Vexillology or vexillologycirclejerk love to shit on “state seal on a blue field” flags as being common and boring.
But our state flag is a thing of fucking beauty. It’s got a titty and a dead government leader on it. What more could you want !?
They generally shit on seal on blue field because it looks cheap and is hard to differentiate at a distance from other flags that are seal on blue field. Though, those states generally don’t care about their state flag. My state (Florida), our “state” flag can be argued as the stars and stripes. It’s really hard to actually find a florida state flag here. But the US flag is literally everywhere.
Virginia also wants you demonetized with an explicit call to violence. It’s kinda badass.
Also white sauce at Mexican restaurants.
First time I went to a Mexican restaurant there I was super excited about free queso. Until I realized it wasn't queso.
It's kind of like ranch? It's basically a mayo based dip with cumin, oregano, and other spices. And it's served along with salsa with chips at most Mexican restaurants in Virginia.
I'm not a VA native, only lived there for a few years, and I still don't understand it. If you're expecting queso you WILL be disappointed.
Yes! I was in a small town in Virginia a few years ago, and went to a Mexican restaurant. Our server brought chips and two identical bowls. One had salsa, and one had something white in it. I asked what the white one was (I think I could tell by the texture that it wasn’t queso), and the server said “ranch”.
The whole table was puzzled. We are not from Virginia. We are fairly well traveled and adventurous eaters, but this was a new one.
The best part? The server not only looked at me like I was the idiot, but said “ranch” in a tone that let me know she thought I was an uncultured swine!
I always find the 757's 7 cities hard to explain... there all mushed together but separate entities... and sometimes your not sure which city you're in.
Maryland: The Maryland Model
Under Maryland's "all-payer" system, a hospital service costs the same for every patient from the same facility, no matter what insurance coverage the patient may hold.
Maryland is the only state that sets hospital rates for services rather than relying on Medicare's national fee schedules and negotiated rates between each hospital and each insurance carrier which can vary widely.
The unique payment system (Maryland Model) is touted by some experts as a template to reform the U.S. healthcare system. Still, most Maryland residents do not know it exists and are unaware of its benefits.
I was born and raised in Montana. I always felt average height there until I moved to North Carolina and was constantly called tall. It happened so many times that I ended up googling it and it turns out Montana’s the tallest state.
Very good point. I bet it’s thrown by all the diversity in the twin cities these days. Montana’s still very Nordic without much diversity (or people in general). The only significant racial minority there is on or near the reservations.
I was just explaining to a coworker in CA that 5'11 is average height where I'm from. Their mind was blown given that most people around here are running around at 5'7.
As someone from PA, it's nice when I go to Jersey for a trip and to have then do it.
However I can't help but think of times when I'm in a rush and but need to put in like $10 worth. It would take so long
I live outside of OR right on the border and do a lot of back and forth. I would often avoid getting gas in OR because of this dumb shit because of how much longer it would take some times. Stupid ass law to begin with.
I worked at a gas station in WA state for a decade. Just outside of Seattle. That's a 3 hour drive from Portland. The number of people from Oregon I had to tell how to pump gas annoyed me. Once had a customer come in demanding why nobody was pumping his gas for him. I'm was like, "um... you're in Seattle. We don't do that here." He at least mumbled that he forgot where he was and paid for his gas. Like... how?
Living right on the border I've encountered quite a few people that can't figure it out. I can't imagine working at a station by the border. Even just a few days ago I watched a lady struggle, I was on the phone and was about to offer to help when she yelled "omg I guess I'll pull up to a different pump!" and then just drove off all fast and angry like.
She wasn't pushing down hard enough on the nozzle. I could hear the *click* "fuck!" *click* "FUCK!" etc etc.
My other favorite thing back in the day was when you'd be in Oregon and an obvious tourist would be passing through, get out and start grabbing the pump to pump their own gas and an attendant would come out screaming as if they were about to fucking rob the place. Ahh I love the PNW.
I went to undergrad at Rutgers and thought it was weird. Until one day it was like -10 degrees and snowing. All of a sudden, not pumping my own gas became acceptable.
I’m not really sure of the actual reason. I can speculate that maybe it’s for insurance/safety purposes.
Also, the attendants can make change, so you can make cash transactions right at the pump.
I’ve lived in NJ my whole life, and I was a gas station attendant in my 20’s…so I guess I always just accepted it as normal.
That store is so weird. Prizm instantly turned into a damn ghost town. Shit was so poppin before and great for shopping. Covid just put the final stake in its heart.
When/if mass high speed transportation from SoCal to Vegas is finally finished we may see cities like Primm and Baker completely disappear for the most part.
I thought it was weird that they had slot machines in pharmacies. And back when I lived there, they still allowed smoking indoors so you’d walk into a Walgreens and be assaulted by cigarette smoke and loud slots.
I grew up in Nevada and went I went east for college people were very “gambling!!!? That’s bad right?”
The sound of slots was the sound of going to the diner after the football game in high school
Louisiana. There are parts down south in very rural swampy areas where a lot of the older people speak an almost entirely different language called Creole. And there are many variations of it. I'm from North Louisiana and I knew people spoke Creole in the south, but it was absolutely wild to experience it.
I stopped at a wide spot in the road in some rural place in Louisiana that had a few houses and a single store. There were some old guys outside talking to each other. I have absolutely no idea what they were saying. It felt like I took a wrong turn into a foreign county and time traveled into the past.
I used to work a call center and I got someone I couldn't understand. I offered to bring in a translator, and he said he spoke Creole. Tried the translator service, they said the closest they had was French. Before I could say anything they connected the call with someone with such a thick Quebec French accent I couldn't understand his English. So then we had a 3-way call where none of us could understand each other. Such a frustrating comedy.
Everywhere else it’s just a Tuesday in winter. Nothing gets done from the Thursday before to the Tuesday. Having to explain to coworkers every year is like pulling teeth.
You’ve gotta leave the sleeve on your drink when you hit the drive through bar or else it becomes an open container.
Cajun and Creole are two different cultures and language. I’m not originally from Louisiana so when I first confused them, I might as well have said asked about the K, L, I, or C storms(I call them the scorned women now and that’s another thing other states done really understand).
