<p>People call girls “chicks” here and I’m in the MW. Sprinkles for the ice cream too. Grilled hamburgers are cook outs and pulled pork is a hog roast. That’s very common for graduations, weddings, etc.</p>
<p>I was thinking chicks was a guy in college thing. Beats the “b” word.</p>
<p>Count me another one who chit chats in grocery stores and with cashiers. Here in my neck of the woods in Maryland people have ancestors who founded the area in the 1600’s. There are still literally “land owners”. My neighborhood in fact is the one where the British soldiers camped before they marched into Washington to burn it down. People still find artifacts when they dig up their yards. </p>
<p>Some people have known each others people for hundreds of years. Not everyone, but enough that you better not be rude around here or else you and your descendants will forever know - lol</p>
<p>I am aware to always be pleasant and be aware that everyone is somehow related to someone else. </p>
<p>As an outsider it can annoy me sometimes, but usually it has made for a nice community. And I’m amazed at how my kids went to a school with 400 students total, probably 250 families and I have run into these families at Rockefeller Center, Virgin Islands, random restaurants in DC. It almost makes me think there really are only a few thousand people in this world.</p>
<p>I was born in NY, but have lived in CA as a teen and my entire adult life. Still have a lot of relatives in NY and PA and do go back to visit. Will agree that we’re more laid back on the west coast, less rat-race, more patient, tend to roll with things more easily. Maybe it’s the earthquakes, I don’t know. NY always seemed more rigid. My Dad insists that’s why he left; he wanted the freedom to break away from what was “expected” of him. When he’d do something his family found surprising, he’d often be told, “You can’t do that!” And Dad always responded, “I just did.” He left a solid job with a stable company in NY for the great unknown of the aerospace industry in CA. Everyone thought he was nuts. It ended up being a great decision for him professionally. There is an attitude out West of “why not?” An energy to break the mold, freedom to try new things. My cousin won’t let his kids visit CA. He says he’s afraid they’ll like it and they’ll stay.</p>
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<p>YES…YES…YES…nothing more annoying when people stand on the left side when others want to get through. Very rude…just like on a highway, want to go slow, stay to the right…others might have places to go.</p>
<p>“nothing more annoying”</p>
<p>Hmmm…well in my “never hear a horn”, four exit stretch of highway, I had somebody FLASH their lights at me, in the far right lane about fifty feet before my exit! Where was I supposed to go??? I slowed down and let him get in front of me in the far right lane…where he proceed to sit for a few exits…</p>
<p>I’m thinking he was more annoyed than I was… I was LAUGHING!!!</p>
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<p>This is a good point. In CA, we don’t care where you came from, because few of us (or our parents) are originally from here. We like everyone who wants to be a Californian!</p>
<p>Both of my CA Ds love/d their East Coast college experiences. The only sort of criticism I heard from both of them was that the rich NY kids tend to stick together. Ironically, both of them found bfs who are wealthy NY kids.</p>
<p>Our family has visited the east coast every year for the last 5 years specifically, Philadelphia, DC and NYC.<br>
I agree that pace is much faster in NYC compared to LA but it is a bigger city. The locals we encountered weren’t rude but they weren’t chatty except for the boutique where D spent most of her shopping $. They even offered me Pellegrino while I waited for her. ;)</p>
<p>We lived in one NYC neighborhood when our kids were young. One time when D1 was in kindergarten, her babysistter was late in picking her up at her school bus stop. She went into a neighborhood ice cream store to wait (we taught her where she should go if her sitter didn’t show up), the shop owner gave her an ice cream cone while she waited. After that, we started an open tab with the store which we paid on a monthly basis. D1 also fell asleep on the school bus once and missed her stop, the bus driver drove all the way down from 100+ street to bring her back to her bus stop.</p>
<p>I ran out of our apartment once without an umbrella, and of course it started to rain. I went into a little shoe repair shop to buy an umbrella. I happened not to have any money with me and it was a cash only place. The owner looked at me, “You are so and so’s mom (didn’t know why D1 was so infamous around our neighborhood). Don’t worry, you come back later to pay.”</p>
<p>I am from the NE grew up a military brat lived in the south and Texas, some time in the midwest. I noticed when we moved here that people did not make eye contact or say hey when they passed each other. Used the term “wicked” a lot. A certain type of milkshake is a frappe and soda is tonic. I still chat people up and most are amenable. People here are more conservative in our ways. I teased a patient once when he made some reference to a more alternative type of healing about that being a "west coast " thing (we were joking around) but I think the west coast is more open about those things.(He was from the west coast) I noticed in LA that the drivers have no patience. And there seems to be more of an emphasis on looks. I miss the south the most, but I havent lived there in years, My friends’ D went to school there and said there is more racism. I cant speak to that. But she was taken aback by some comments people made about African americans. People in the NE move rather quickly, I have found NYers to be more entitled and loud. I have a cottage on a lake I can tell you where the parents are from who visit on a certain camper parent weekend by the way they behave in the local store. Then they pop into those fancy cars with the NY plates. Many of my comments are stereotypical, and I really think that underneath it all we are all people, but regional characteristics do exist. It really is interesting!</p>
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I don’t think it’s limited to rural areas. I grew up in urban bits of the South but was slightly overwhelmed by LA when I first moved out here. It was much faster paced than I was used to, and people are more abrupt. They even talk faster. Oddly enough, I liked my study abroad experience in the UK quite a lot and found it much more similar to the south/east coast than LA has proved to be. </p>
<p>Most of the Californians I’ve met are extremely friendly, though. I think nice weather helps.</p>
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<p>Please, There’s the state of New York and there’s New York City. They are not one and the same. When you are talking about fast paced life, you are probably talking about NYC, not the rest of the state, which is mostly wooded and agricultural. I’m sure no one confuses the Sonoma Valley with San Francisco 
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<p>When I ask someone where they are from, I’m not asking for a pedigree, I’m looking for something in common. 
