You know you're from (insert place here) when...your fave?

[embyquinn]

Hang on a minute, y'all. *puts on her bill cap backwards and hitches up her britches* Time for some Southern-fried education.

(Most of these aren't mine, but all of them are true.)

You know you're from southern Alabama when...

--You have a party whenever Alabama plays Auburn in football.
--You go to Gulf Shores every summer.
--The supermarket doesn't have shopping carts. It has buggies.
--You can properly pronounce the following Alabama towns: Arab, Belle Fontaine, Coden, Eufaula, Opelika, Bayou La Batre, Wetumpka, and Mobile.*
--You think that people who complain about the heat and humidity in other states are pussies.
--You can find rental movies, groceries, ammunition, and live bait all in the same store.
--You measure distance in minutes and hours.
--You've ever had to switch from "Heat" to "AC' in the same day.
--You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas.
--If a single snowflake falls, the town is paralyzed for three days, and it's on the local news as a news flash every 15 minutes for a week. All grocery stores will be sold out of milk, bread, bottled water, toilet paper, and beer, and people will be on the corner selling "I survived the blizzard" t-shirts. Not to mention, that all the schools will be closed at even the slightest possible chance of snow.
--Your directions include "when you see the Waffle House" or "turn on the dirt road".
--You say "sir" or "ma'am" if there's even a chance someone is thirty seconds older than you.
--You are willing to throw your body over a police barricade and into the gutter in front of a large oncoming vehicle to retrieve a plastic cup, a smushed moon pie, and/or a string of shiny plastic beads during Mardi Gras, which we all know originated in Mobile.
--A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel cloud. Unless it's 9:00 AM on a Wednesday morning, because that's when they test it.
--You know everything tastes better with Ranch salad dressing.
--You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.
--Krispy Kreme doughnuts are the only doughnuts worth having.
--You know at least one Junior, and possibly a few guys named Bubba. (I personally know a man in his 60s called Doodle-bug.)
--You don't assume the car with the blinker light on is actually going to turn in the foreseeable future.

* For the curious, in order: AY-rab, BEL-fount-en, coh-DEN, you-FALL-uh, OH-peh-LIKE-uh, BOLL-uh-BAT-tree, wee-TUMP-kuh, and moh-BEEL.

[embyquinn]

You know what the phone number is to Empire Carpet!

Is it still 588-2300? ("Empiiiiiire...")

[OkamiKodomo]

More From Orlando:
You know how to pronounce Kissimmee, Oveido, Econlacatchee, Lokanatosa, and McLeod, and can spot a tourist from a mile away by the way they pronounce the first one.
You also know to avoid OBT at all costs, no matter the hour.
You know how you're supposed to utilize the breaks in the medians to make left turns
"Illegal" U-turns are a foreign concept
Hurricanes are an excuse to get together with the neighbors for a few beers


More from Sullivan County, NY
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow
Your grandparents drive through six feet of snow in the middle of a raging blizzard, without flinching
You've been to the Kiamesha Bowling Alley at least once
You actually cried when the Beachcomber burned down
The words "Summer People" mean something to you

[ghostdollie]

This is so fun! Everyone in Los Angeles knows the Empire Carpet phone number, too!
The instantaneous way to distinguish Los Angeleans and San Franciscans is that if you are from LA you say "the" before the freeway number, i.e. "the 210; the 710", but if you are from San Francisco you do not, you are on a first name basis with your freeways : "101; 280".

[Min]

Empire Carpet phone number

Empire Carpet? Enlighten!

[MeltedCaramel]

Ahhaaa, I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this thread!!! Ahhhaaa, I particularly adore the "measuring distance by minutes" because that seems to be pretty universal. Around here the turnpike is "fifteen minutes away".

Also, ""Illegal" U-turns are a foreign concept" made me giggle. The concept is more of a "It's legal as long as no cops are around, so turn your head and check for me will ya?" concept here.

Alrighty, some more from Philly, PA because I just can't resist!

-You know SEPTA is a form of transportation and not a venereal disease.
-You can spell Schuylkill. (This one puzzles out-of-towners because it's pronounced "skook-el".)
-Late night cheese steaks elicit this reaction:

-When you have to go to the Philly airport you feel like this:
<---It. Is. So. True.

[embyquinn]

Empire Carpet? Enlighten!

One of the first independent cable channels was WGN from Chicago, and even back in the misty long-ago era of the 1980s WGN, WTCG (soon to be TBS) and WOR were shown nationwide. I watched a lot of WGN because it showed Speed Racer and Star Blazers (the closest thing to anime we could get on these shores way back when). And of course the Empire Carpets commercials were ubiquitous.

Here's a sampling from those early, more innocent days. Take warning: You will NEVER get the ending jingle out of your head. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp9Kwe0v7L4

[OkamiKodomo]

From Mass: You can pronounce "Worcester" (Wuhster)

[Min]

Empire Carpet? Enlighten!

One of the first independent cable channels was WGN from Chicago, and even back in the misty long-ago era of the 1980s WGN, WTCG (soon to be TBS) and WOR were shown nationwide. I watched a lot of WGN because it showed Speed Racer and Star Blazers (the closest thing to anime we could get on these shores way back when). And of course the Empire Carpets commercials were ubiquitous.

Here's a sampling from those early, more innocent days. Take warning: You will NEVER get the ending jingle out of your head. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp9Kwe0v7L4

Not being American, I'm confused about the channels (heh), but everyone loves commercials that are actually interesting enough to sit through.

Thanks for taking the time to clear it up for me!

588-2300, Empiiiiire.....

[Anderson'sAllPurpose]

Oh hey, a fellow Swede. Let's take over this thread woohooo!!

For those of you who have always wondered, here are a few more ways to know you're Swedish:

Any holiday is an excuse to get drunk. So is Saturday. And Friday. And Wednesday.

Your most important Christmas tradition involves Donald Duck.

Nobody you know goes to church regularly - but everyone is in some kind of church choir.

Any conversation inevitably turns to the weather.

You refer to the weeks by their number.

You find it perfectly normal that the entire country essentially shuts down during June and July.

Norway and everything about it is a big joke - until they beat us in cross-country skiing.

Laundry room rules are SERIOUS BUSINESS.

"Fika" is a lifestyle.

So is "lagom", for better and worse.

When you call someone "unswedish", you mean it as a compliment.

IKEA is home away from home.