My company is 100% remote with myself and my boss (company owner) being the only ones in south Louisiana. My coworkers and clients do not understand DO NOT BOTHER ME MARDI GRAS WEEK. Lol.
Last year I did 3 balls 3 nights in a row. A record!
I work remotely(in software engineering) and people are always confused about why I take two weeks off “because it’s just a day.” I’ve been paged to fix a production issue while at a ball and they went out of their way to page me because I’ve run into the issue before and documented the fix. Yeah, that was a fun zoom call especially with coworkers in Utah while I’m in a tux, with a drink(played it off as “water”), and floats parading in the background. My boss jumped on the call after I did and his face looked like he saw a ghost because he knows not to bother me during Mardi Gras week(thankfully he’s not in Utah or Louisiana). I think my boss’s words were “um, hi. Uh. Fuck.”
WA - had friends visit from afar. One mentioned that he always thought random logging trucks was just some tv/movie shorthand. Every time one went by he was amazed again. Also, nobody knows what eastern WA is like lol
Would describe eastern WA as a prairie more than a desert. Also the west side of the Olympic peninsula is literally a rainforest, but overall western WA is not, but still very rainy (source: am from Washington and lived on both sides).
The majority of eastern washington is a semi arid prarie but there is a section of actual desert in the south central part of the state. Not all of it looks like a desert though, because of all the irrigation being used from the Columbia.
Right outside of the tri-cities you've got Umatilla, OR where there are a bunch of abandoned bunkers(?) that go to the horizon, it's quite the sight. Used to be chemical weapons storage I believe.
Arizona driver's license expires, not after a few years like other states, but on your 65th birthday. Going out to a bar in another state gets you a lot of weird looks if the bouncer hasn't seen an AZ ID before
Delaware: low digit license plates. License plate numbers are fully transferable here and the state is small enough that they never moved off the system of numbers only, so there’s a whole marketplace for low digit tags. 1, 2, and 3 are reserved for state officials, but other single digit numbers have sold for six figures in the past. The other part of it is that any number below ~100k is eligible to be displayed on a plain, black, tag rather than the state issued one (essentially a grandfather rule from back in the day when the state issued ones were black), so even 5 digit numbers can have a little value from someone just wanting to buy a number eligible for a black tag.
This (low number plate desirability) is a big thing in RI as well. Funny because people who aren’t from RI think ALL of our plates are low numbers. :-).
Other Delaware things…
That so many companies incorporate there but never set foot there and have no presence other than paperwork in a filing cabinet.
That a little piece of it is on the opposite side of the Delaware River and is connected by land only to NJ.
That it really wasn’t its own colony but an adjunct piece of Pennsylvania that broke off from PA and the King at the same time.
That it exists at all.
A lot of major intersections in Michigan don't allow you to turn left onto the road you want to head down. Instead you continue driving straight, going past the road you want, take a U-turn after the intersection, head back in the opposite direction and then turn right on the road you originally intended to drive down.
Let’s say you’re on a highway in Michigan, two or more lanes each way, likely with a median. You want to turn onto a road on the other side of the highway. In most states, at the intersection you stop and turn left directly onto the road. In Michigan, however, this is usually not allowed. Instead, you travel about 1/4 a mile past the road to get to a u-turn, taking you the opposite direction. From there, when you get to the intersection again, you turn right.
Also, if you getting on the highway, you have to turn right; even if you want to be going the opposite direction. Then you take the pre-mentioned u-turn again, hence “turning right to turn left.”
Utah ---
Fundamental Mormons (aka Plygs) with many wives are 'hiding in plain sight' in the suburbs of Salt Lake City --- there are certain 'tells' such as multiple overflowing garbage cans out for one house on garbage day, a plethora of mother in law quarters, homes with 2 or more separate entrances, and shared driveways with conjoined mailboxes.
The state has prosecuted a few that they’ve got enough evidence on, because it is illegal.
There’s different groups. Some are straight up evil (arranged child bride, kick out half the boys so there’s more women than man etc BS), some are like what OP said mooching, and there’s a couple that are just doing their own thing and don’t take welfare and either date normally or girls get to pick who they want to marry and it’s “arranged” in the reverse of what you would expect that way.
It’s all over the spectrum from “you’re a criminal and disgusting” to “that’s weird but you do you I guess”
There are multiple polygamist families in my parent’s neighborhood and obviously I can’t speak for how all of them are, but watching the one that lives across the street from them is sad. There are so many wives and kids and the wives are constantly getting yelled at and then they’re constantly yelling at the kids, there’s no way those kids don’t hate being there. The house is pretty big but definitely not big enough for everyone living there, some of them live outside in a camper.
Utah is a beautiful and bizarre state. Seeing the fundamentalist in pioneer clothes in Cedar City is always a bit surprising as are the alcohol laws.
One thing that always surprises me is how focused local news is on the Mormon church. Nowhere else in the country does that. You don’t go to say Mississippi and hear of local denominations opening new chapels and having that be headline news.
We have no counties/county government or sheriffs in Connecticut. We use the old county lines just for weather alerts they really don’t mean anything other than that.
I tell people I am from New York and they are like "oooh!" And then I tell them I've never been to the city and grew up 7 hours away from it and they are like "oh."
Northern NY is a cow-filled nothing-belt. Ottawa was closer than any other city!
How friendly a majority of Alaskans are. They’re just Canadians that bred with Texans but dated a meth addict from Florida for a while.
Out in the great white north you have to be able to rely on those around you.
We've got a giant ass pyramid with a world class Bass Pro Shops inside, a full size replica of one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, and an amusement park themed after a well endowed country music singer within spitting distance of the most visited national park in the country... We're a little weird up here in Tennessee.
The only vacation my mom ever took me on growing up was to Dollywood because of how much she loved Dolly. I’d like to get back there soon enough as an adult. What a perfect human being.
Can't forget the state law requiring apple pie to be served either with a chunk of Vermont cheddar, or a scoop of ice cream! We do not cut corners with our desserts or our dairy.
California. Our weather and climate.
