SUCKERS! (8.15.11)
Our goal is to explore something each day while our schedules are slower. So, for our adventure today, the girls and I decided to plug in the address to the bank. We made our way to the other side of town and found the bank. I filled out the slips, handed it to the teller and waited for her to double check my math. To distract the girls from their impending boredom, I thought it would be a good idea to get them interested in a counting game. We counted to the bank tellers. We counted the computers. We counted the “this window closed” signs. We counted the money counter machines. We counted the cameras. At this point I began to wonder if the employees were considering me and my lunch-stained preschoolers a potential threat to their safety. Don’t all bank robbers take inventory of the possible items to confiscate or demolish before they strike? (This has absolutely nothing to do with my point, other than the fact that my kids were involved.)
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the teller came back with my receipt. My youngest asked if she could have a sucker. (We also counted the sucker storage devises in our game, so we KNEW they had them!) So, I asked her to ask the teller if she could have one. She looked at the teller and said,
“Can I have a sucker please?”.
And with the biggest, most sincere smile in all history, the teller looked at me and asked me what she was talking about. Like an idiot, I repeated the child’s question, “she’d like to have a sucker, please.”
Again, big-smiling-teller, still had no idea what we were asking for. Then it clicked. Perhaps we are using Virginia lingo in a Connecticut bank. If so, we have just sounded like the biggest hicks ever to arrive this far north successfully. I quickly flipped through my mental thesaurus and grabbed another term.
“Lollipop?”
“Oh, sure!” said the bank teller with the big smile.
Connecticut vernacular lesson #1: Assume the term “sucker” means something other than the sweet confection on a paper stick. Use “lollipop” next time.
It certainly can seem like you're learning an entirely different language. No worries, you'll pick up on things very quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe term 'wicked' will be heard a lot... A LOT. Even our newscasters use it on air. It is quintessential New England. :]
I'm trying to think of what else.
You'll hear subs or grinders most likely.
Because i cannot speak for all New Englander's, I will share with you things that I find most of us say different as compared to most Virginians:
Ahem...
Oregon (Oar-Ra-Gahn) I never heard Oar-Rih-Gihn until I lived in the South.
Aunt... It is typically pronounced Ahnt, instead of Ant.
We have basements... I only use the term cellar if it has a dirt floor (i.e. old farm houses with original rock steps leading to the cellar). Or in cases of wine cellars.
Drug Store = Pharmacy
Package Store or Packie = Liquor Store
-Also alcohol is not sold on Sundays.
Jimmies/shots = Sprinkles (all are used)
Leaf Peepers- Our name for people who come to see the fall foliage, which won't be magnificent this year due to all of our rain :[
Other terms that may or may not differ from what you say:
We say soda instead of pop or cola.
Sneakers most times in place of tennis shoes.
Water fountains are also, drinking fountains, and bubblers.
I say coo-pon, instead of Q-pon (you will hear both)
Idea- typically not pronounced 'i-deer'
crayon is cray-on, not usually cran.
creek- like eek. Not crick.
Hahaha, here's a decent site. Granted, depending on he context, I use 2 variations of some of these words...http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/state_CT.html
For example, I sometimes say Care-uh-mel, but sometimes say car-muhl.
Learning the differences and similarities is the best part.
Let me know if you need anything at all! :]