<p>So as NOT to have the BURBS of New York neglected...here are some of my WESTCHESTERISMS:
1. If you don't live in Scarsdale, you're not from Westchester.
2. The only MALL worth visiting charges more for hourly parking than the minimum wage.
3. Fashionably dressed for the prom requires a strapless gown and a pair of everyday diamond earrings.
4. Bloomingdales is NOT a store. It is a philosophy.
5. Your neighborhood is the sole supporter of Calvin Klein.
6. Every car license plate reveals either your profession or your personal hang-ups.
7. Lunchtime banter consists of sharing side effects of anti-depressants.
8. You know at least a dozen people who are divorced.
9. Every one knows the address and telephone number of the "BEST" plastic surgeon.
10.You drive a new "BEEMER" to tennis lessons, but the old Mercedes to the train station.
11. You have more frequent flier miles than the national debt tho' you never use them.
12. You get daily mail telling how much your neighbor's house is worth.
13. Every attorney within a 50 mile radius can lower your real estate taxes.
14. Everything is bought in a "specialty" store. There is only one supermarket per 10 square miles.
15. You worry about what prestigious college your child will attend.
16. You worry about what prestigious nursery school your child will attend.
17. Your children have NEVER taken public transportation..only for fun and to go into the "City."
18. Your "nanny" has a BA in education and drives a Lexus. She couldn't find a teaching job.
19. The guy at the corner pumping gas has Ph. D. in philosophy from Cornell. He's trying to find himself and lives with his mother.
20. You know what day the vial of BOTOX is being delivered to your doctor's office so you can get first dibs and a discount.
21. You fret about which color mink goes best with your new coiffure....and you're only going out for groceries.
22. You know what "MERLOT" is on sale at ZACHY's.
23. You brought your child "in utero" to his/her first symphony by the New York Philharmonic.
24. "Getting away" for the weekend requires a complete new wardrobe.
25. Your friends greet you by checking the labels on your garments.
26. Your oven is spanking brand new. Your microwave, on the other hand, requires a good scraping.
27. Your children have leftovers of "pate de fois grois" and shrimp ****tail for breakfast.
28. You know 25 different ways to serve hummous and can decorate with pita.
29. Your children's first word at the dinner table was "lobster." They can now ask for it in the restaurant in 10 different languages.
30. And last, but not least.........you know there are an infinite number of ways to mix a vodka martini and you've tried them all!</p>
<p>Everyone, </p>
<p>Doesn't this thread prove that you are going to find both appealing and ridiculous regional quirks anywhere? Crossing from East to West or North to South in our one country <em>will</em> be a cross-cultural experience! (Even the accented English you'll encounter can be like another language... I never knew till arriving in Rhode Island that "beer" can have two syllables...)</p>
<p>It is so fun reading these lists and "getting" them because of having lived in several regions in the country and having met people from everywhere during my college years. What a great country!! I am jealous of my kids going off exploring.</p>
<p>NOW a request: let's hear some lists from midwesterners-- Carleton, Kenyon, Lawrence, Grinnell alumni-- what are the regional quirks?! My D & I want to know!!</p>
<p>You know you live in San Diego when...</p>
<p>You drive to the mountains to see snow
You know what a Rubio's fish taco is
It's a freeway, not a parkway.
You've driven an hour and a half into the back country to buy a loaf of bread at Dudley's bakery and eat apple pie in Julian.
You consider Los Angeles to be another state and Northern California another country.
You can't remember the last time you paid below $2.30 for gas
You sometimes drive into Mexico to buy gas because it's cheaper there
You have coyotes and rattlesnakes in your backyard ...and you live 15 minutes from downtown San Diego.
Your children and some of their friends are the only "San Diego natives" you know personally.
You can name at least ten people you know who are either in the navy/marines, have a relative in the navy/marines, are retired from the navy/ marines or work for a navy/marine-related business.
People consider you odd for having lived in the same house for more than ten years.
You know what the Blue Angels are.
You no longer react when you see groups of illegal aliens from Mexico crossing through your neighborhood. You know they are just headed north.
Rain in July or August confuses people because they haven't seen it in so long.
Rain in January or February causes car crashes on the freeway because they haven't seen it in so long.
It never rains the rest of the year.
You worry more about wild fires than you do about hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and blizzards.
When the Santa Ana winds start to blow, you get grumpy.</p>
<p>This is the funniest POST! Have printed these out for family Tgiving Dinner tomorrow. What a HOOT!</p>
<p>This thread is TOO good to be forgotten!</p>
<p>Please don't let this thread die! TOOO FUNNY!</p>
<p>More California:
You know you're a Californian when:
1. You were born somewhere else
2. You know that La Jolla does not rhyme with Challah
3. You brag that your husband is a native and you don't mean aboriginal
4. A White Christmas involves flocking
5. Everyone else in the country thinks you are nuts</p>
<p>You know you are a Northern Californian when:
1. You've never been swimming in the ocean, unless it was somewhere else
2. You think it's funny to see all those tourists shivering in the summer in San Francisco because all they brought was shorts.
3. You think everyone in the rest of the country is nuts.
4. You especially think Southern Californians are nuts, and would seriously consider secession, except right now you're thinking of moving to Canada.