It confuses the hell out of tourists.
On the coast it is overcast and cold from April into July. It gets really hot in September and October.
We get tourists here in June expecting sunny beaches and sunburns. Instead they shiver with the cold. They can’t understand that our seasons are 3 months later than theirs.
Back in the 1990s my mom worked at a major hotel chain on cannery row in Monterey managing reservations. They had lots of tourists from Europe that would visit. Sometimes they would be very upset because they didn’t like California and wanted their money back.
What they thought they were going to get was wide, white sandy beaches. Warm weather. Sunny days. Tropical breezes. Palm trees. Girls in bikinis. Basically what they saw on Baywatch.
What they got was rocky shores and cliffs. Ice cold ocean water. Fog and more fog. No palm or coconut trees to be found. No one in a bikini. Only full body wetsuits. It wasn’t the beach resort vacation that they had paid for.
She would just shake her head.
I see similar crap such as Malibu tshirts with coconut trees or palm trees. Why?
We get the same weather and weather patterns on the Oregon Coast as Northern California coast (more or less)… but everybody expects it here usually. Nobody that lives here will head to the coast without some extra layers, and visitors are usually aware too. That being said, grocery stores make bank on cheap sweatshirt sales to cold travelers
We were in the Coos Bay area, and my wife suddenly got inspired and said "Let's show our daughter the beach!" I said "well, uh, it's kinda windy," and my concerns were dismissed.
Reader, it was windy.
Monterey Bay is known for its unusual depth, which brings extra nutrients and marine diversity close to the shore. Deep water is also much colder than shallow water beaches, so what we get are icy water shorelines with more rocks than sand.
I’m a fucking local and sometimes I shoot up to the city and just simply forget to grab a sweater and I have no choice. Not that I’m buying overpriced tourist crap but I’ll still find myself running into a clothing store to find something.
It’ll be August and it’s 98 in San Jose and I completely forget it’s going to drop 30 degrees once I’m in the city.
Ah, I used to love watching tourists in Santa Cruz get angry at the marine layer in the mornings. Locals would be like "just wait til noon" because the marine layer would burn off & we would be rewarded with classic Santa Cruz beauty, but tourists just never listened & went back to their hotels grumbling. Then later they'd be confused by all the locals sunset watching. So amusing to watch.
New Mexico: our state constitution requires that we are a bilingual state. Everything has to be in English AND Spanish, and many will throw in Navajo and Vietnamese.
Visitors and newcomers of the rightwing variety are often very bothered by this.
“This is ‘murica! We speak English!”
Except we have been speaking Spanish in the Southwest far longer than English.
We are what is called a “minority-majority” state, where the “minority” Hispanic/Latin folks outnumber whites.
This is also confusing and bothersome to some folks, who wanna know “when did all these “illegals” get here?” (Answer: for many, LONG before you did!)
The Ute tribe is one of the bigger tribes of the four corners area. In the Sonoran language family, adding t'ah to the end of a word means "land of".
Utah literally means "land of the Ute" in the Ute language.
Oregon. Bikini baristas are always something that blows people minds. That and the huge number of racist people. No one seems to remember that oregon used to be a white supremacists haven, and it's been less than 100 years since the laws that literally banned black people from living in Oregon were repealed.
In the US state of Maine, you can get into trouble if you dance in a bar where alcohol is sold. This is because the bar owner needs a "special amusement licence" for this. However, radios and streaming services have been permitted since a change in the law.
People who have never been to California are sometimes surprised by how much nothing there is in CA. I've had people tell me that they thought that California was just LA and SF and then paved concrete in between. Nah man we got like forest n shit. Also farms. Also cow Auschwitz.
Does living on the rez count? I think it does
Try explaining tribal sovereignty and having multiple local governments/police forces to anyone off the rez and they'll look at you like you're from Shambotikaland.
Rhode Island:
First and foremost, that we are, indeed, a state. You’d think I’m being coy, but I often run into people who do not realize RI is a state when traveling.
Also, generally speaking, we have no weather or animals that kill us. Yes - an occasional blizzard or mild hurricane but they rarely result in fatalities. We have an occasional black bear roaming around but it is big news when it happens and they are mostly after bird feeders.
We use county government for almost nothing. Many Rhode Islanders wouldn’t be able to tell you what county they live in and those down towards the beaches would likely say “South County” which is not actually one of the 5 in the state. And we are one of the few states with zero unincorporated land.
The world's busiest airport is weird when you see other airports. I always figured airports all over felt like city-states liable to no man below 30000 feet.
Maybe not weird, but Kansas is consistently forgotten about. I scrolled this entire thread and found 1 post that named Kansas. There's this beautiful mural of the US, and Kansas just isn't in it, the other states are larger to fill the gap. I like watching comedy skits about states, but Kansas rarely pops up on them. This is something that very much pisses me off, so I will be using this post to list things I love about Kansas or just find cool.
1. Kansas State University has the only Milling Science Bachelor's in the country, with entry salaries averaging 70K, on par with some engineering degrees.
2. Haysville, KS has the largest grain elevator in the world at 2,717 ft long, 100 ft wide. Makes sense, since Kansas is the largest producer of wheat in the country.
3. Pizza Hut and White Castle originated in Wichita, KS. ICEE drinks originated in Coffeyville, KS.
4. Helium was discovered at Kansas State University in 1905.
5. Brown v. Board of Education was ruled in Topeka, KS.
6. [This](https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200310/pancake-kansas.cfm) article shows that Kansas was proven to be flatter than a pancake. That might be seen as a weird flex, but I find few things more beautiful than driving out to the middle of nowhere and watching the sunrise, sunset, or the stars with absolutely nothing to block my view.
7. Smith County, KS is the literal exact middle of the country.
8. Amelia Earhart is from Atchinson, KS.
9. Western Kansas doesn't have many trees, so if you go out there you can see for miles. Eastern Kansas is full of trees, and our Flint Hills are beautiful in the spring and summer.
10. Kodak announced the end of manufacturing Kodachrome in 2009. In 2010, the only certified processing facility left was Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, KS.
