the “Missisloppi”, thought I don’t think that is original to St Louis. Probably any of those who lived along the Big One called it that.
I used to hear “packie” in Maryland and New England 25 years ago, but less so now. Just generally regionalisms seem to be fading fast in New England, at least the Greater Boston area.
Water bubbler (wotah bubblah) is now water fountain. Maybe it’s because the gravity fed version with an upturned 5 gallon bottle has been replaced by the electric versions that are supplied by tap water.
I hear roundabout more and rotary less. Probably because Google and Apple Maps both say roundabout.
Shopping cart has replaced carriages in many younger people’s vocabulary.
I don’t remember hearing these two in Toronto, but for example, a common term for the provincial electricity provider / a metonym for the energy infrastructure is “Hydro” (Ontario Hydro, Hydro-Québec, the hydro corridor [i.e. a corridor of long-range high-voltage towers]). This is because a lot of the local energy is produced by hydroelectric powerplants.
Not really what the OP is looking for, but in the Antelope Valley (Northern Los Angeles County, extreme west part of the Mojave Desert), Los Angeles is called ‘Down Below’. As in, ‘We’re going Down Below.’ Because the Antelope Valley, as measured at Fox Field, is 2,351 feet and you have to go over the San Gabriel Mountains to get there.
I have a dim memory that one of the kid show hosts called the river the “Mississloppy” or “Mussissloppy” but I can’t figure out which one. Maybe Captain 11?
When I was growing up in Philly, yes it was State Store. The first time we drove to Atlantic City (I think I was around 8) my father warned me, “Remember they call hoagies subs down there.” Another regionalism is calling the sidewalk the pavement (“Don’t go off the pavement” my mother would say when I went out to play), the strip between the pavement and the street, the verge, and when it rained while the sun shone, a sunshower. One interesting one was that you could say, “Go three squares”, meaning three blocks. I wonder if that usage has survived since we also used block as an alternative.
Then there’s the institution known pretty much only to the greater Detroit area known as the ‘Coney Island restaurant’ most famous for the ‘Coney dog’ which you can get at one of the hundreds of Coney Islands in the area.
But, you may be thinking, surely one can get a ‘Coney Island’ style hot dog at the actual Coney Island in New York, right? Wrong! You can get a NY style hot dog, but it won’t be the same as a Detroit-style Coney dog, which is:
A grilled, natural-casing hot dog in a steamed bun, topped with a savory, spiced meat sauce (beanless chili), diced raw onions, and yellow mustard.
Long story short: Greek immigrants to Detroit borrowed the Coney Island name, but came up with their own unique take on the dogs they served up. Ground zero for Coney Island restuarants is in downtown Detroit, where the Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island restaurants operate side by side, and there is an eternal rivalry and debate over which is best. When I was a college student living and going to school in Detroit, I probably visited American Coney more often, but only because they served beer, whereas Lafayette was non-alcohol.
Personally I preferred the loose burgers over the Coney dogs-- a mix of loose ground beef and chili, Sloppy Joe style, served in a hot dog bun. And their chili fries…food of the Gods.
In the southwestern states, people often talk about the badlands: regions with rough, rocky terrain surrounding extinct volcanoes. Lousy for farming, lousy for herding cattle. Tolerable for herding goats. They often have mineral wealth. The badlands are strewn with the ruins of old mining communities that thrived for a few years, then disappeared when the mine was exhausted.
The term derives from the Spanish word malpais (mal = “bad”, pais = “land” or “country”). Pais is actually the singular form of the word (the plural is paices). But Anglos think it’s plural, and translate it as “badlands”, rather than"badland". When referring to one specific place, people will refer to it as “the malpai”.
Once upon a time, you could tell that somebody wasn’t an LA native if they mansplained that “Sigalert” was shorthand for “signal alert”. That’s probably not true today. I’d wager a lot of younger Angelenos have never heard of Loyd Sigmon.
In Argentina a store that sells chicken and chicken-related products is a “polleria” from “pollo”, chicken.
Except in La Plata, capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires (yes, Buenos Aires is not the capital of Buenos Aires, mostly because it got separated into a sort of self governing federal district) where it’s called “Pollajeria”, for some reason.
This seemly insignificant difference fuels a continuous debate since it was discovered in social networks, some 10 years ago, that doesn’t show signs of dying out anytime soon.
“Pollajeria”, pfff, heretic platenses.