Isn’t that how you get to know people? I’m so confused now about how you are supposed to get to know someone if you don’t ask what they do and where they are from. Is weather talk okay?</p>
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<p>Yes, I know. But in the case of my Ds, one’s bf is from NYC and one is from NY state, so I lumped them together as NY.</p>
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<p>Not that I know of in CA. I don’t recall ever asking a fellow CA resident “where are you from?” nor them asking me that question, unless we mean which neighborhood do we live in. We are from CA!</p>
<p>Here are some random thoughts on regional differences that I’ve collected in my time (not verified for accuracy; regional stereotyping and musings, a la absweetmarie):</p>
<ul>
<li>Chicago is where people behave normally.</li>
<li>Checkers at Trader Joe’s are too friendly everywhere. (Seriously, crew member, what do you care what I’m going to do with these Brussels sprouts?)</li>
<li>More people will say hi to you on a given morning in Atlanta than will speak to you in two years in Chicago.</li>
<li>Smart people throughout the land say “y’all” but regardless of how smart you actually are, everyone will doubt your intelligence if you say “youse.”</li>
<li>Drive a half hour outside most cities, and you will find that the most popular radio station is playing contemporary country. </li>
<li>People in Portland, Oregon, are blissed out because their city is freaking awesome.</li>
<li>I am lucky that I care not one iota what people think of how I dress, because it seems likely I’ve offended people on both coasts at one point or another.</li>
<li>People in most regions are too blas</li>
</ul>
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<p>Agreed. There’s a stark difference between NYC/Long Island/Westchester and Upstate. Not only urban fast pace vs more laid back rural environment…but also politically. When people talk about NY being a “Liberal state” and racially/ethically diverse…that’s mainly in the southern part centered in NYC. </p>
<p>Upstate NY is almost the polar opposite from what I’ve seen and heard from high school classmates, friends, and colleagues who attended school, grew up, or spent some time there. Much more politically conservative and less diverse. In many ways…it resembled the region in which my Ohio college town is based politically and to some extent…economically.** </p>
<ul>
<li>Carl Paladino…the GOP candidate running against Andrew Cuomo hails from Buffalo and got most of his support from upstate voters…especially in his area. Not too surprising as most of the less densely populated upstate tends to lean right politically while the much more densely populated southern part of NY state centered on NYC tends to lean left.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>** At the time I was there…Lorain County was cited in an Ohio newspaper as one of the two most economically depressed regions in the state.</p>
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<p>Here is the data that you can compare with your observations:</p>
<p>[Obesity</a> and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC](<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html]Obesity”>http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html)</p>
<p>Yes, in HI, I had always considered myself tall & heavier from the age of 12, on compared to my peers who were around 5’ (I was 5’5" & weighed 125 lbs). When I went away to Eugene OR & Davis CA, I was told I was PETITE! I was lighter and shorter than many of the others there. I have remained roughly the same height & weight over the past 40 years & now am definitely lighter than many of my peers, particularly those around my height. Still don’t think I’m petite though! Do notice colder climates tend to have somewhat heavier people (tho have noticed an increase in overweight & obese people in HI as well over recent years).</p>
<p>bopambo, I’ve been sharing your post #40 with my whole family - it’s so cute and funny!</p>
<p>I haven’t read all these posts yet, but am really enjoying them. I’ve lived a number of places, including Southern and Northern California and New England. </p>
<p>I will just say, I love the open-mindedness and the frequent kindness I find here in northern CA. <3</p>
<p>"…* Checkers at Trader Joe’s are too friendly everywhere. (Seriously, crew member, what do you care what I’m going to do with these Brussels sprouts?)…"</p>
<p>absweetmarie, those checkers <em>have</em> to talk to you (or they could lose their jobs, and “mystery shoppers” are there to monitor them) - and asking about your brussels sprouts recipe is at least more interesting than talking about the weather, no? Please, give 'em a break.</p>
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<p>Actually, there are some variations on the East Coast. From comparing my own travels to LA…NYC residents were in a similar weight ballpark on average. On the other hand, I did notice people being heavier in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Northern Virginia, NE Ohio, and the suburban parts of the Seattle area. </p>
<p>However, with the exception of Northern Virginia, I felt it was just an extension of people just not being as obsessed with external appearances/clothing choices as folks in LA or NYC.</p>