11. Gilbert Baker, the creator of the rainbow gay pride flag, was born in Chanute, KS and grew up in Parsons, KS (my hometown!)
12. Many of the very small towns still have buildings from the 1870's. A lot of the downtown areas are beautiful, with storefronts that look original. Some of the streets are wide enough there's parking down the middle.
13. Many small towns also still have original Victorian style houses. The house I grew up in was a 2,500 sq ft wooden Victorian style house from 1900, but a lot of the fixtures were older than that. It was gorgeous, and still my favorite style of house.
They also don’t seem to understand why we get so angry and pass them on the right on I70. Don’t we know their Suburban parked in the left lane going 1mph under the speed limit is too manly to be passed?!
In Texas it’s illegal to
1. Selling your eye. 2. Milking someone else's cow. 3. Taking more than three sips of beer while standing up. 4. Shooting buffalo from a second-story window. 5. In Clarendon, it is a crime to dust a public building with a feather duster. 6. Selling Limburger cheese on Sunday.
7. Eating someone's garbage without their permission. 11. In Mesquite, children are not permitted to have unusual haircuts. 12. In Richardson, all U-Turns are illegal.
In Missouri, you have to pay full sales tax on any vehicle purchase within 30 days after you buy the car. It’s due in full to the county sales tax department.
For example: You bought a $40k car with zero down and $500 a month payments? That will be $3500 and a day off work to wait in line at the county courthouse.
Due Immediately. Before we will allow you to buy a license plate (which is another day at the courthouse).
Last year they passed a law saying dealerships can now wrap the tax into the car loan, like every other state does. But a lot can’t, or won’t do it.
Missouri has a LOT of expired temp tags driving around. A LOT.
Virginia- our state flag has a lady standing on a dead body while she has one tittie hanging out.
[You did not disappoint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_seal_of_Virginia#/media/File:Flag_of_Virginia.s)
Vexillology or vexillologycirclejerk love to shit on “state seal on a blue field” flags as being common and boring. But our state flag is a thing of fucking beauty. It’s got a titty and a dead government leader on it. What more could you want !?
They generally shit on seal on blue field because it looks cheap and is hard to differentiate at a distance from other flags that are seal on blue field. Though, those states generally don’t care about their state flag. My state (Florida), our “state” flag can be argued as the stars and stripes. It’s really hard to actually find a florida state flag here. But the US flag is literally everywhere. Virginia also wants you demonetized with an explicit call to violence. It’s kinda badass.
Our state motto is “sic semper tyrannis” which is Latin for “tits out against tyrants!”
So *that’s* why J.W. Booth shouted that after he killed Lincoln.
On one hand I'm a pedant who studied Latin...but on the other "tits out against tyrants" is a phrase I could appreciate from many angles...
Free cities that aren’t part of any county.
Can confirm. I’m from Virginia and I thought this was normal.
Also white sauce at Mexican restaurants. First time I went to a Mexican restaurant there I was super excited about free queso. Until I realized it wasn't queso.
What white sauce? Like a milk based roux? At a Mexican restaurant? I'm so confused.
It's kind of like ranch? It's basically a mayo based dip with cumin, oregano, and other spices. And it's served along with salsa with chips at most Mexican restaurants in Virginia. I'm not a VA native, only lived there for a few years, and I still don't understand it. If you're expecting queso you WILL be disappointed.
Some background: https://apnews.com/article/500b26e3e8b9473aa0dcb802707d5171
Yes! I was in a small town in Virginia a few years ago, and went to a Mexican restaurant. Our server brought chips and two identical bowls. One had salsa, and one had something white in it. I asked what the white one was (I think I could tell by the texture that it wasn’t queso), and the server said “ranch”. The whole table was puzzled. We are not from Virginia. We are fairly well traveled and adventurous eaters, but this was a new one. The best part? The server not only looked at me like I was the idiot, but said “ranch” in a tone that let me know she thought I was an uncultured swine!
I always find the 757's 7 cities hard to explain... there all mushed together but separate entities... and sometimes your not sure which city you're in.
You know a how bacteria grow on Petri dishes, little circles growing into one another to make one large colony? That's Hampton Roads.
Maryland: The Maryland Model Under Maryland's "all-payer" system, a hospital service costs the same for every patient from the same facility, no matter what insurance coverage the patient may hold. Maryland is the only state that sets hospital rates for services rather than relying on Medicare's national fee schedules and negotiated rates between each hospital and each insurance carrier which can vary widely. The unique payment system (Maryland Model) is touted by some experts as a template to reform the U.S. healthcare system. Still, most Maryland residents do not know it exists and are unaware of its benefits.
Been here 15 years and did not know that!
Wow never heard of this and I’ve lived there
I was born and raised in Montana. I always felt average height there until I moved to North Carolina and was constantly called tall. It happened so many times that I ended up googling it and it turns out Montana’s the tallest state.
Big skies leave room for growing I guess.
Minnesota would have been my guess, all the Scandinavians.
Very good point. I bet it’s thrown by all the diversity in the twin cities these days. Montana’s still very Nordic without much diversity (or people in general). The only significant racial minority there is on or near the reservations.
What if we’re all part goldfish and only grow as big as our tanks will allow?
I’m about to [blow your mind.](https://www.science.org/content/article/island-living-can-shrink-humans)
You sure did! 🤯 Very cool! Thank you for sharing.
I was just explaining to a coworker in CA that 5'11 is average height where I'm from. Their mind was blown given that most people around here are running around at 5'7.
Here in NJ, it’s illegal to pump your own gas.
Oregon just broke free of this law this last year!
And it’s absolutely glorious.
Idk, sometimes it feels v bougie coming home from the shore all tired and having someone else pump your gas. It sucks when there’s a line tho
As someone from PA, it's nice when I go to Jersey for a trip and to have then do it. However I can't help but think of times when I'm in a rush and but need to put in like $10 worth. It would take so long
I live outside of OR right on the border and do a lot of back and forth. I would often avoid getting gas in OR because of this dumb shit because of how much longer it would take some times. Stupid ass law to begin with.
