Hi, I'm Chad Haefele.
Oh, I guess you want more. I live in Chapel Hill, NC at the moment. And no, my hair isn't quite that poofy.
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As I prepare to leave Pittsburgh, I got thinking about the little idiosyncrasies that give any city its personality. Here’s a few for da burgh:
-The Third Fifth Bank is on Seventh Ave.
-When you ride the bus towards the city, you pay when you get on. When you ride away from the city, you pay when you get off. The best explination for this I’ve heard is that “maybe it gets the bums out of downtown”.
-”Yinz.” Think of it like “y’all”.
-Vacuum cleaners are “sweepers”, and sprinkles are “jimmies”. (I could write a whole other entry on the local lingo)
-No, there is no straight road between points A and B.
-Unlike most decently sized cities, nobody lives downtown. The extended city neighborhoods are where the action is.
I may add more later as they come to me.
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Julian · 7/24/2005 at 12:14 am
This might be more regional, but don’t forget the accent. (Just listen to how the locals pronounce such words as “out” and “brown.”)
Ian Cyr · 7/25/2005 at 8:46 am
Jimmies isn’t just local to Pittsburgh. I’ve known that terms for years, and it actually amazes me how many people DON’T know they mean the same thing.
Oh well.
Admin comment by Chad · 7/25/2005 at 9:09 am
Interesting, I stand corrected! Hadn’t personally heard it before moving here.
Adam · 7/25/2005 at 7:28 pm
Another one I hadn’t heard before going to school at Grove City, is “spitting” instead of “sprinkling.” Like when light rain is falling outside, people will say it’s spitting, and that just sounds utterly bizarre to me… I dunno if that’s a Pittsburgh thing or a western PA or Ohio thing, but it’s strange!