The Midwestern Goodbye” And 13 More Regional Quirks In The US That Surprised People When They Moved Cross-Country
May 31, 2024
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The United States is a big country with a lot of regional quirks that can really surprise even people who’ve lived here all their lives. Recently, I asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share things that surprised them when they moved from one state to another, and their responses honestly surprised me, too. Here’s what people had to say:
1. “I’ve moved a lot. One of the things I find most interesting is what unique local things people learned about in school. In Florida, we had gator safety every year. In Colorado, we spent a lot of time on the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that in Indiana, it’s not uncommon to be served pizza with a cup of nacho cheese on the side for dipping your crusts in, of course.”
2. “I moved from Colorado to Connecticut, and I was shocked at all the different monikers. I had no idea what a ‘package store’ or a ‘pocket book’ was.”
3. “I grew up in Las Vegas, and now I live in Indiana. The craziest thing for me is the lack of lights. In Vegas, you can be around more dangerous areas, but I never felt in danger because you can see everything around you, whether it’s 1 p.m. or 1 am. The lights of the strip are obviously very bright, but even just the streets the suburbs were all lit up with street lights. After moving to Indiana, I realized how little they actually have street lights at all, let alone light in the rural areas! I became very afraid of being outside because of how much more space was out there and how little of it I could actually see!”
4. “In the Midwest, where I’m from, traffic lights are vertical. In Texas, where I moved for school, they’re horizontal.”
5. “Helped move a buddy’s family to North Carolina from Arizona. After 38 hours of driving over 2.5 days, we were an hour from our destination. We stopped for gas, and I told him, ‘When we arrive, I’m going to take only the rocking chair out and have some beer.’ He said, ‘Well, you better buy it here because I live in a dry county.’ I replied, ‘WTF is a dry county!'”
6. “My dad lives in rural Washington state, and my mom lives in New England. I grew up bi-coastal from the age of nine. The amount of new versus old cars is something that still gets me two decades later. In New England, an old beater car is most likely from this century, regardless of rural or city. In rural Washington, there are so many more cars from the ’80s and ’90s still out there looking great and going strong.”
“In Washington, they don’t use salt on the roads, but most of New England does, so all the cars rot out faster. You can avoid that by getting routine car washes in the winter (like every two weeks at least), but you HAVE TO do the undercarriage! That will extend your car’s life easily!
That and the fact that it’s been 20+ years, and my dad still thinks it’s weird when I say ‘wicked,’ but that may be a dad thing. ”
—Megan, New England
7. “I moved from Tennessee to Kansas, and the most interesting quirk I’ve encountered is what I call the ‘Midwestern goodbye.’ It takes forever! You visit a friend and let them know you’ve got to leave, so they walk you to their door to say goodbye. But the conversation continues for at LEAST another half hour! There will be pauses in the convo where I think, ‘Okay, this is the end, and I’m leaving now,’ but nope! Still more talking to be done. Longest goodbyes I’ve ever experienced, but at least it shows they like talking to you.”
8. “I moved from NYC to Chicago, and I was not prepared to actually have to worry about tornados. The first time I heard tornado sirens, I was losing it. I suffer from anxiety and wow, does this shit trigger it bad.”
9. “I moved from California to Virginia, and the East Coast LOVES their Timbs. Needless to say, my west coast ass has two pairs now.”
10. “In California (and I believed everywhere else) a milkshake is milk and ice cream blended together. When I went to college in Massachusetts, I was surprised to be served what was effectively chocolate milk. I guess they took milkshake literally; here they just combine a flavor with milk.”
11. “I moved from California to Texas, and I think the two things that I noticed the quickest were that there are churches EVERYWHERE (like one every quarter mile) and because of church-going, most everything is closed on Sunday and Monday, so you can’t just go somewhere to grab something if you run out on Sunday; you’ll be waiting until Tuesday afternoon (because nothing opens before 10 either).”
12. “I moved from Massachusetts to South Carolina, and there are a few differences. The biggest one to me was that almost nobody locks their car doors here. I was also surprised to be able to buy beer and fireworks in grocery stores; where I’m from, liquor stores are separate and sell beer, and hard liquor and fireworks are illegal to purchase (which means driving to New Hampshire to get them).”
13. “In California, they say THE freeway number, but in the Midwest, they just call it by the number. So, for example, in California, they say, ‘driving on the 66,’ but in Ohio, they say ‘driving on 66.’ I’ve also been made fun of by Midwesterners for pronouncing pomegranate as pom-uh-GRON-it rather than pom-uh-GRAN-it too many times.”