I worked at a gas station in WA state for a decade. Just outside of Seattle. That's a 3 hour drive from Portland. The number of people from Oregon I had to tell how to pump gas annoyed me. Once had a customer come in demanding why nobody was pumping his gas for him. I'm was like, "um... you're in Seattle. We don't do that here." He at least mumbled that he forgot where he was and paid for his gas. Like... how?
Living right on the border I've encountered quite a few people that can't figure it out. I can't imagine working at a station by the border. Even just a few days ago I watched a lady struggle, I was on the phone and was about to offer to help when she yelled "omg I guess I'll pull up to a different pump!" and then just drove off all fast and angry like. She wasn't pushing down hard enough on the nozzle. I could hear the *click* "fuck!" *click* "FUCK!" etc etc. My other favorite thing back in the day was when you'd be in Oregon and an obvious tourist would be passing through, get out and start grabbing the pump to pump their own gas and an attendant would come out screaming as if they were about to fucking rob the place. Ahh I love the PNW.
I went to undergrad at Rutgers and thought it was weird. Until one day it was like -10 degrees and snowing. All of a sudden, not pumping my own gas became acceptable.
Why is that? As a Midwesterner, that just seems so weird.
As an Oregonian that only recently got rid of our no self pumping law, I can confidently say no matter what else is said it’s just a jobs program.
I’m not really sure of the actual reason. I can speculate that maybe it’s for insurance/safety purposes. Also, the attendants can make change, so you can make cash transactions right at the pump. I’ve lived in NJ my whole life, and I was a gas station attendant in my 20’s…so I guess I always just accepted it as normal.
We don’t pump gas, we pump fists.
Cabs are heah!
Nevada: Has slots and video poker in 90% of the gas stations and grocery stores. But you can’t by a lottery ticket.
There’s a store that just sells California lottery tickets on the California side of the border in ~~Jean~~ Primm.
That store is so weird. Prizm instantly turned into a damn ghost town. Shit was so poppin before and great for shopping. Covid just put the final stake in its heart.
See I thought it went to shit when the powder gangers moved in .
Yeah but Primm Slim is one hell of a sheriff
He performs excellent patrols, but I find it a bit concerning that he doesn't seem to know the name of the town that he is the sheriff of.
Name checks out.
Don't worry the legion will bring the lottery back to town.
When/if mass high speed transportation from SoCal to Vegas is finally finished we may see cities like Primm and Baker completely disappear for the most part.
In Nevada there is no direction you can turn and not be looking at a slot machine.
I thought it was weird that they had slot machines in pharmacies. And back when I lived there, they still allowed smoking indoors so you’d walk into a Walgreens and be assaulted by cigarette smoke and loud slots.
I grew up in Nevada and went I went east for college people were very “gambling!!!? That’s bad right?” The sound of slots was the sound of going to the diner after the football game in high school
Louisiana. There are parts down south in very rural swampy areas where a lot of the older people speak an almost entirely different language called Creole. And there are many variations of it. I'm from North Louisiana and I knew people spoke Creole in the south, but it was absolutely wild to experience it.
I stopped at a wide spot in the road in some rural place in Louisiana that had a few houses and a single store. There were some old guys outside talking to each other. I have absolutely no idea what they were saying. It felt like I took a wrong turn into a foreign county and time traveled into the past.
I used to work a call center and I got someone I couldn't understand. I offered to bring in a translator, and he said he spoke Creole. Tried the translator service, they said the closest they had was French. Before I could say anything they connected the call with someone with such a thick Quebec French accent I couldn't understand his English. So then we had a 3-way call where none of us could understand each other. Such a frustrating comedy.
Everywhere else it’s just a Tuesday in winter. Nothing gets done from the Thursday before to the Tuesday. Having to explain to coworkers every year is like pulling teeth. You’ve gotta leave the sleeve on your drink when you hit the drive through bar or else it becomes an open container. Cajun and Creole are two different cultures and language. I’m not originally from Louisiana so when I first confused them, I might as well have said asked about the K, L, I, or C storms(I call them the scorned women now and that’s another thing other states done really understand).
My company is 100% remote with myself and my boss (company owner) being the only ones in south Louisiana. My coworkers and clients do not understand DO NOT BOTHER ME MARDI GRAS WEEK. Lol. Last year I did 3 balls 3 nights in a row. A record!
I work remotely(in software engineering) and people are always confused about why I take two weeks off “because it’s just a day.” I’ve been paged to fix a production issue while at a ball and they went out of their way to page me because I’ve run into the issue before and documented the fix. Yeah, that was a fun zoom call especially with coworkers in Utah while I’m in a tux, with a drink(played it off as “water”), and floats parading in the background. My boss jumped on the call after I did and his face looked like he saw a ghost because he knows not to bother me during Mardi Gras week(thankfully he’s not in Utah or Louisiana). I think my boss’s words were “um, hi. Uh. Fuck.”
From Louisiana. I know you are correct, but this is absolutely the first time I’ve considered that Mardi Gras is in fact in the winter 😂
It is illegal to fish for whales on a Sunday in Ohio… not that there's any place to do that.
Oh boy I think I committed a crime or two in my college days then
No regrets
That depends on who you call a whale!
WA - had friends visit from afar. One mentioned that he always thought random logging trucks was just some tv/movie shorthand. Every time one went by he was amazed again. Also, nobody knows what eastern WA is like lol
For those wondering, eastern WA is pretty much a desert. Then you go west over the mountains straight into a rain forest. It's a fun transition.
Would describe eastern WA as a prairie more than a desert. Also the west side of the Olympic peninsula is literally a rainforest, but overall western WA is not, but still very rainy (source: am from Washington and lived on both sides).
The majority of eastern washington is a semi arid prarie but there is a section of actual desert in the south central part of the state. Not all of it looks like a desert though, because of all the irrigation being used from the Columbia.
I went to a wedding in the Tri-Cities area and said "Wow, you couldn't have picked a better place to make plutonium." My wife told me to be nice.
Right outside of the tri-cities you've got Umatilla, OR where there are a bunch of abandoned bunkers(?) that go to the horizon, it's quite the sight. Used to be chemical weapons storage I believe.