5. You're not really thinking of moving to Canada because you've heard they don't have good bread.</p>
<p>La Jolla DOESN'T RHYME with Challah???? Oh, Shoot!!!!</p>
<p>Carolyn - Excellent! </p>
<p>Add San Diego stuff:</p>
<ol>
<li> You know where at least four Roberto's Taco stands are you, and you also know where eleven Roberto's imitators are.</li>
<li> You know what and where the Hotel Del is.</li>
<li> You try to limp on an empty tank to the Riverside or Orange county lines because you know that gas will be 15 cents cheaper over there. 20 cents if you can make it to LA county.</li>
<li>You say Palomar Mountain instead of Mt. Palomar.</li>
<li>You know that Coronado Island is really a penninsula.</li>
</ol>
<p>We never need to go back to the cafe because we are having way too much fun. </p>
<p>I know my child is from NY when,</p>
<p>Coming home from Hanover and the bus is 90 minutes late because of a traffic back-up on the west side.</p>
<p>Before she even goes home she wants to take the train to Chelsea market to get Thai Food , a salad from Hale and Hearty and cupcakes from Elenis</p>
<p>She has missed the subway and says she is going out for Pizza</p>
<p>Has fallen asleep with the Bloomingdales catalog in her bed</p>
<p>She must go home to 57th Street before she goes back</p>
<p>When they build a whole collection of stores at 59th Street Columbus circle and no one would dare call it a Mall because there are no malls in The City.</p>
<p>The City on consists of Manhattan (what are we poor folks in the 4 other boroughs suppose to do)</p>
<p>Garland: I remember the Palisades Park song, but I'll bet it's changed since I used to hear it. At that time, it had the verse:</p>
<p>"Skip the bother and skip the fuss (beep, beep)
Take the Public Service bus.
Public Servic sure is great
Takes you right up to the gate".</p>
<p>P.S. San Francisco has a fleet of historic trolley cars on ine line; one of them is an old Public Service car.</p>
<p>Re: You know you're living in Westchester Co. New York when......</p>
<ol>
<li>The highlight and fondest memory of your child's childhood was when he attended his friend's birthday party where learned how to make his own sundaes, scale a rock wall, twist balloons into animal shapes, tumble and roll through a hazardous obstacle course, laser tag his best friend, had his face painted like a South Pacific Maori native, and still had time for birthday cake. He was three.</li>
</ol>
<p>I know of one club where annual fundraisers are very important. The Philadelphia chapter held a party where artwork was donated and raffled. The sister-chapter in West Chester held their fundraiser where Juaguars were donated and raffled. Needless to say, West Chester raised more money :)</p>
<p>Oh, this is WESTCHESTER CO. NEW YORK...where Bill CLinton lives. HA! where the most popular HS extra-curricular is the ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB where the teens want to SAVE THE EARTH and CLEAN UP THE HUDSON RIVER, but have their maids clean their rooms. LOL! Where my son at age 18 years still did not know how to use a pay phone and only learned how to travel on public transportation when he was on a foreign exchange program to Japan.</p>
<p>Everyone NEEDS to print this out for some Tksgiving fun with family!!! Such FUN!!!!</p>
<p>Coureur, Thought of a few more for San Diego as well:</p>
<p>Your kids have no idea what snow tires, storm windows or rain gutters are. </p>
<p>When you travel in other parts of the country, houses seem strangely incomplete because they don't have red-tile roofs.</p>
<p>You remember when "the Gaslamp Quarter" was only a tourist destination for sailors looking for some action.</p>
<p>You have been buzzed by an F-18 coming in for a landing at Miramar while you're driving on Freeway 15.</p>
<p>You know the difference between OB and PB.</p>
<p>You know that the only smog in San Diego blows south from Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Sac, I loved your list --- when we took my kids up to San Francisco a few weeks ago for the first time since they were very little, they were truly mystified by it all. Kept saying "it didn't seem like California at all."</p>
<p>Sgiovinc, my Westchester in Yonkers was a far different experience than yours ! No maids, country clubs, private schools or Bill Clinton in my childhood. :) Say, is Rye Playland still there?</p>
<p>Yes...Rye Playland's still there....and oh..here..we don't consider Yonkers in Westchester! My kids wouldn't dare be caught at PLAYLAND. It's Great Adventure or nothing!!! LOL!!</p>
<p>Sgiovinc, I spent some of the happiest days of my childhood at Playland. I'm sure it's not at all like I remember. And my kids would probably not be caught dead there now either.</p>
<p>What I truly miss about Westchester is the sense that you could easily slip from CT to NJ to NY or into the City without much effort or thought. (And then, of course, there was that whole other place called Long Island). My mom thought nothing of going to NJ to shop at Sy Syms or to Connecticut for a sea food dinner on the sound. Here in California, if I want to go to another state, it's a major undertaking. Unless, of course, we're talking going to Tiajuana. :)</p>
<p>And, I have to admit that this whole thread made me drive out of my way today to go to lunch at the one place in all of San Diego where I know I can get a decent pastrami on rye.</p>
<p>Come on midwesterners, ex-midwesterners, & transplants!!</p>
<p>We need some lists from you ;-)</p>
<p>Come on midwesterners.....there's more to the midwest than cornfields and haystacks!!!!LEt's go!!!!</p>