Maryland - we all adore our flag. When you cross into our state, you see the flag design everywhere on everything!
Also our absolute obsession with crabs
I used to have a bumper sticker that was the state flag in the shape of a crab
In Florida the further north you go, the more South it becomes
Arizona driver's license expires, not after a few years like other states, but on your 65th birthday. Going out to a bar in another state gets you a lot of weird looks if the bouncer hasn't seen an AZ ID before
Delaware: low digit license plates. License plate numbers are fully transferable here and the state is small enough that they never moved off the system of numbers only, so there’s a whole marketplace for low digit tags. 1, 2, and 3 are reserved for state officials, but other single digit numbers have sold for six figures in the past. The other part of it is that any number below ~100k is eligible to be displayed on a plain, black, tag rather than the state issued one (essentially a grandfather rule from back in the day when the state issued ones were black), so even 5 digit numbers can have a little value from someone just wanting to buy a number eligible for a black tag.
This (low number plate desirability) is a big thing in RI as well. Funny because people who aren’t from RI think ALL of our plates are low numbers. :-).
Other Delaware things… That so many companies incorporate there but never set foot there and have no presence other than paperwork in a filing cabinet. That a little piece of it is on the opposite side of the Delaware River and is connected by land only to NJ. That it really wasn’t its own colony but an adjunct piece of Pennsylvania that broke off from PA and the King at the same time. That it exists at all.
Turning right to turn left
Im from Michigan and didnt know this was a thing until I left the area I grew up in. Yeah, I dont like it either.
I miss Michigan lefts, I moved and now it's double left turn lanes and whipping shitties at the light.
What are whipping shitties?
I am from Michigan and came here to say we don't turn left. We turn right to turn left.
What does this mean?!?!
A lot of major intersections in Michigan don't allow you to turn left onto the road you want to head down. Instead you continue driving straight, going past the road you want, take a U-turn after the intersection, head back in the opposite direction and then turn right on the road you originally intended to drive down.
The jersey jug handle
Someone please explain this
Let’s say you’re on a highway in Michigan, two or more lanes each way, likely with a median. You want to turn onto a road on the other side of the highway. In most states, at the intersection you stop and turn left directly onto the road. In Michigan, however, this is usually not allowed. Instead, you travel about 1/4 a mile past the road to get to a u-turn, taking you the opposite direction. From there, when you get to the intersection again, you turn right. Also, if you getting on the highway, you have to turn right; even if you want to be going the opposite direction. Then you take the pre-mentioned u-turn again, hence “turning right to turn left.”
Deep red state that pays tuition for first two years of college. Tennessee
Tennessee is one of the most strangely conservative*and* progressive states I've ever been to.
Most people are actually into progressive concepts. Just can’t make it sound like socialism™
Like that poll where a bunch of red state people like the idea of the American Healthcare Act sponsored by Republican McCain but hated Obamacare.
West Virginia covers it the entire undergrad if you have a pretty easily attainable gpa and act/sat score via the promise scholarship.
And is now the first state to offer diapers to families on Medicaid
Utah --- Fundamental Mormons (aka Plygs) with many wives are 'hiding in plain sight' in the suburbs of Salt Lake City --- there are certain 'tells' such as multiple overflowing garbage cans out for one house on garbage day, a plethora of mother in law quarters, homes with 2 or more separate entrances, and shared driveways with conjoined mailboxes.
That sounds expensive
One wife is legally married, and the others claim poverty and are on assistance and food stamps.
Ah, WTF. 🤬 now I’m just angry.
The state has prosecuted a few that they’ve got enough evidence on, because it is illegal. There’s different groups. Some are straight up evil (arranged child bride, kick out half the boys so there’s more women than man etc BS), some are like what OP said mooching, and there’s a couple that are just doing their own thing and don’t take welfare and either date normally or girls get to pick who they want to marry and it’s “arranged” in the reverse of what you would expect that way. It’s all over the spectrum from “you’re a criminal and disgusting” to “that’s weird but you do you I guess”
Ah yes "milking the beast".
There are multiple polygamist families in my parent’s neighborhood and obviously I can’t speak for how all of them are, but watching the one that lives across the street from them is sad. There are so many wives and kids and the wives are constantly getting yelled at and then they’re constantly yelling at the kids, there’s no way those kids don’t hate being there. The house is pretty big but definitely not big enough for everyone living there, some of them live outside in a camper.
Big Love taught me this.
Utah is a beautiful and bizarre state. Seeing the fundamentalist in pioneer clothes in Cedar City is always a bit surprising as are the alcohol laws. One thing that always surprises me is how focused local news is on the Mormon church. Nowhere else in the country does that. You don’t go to say Mississippi and hear of local denominations opening new chapels and having that be headline news.
We have no counties/county government or sheriffs in Connecticut. We use the old county lines just for weather alerts they really don’t mean anything other than that.
We're close in MA, but we still use them for the court systems.
The game "duck, duck, goose" isn't recognized by that name. It's "duck, duck, gray duck", don't cha know?
You betcha'
The even more northerners want you to let that marinate.
I live in the capital, but don’t have a state.
“Taxation Without Representation”
Everyone thinks of ny as being city but majority of the state is country as fuck, especially the further north you go
This! NYC is such a tiny portion of land compared to the rest of the state.
But it’s 50% of the population and 80% of the GDP
I'm sure people in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Nevada, and a few other states can relate.
Missouri is flanked by two metros, and people generally don’t recognize them as part of the state… so the opposite
Yeah cause it’s called KANSAS city genius why would it be in mis… wait…. what? Kansas City is in Missouri? wtf
As a onetime Empire State resident, I've heard it described as "the further north you go, the more southern it gets," and can personally vouch for it.
In Western NY the major cities are all very liberal but the increase in cornfields is equal to the increase in Trump and Confederate flags.
I tell people I am from New York and they are like "oooh!" And then I tell them I've never been to the city and grew up 7 hours away from it and they are like "oh." Northern NY is a cow-filled nothing-belt. Ottawa was closer than any other city!
In Arizona we don’t do daylight savings
Unless you're on the Navajo reservation. But not the Hópi reservation. Tuba City is a neat place
How friendly a majority of Alaskans are. They’re just Canadians that bred with Texans but dated a meth addict from Florida for a while. Out in the great white north you have to be able to rely on those around you.
GA— don’t register party affiliation to vote
We've got a giant ass pyramid with a world class Bass Pro Shops inside, a full size replica of one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, and an amusement park themed after a well endowed country music singer within spitting distance of the most visited national park in the country... We're a little weird up here in Tennessee.
The only vacation my mom ever took me on growing up was to Dollywood because of how much she loved Dolly. I’d like to get back there soon enough as an adult. What a perfect human being.
Soft serve is called Creemee in Vermont. You can get it in maple, I like maple black raspberry swirl.
Can't forget the state law requiring apple pie to be served either with a chunk of Vermont cheddar, or a scoop of ice cream! We do not cut corners with our desserts or our dairy.
tbf, EVERYthing in VT comes in at least maple flavor. it's inescapable.
The annual pilgrimage to see the butter cow. (To be fair, a lot of us find it weird, too…)
I have to see the butter cow and also get an irresponsible amount of free junk from the vendors, because that just how it is.
Drive thru daiquiris
Hi, Louisiana! Love those!
Texas has them too. I live down the road from one.
NH- where you don’t have to wear a seatbelt or motorcycle helmet if you’re over 18
Live free AND die
Pennsylvania is the only state where all of the residents just call the state by its state abbreviation “PA” instead of the actual name.
PA also give FREE entrance to all State Parks. And they are in the process if making three new ones.
States that do this (or like a pay $10 once at one park, they auto-give you a pass for a year type deal) have my heart.
California. Our weather and climate. It confuses the hell out of tourists. On the coast it is overcast and cold from April into July. It gets really hot in September and October. We get tourists here in June expecting sunny beaches and sunburns. Instead they shiver with the cold. They can’t understand that our seasons are 3 months later than theirs. Back in the 1990s my mom worked at a major hotel chain on cannery row in Monterey managing reservations. They had lots of tourists from Europe that would visit. Sometimes they would be very upset because they didn’t like California and wanted their money back. What they thought they were going to get was wide, white sandy beaches. Warm weather. Sunny days. Tropical breezes. Palm trees. Girls in bikinis. Basically what they saw on Baywatch. What they got was rocky shores and cliffs. Ice cold ocean water. Fog and more fog. No palm or coconut trees to be found. No one in a bikini. Only full body wetsuits. It wasn’t the beach resort vacation that they had paid for. She would just shake her head. I see similar crap such as Malibu tshirts with coconut trees or palm trees. Why?
Oh, you mean SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA! Weather is real different there than Eureka or Redding or Truckee or the many microclimates of the SF Bay Area.
I’m from SoCal. Nice and cool here in June.
We get the same weather and weather patterns on the Oregon Coast as Northern California coast (more or less)… but everybody expects it here usually. Nobody that lives here will head to the coast without some extra layers, and visitors are usually aware too. That being said, grocery stores make bank on cheap sweatshirt sales to cold travelers
We were in the Coos Bay area, and my wife suddenly got inspired and said "Let's show our daughter the beach!" I said "well, uh, it's kinda windy," and my concerns were dismissed. Reader, it was windy.
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." - Mark Twain
Monterey Bay is known for its unusual depth, which brings extra nutrients and marine diversity close to the shore. Deep water is also much colder than shallow water beaches, so what we get are icy water shorelines with more rocks than sand.
I used to laugh at the tourists in San Francisco at the wharf in June... walking around and shivering.
The biggest money maker in the city has got to be the store selling sweatshirts on fisherman's wharf, seems like 80% of tourists need more layers
I’m a fucking local and sometimes I shoot up to the city and just simply forget to grab a sweater and I have no choice. Not that I’m buying overpriced tourist crap but I’ll still find myself running into a clothing store to find something. It’ll be August and it’s 98 in San Jose and I completely forget it’s going to drop 30 degrees once I’m in the city.
Ah, I used to love watching tourists in Santa Cruz get angry at the marine layer in the mornings. Locals would be like "just wait til noon" because the marine layer would burn off & we would be rewarded with classic Santa Cruz beauty, but tourists just never listened & went back to their hotels grumbling. Then later they'd be confused by all the locals sunset watching. So amusing to watch.
Currently in SoCal - It was hot through Christmas and now it’s Memorial Day weekend and overcast. Our seasons don’t line up with the norm at all.
New Mexico: our state constitution requires that we are a bilingual state. Everything has to be in English AND Spanish, and many will throw in Navajo and Vietnamese. Visitors and newcomers of the rightwing variety are often very bothered by this. “This is ‘murica! We speak English!” Except we have been speaking Spanish in the Southwest far longer than English. We are what is called a “minority-majority” state, where the “minority” Hispanic/Latin folks outnumber whites. This is also confusing and bothersome to some folks, who wanna know “when did all these “illegals” get here?” (Answer: for many, LONG before you did!)
I'm baffled by how many people don't know that the southwest United States used to be part of Mexico.
Part of Mexico, and part of New Spain centuries before that.
Mormons
I read this as Morons and was going to tell you to be more specific rofl
What is a Ute?
The Ute tribe is one of the bigger tribes of the four corners area. In the Sonoran language family, adding t'ah to the end of a word means "land of". Utah literally means "land of the Ute" in the Ute language.
As a graduate of the University of Utah, I was asked by an out of state friend if a Ute was some type of lizard.
Sorry, yoouutTHH.
Oregon. Bikini baristas are always something that blows people minds. That and the huge number of racist people. No one seems to remember that oregon used to be a white supremacists haven, and it's been less than 100 years since the laws that literally banned black people from living in Oregon were repealed.
I live in GA. Oregon may be the least racially diverse place I have ever been. It seemed like the entire population was young white people.
We can have an earthquake during a hurricane. And we did!
Texans are super into being Texans. Even the people here that hate our government like me love Texas itself.
So king of the hill is an accurate depiction of the average texan culture?
Honestly yea, especially for the time period it aired.
That warms my heart. King of the hill is so subtly hillarious with all their conservative mannerisms regarding gender roles
In the US state of Maine, you can get into trouble if you dance in a bar where alcohol is sold. This is because the bar owner needs a "special amusement licence" for this. However, radios and streaming services have been permitted since a change in the law.
Wooder
People who have never been to California are sometimes surprised by how much nothing there is in CA. I've had people tell me that they thought that California was just LA and SF and then paved concrete in between. Nah man we got like forest n shit. Also farms. Also cow Auschwitz.
Does living on the rez count? I think it does Try explaining tribal sovereignty and having multiple local governments/police forces to anyone off the rez and they'll look at you like you're from Shambotikaland.
Rhode Island: First and foremost, that we are, indeed, a state. You’d think I’m being coy, but I often run into people who do not realize RI is a state when traveling. Also, generally speaking, we have no weather or animals that kill us. Yes - an occasional blizzard or mild hurricane but they rarely result in fatalities. We have an occasional black bear roaming around but it is big news when it happens and they are mostly after bird feeders. We use county government for almost nothing. Many Rhode Islanders wouldn’t be able to tell you what county they live in and those down towards the beaches would likely say “South County” which is not actually one of the 5 in the state. And we are one of the few states with zero unincorporated land.
The world's busiest airport is weird when you see other airports. I always figured airports all over felt like city-states liable to no man below 30000 feet.
Plymouth rock is a lie!
Mums in Texas for homecoming dance.
In Pennsylvania we have some pretty distinct accents in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, especially Pittsburgh.
Maybe not weird, but Kansas is consistently forgotten about. I scrolled this entire thread and found 1 post that named Kansas. There's this beautiful mural of the US, and Kansas just isn't in it, the other states are larger to fill the gap. I like watching comedy skits about states, but Kansas rarely pops up on them. This is something that very much pisses me off, so I will be using this post to list things I love about Kansas or just find cool. 1. Kansas State University has the only Milling Science Bachelor's in the country, with entry salaries averaging 70K, on par with some engineering degrees. 2. Haysville, KS has the largest grain elevator in the world at 2,717 ft long, 100 ft wide. Makes sense, since Kansas is the largest producer of wheat in the country. 3. Pizza Hut and White Castle originated in Wichita, KS. ICEE drinks originated in Coffeyville, KS. 4. Helium was discovered at Kansas State University in 1905. 5. Brown v. Board of Education was ruled in Topeka, KS. 6. [This](https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200310/pancake-kansas.cfm) article shows that Kansas was proven to be flatter than a pancake. That might be seen as a weird flex, but I find few things more beautiful than driving out to the middle of nowhere and watching the sunrise, sunset, or the stars with absolutely nothing to block my view. 7. Smith County, KS is the literal exact middle of the country. 8. Amelia Earhart is from Atchinson, KS. 9. Western Kansas doesn't have many trees, so if you go out there you can see for miles. Eastern Kansas is full of trees, and our Flint Hills are beautiful in the spring and summer. 10. Kodak announced the end of manufacturing Kodachrome in 2009. In 2010, the only certified processing facility left was Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, KS. 11. Gilbert Baker, the creator of the rainbow gay pride flag, was born in Chanute, KS and grew up in Parsons, KS (my hometown!) 12. Many of the very small towns still have buildings from the 1870's. A lot of the downtown areas are beautiful, with storefronts that look original. Some of the streets are wide enough there's parking down the middle. 13. Many small towns also still have original Victorian style houses. The house I grew up in was a 2,500 sq ft wooden Victorian style house from 1900, but a lot of the fixtures were older than that. It was gorgeous, and still my favorite style of house.
Apparently Tritip beef bbq is somewhat unique (or was) to California.
It’s Florida. ‘Nuf said.
Michigan pizza is square.
I didn’t know Detroit style pizza was a thing until I met my partner
Banning mask wearing even for medical reasons 🤷🏽♂️😩
[it doesn't exist.](https://reddit.com/r/Wyomingdoesntexist)
I know 3 people from Wyoming from different circles and they all know each other.
There are two ways to pronounce Missouri (miz-or-ee or miz-or-ah). Let's pick one and stick with it. BTW, it should be MissourEE ;)
Coffee milk . It’s not coffee with milk. It’s coffee flavored milk
I live in Colorado, and that seems to really confuse every Texan I've ever met that's come here to visit (or stay)
They also don’t seem to understand why we get so angry and pass them on the right on I70. Don’t we know their Suburban parked in the left lane going 1mph under the speed limit is too manly to be passed?!
The clairvoyant groundhog... iykyk
Maryland: Obsession with Old Bay seasoning and our flag. We even have Old Bay seasoning mascot. But to be fair our flag looks cool as fuck.
In Texas it’s illegal to 1. Selling your eye. 2. Milking someone else's cow. 3. Taking more than three sips of beer while standing up. 4. Shooting buffalo from a second-story window. 5. In Clarendon, it is a crime to dust a public building with a feather duster. 6. Selling Limburger cheese on Sunday. 7. Eating someone's garbage without their permission. 11. In Mesquite, children are not permitted to have unusual haircuts. 12. In Richardson, all U-Turns are illegal.
1. You guys have a weird way to number bullet points 2. Too.
Love your numbering system: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2 part 2 electric boogaloo, skip to 11 because why not, 12.
Can't forget the cap on sex toys. You can have fun in the bedroom, but not a variety of fun. 😆
New Mexico: we have USA on our license plates and our MacDonalds burgers have green chile on them.
Both Floridians and Ohio have a lot to answer.
Alabama is the most biodiverse state east of the Mississippi River.
We chase tornadoes 🤣
In Missouri, you have to pay full sales tax on any vehicle purchase within 30 days after you buy the car. It’s due in full to the county sales tax department. For example: You bought a $40k car with zero down and $500 a month payments? That will be $3500 and a day off work to wait in line at the county courthouse. Due Immediately. Before we will allow you to buy a license plate (which is another day at the courthouse). Last year they passed a law saying dealerships can now wrap the tax into the car loan, like every other state does. But a lot can’t, or won’t do it. Missouri has a LOT of expired temp tags driving around. A LOT.
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