Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pennsylvanian, the strange language

If you're ever in Renovo, stop at the Sportsman's Lounge for dinner.

I'm from Clearfield County originally, and it's been too long since I was back. Reading this thread is almost like visiting. Making me remember how much I miss and tend to forget about back home.

Did you hear that PennDot just had a big layoff?

The Japanese invented a shovel that will stand up by itself.

I hit a deer in my own drive way when I arrived home from being downtown.

(Of course that was before we waged war on the Does.)

Another thing was in the not so far past, just about everyone had a nickname. Your were "Huffy", "Smash", "Speed", "Horse," or some name that for some reason stuck. And stick it did, because you had it forever. Your dad may have been "Big Mike" and your Mom may have been "Toots" or "Queenie". However, that particular tradition seems to have faded.

A couple more local town names:

Turtle Creek, Wilmerding, Widnoon, Putneyville, and you could live in the township of Cowanshannock. Many of the town names in my area had names that were connected in some way to the Eastern Indian Nations.

Another thing was in the small town I grew up in we had an Italian Club, a Polish Club, and a Slovok Club. Funny thing was you could be Irish and belong to all three.

Some things keep coming back. About 5 years ago a bunch of the old gang got together at the Polish club. I got there late and there were about 7 guys at the bar.
I said to the bartender give all of them a drink. Most got a beer and a couple the Pa State drink which would be a shot and a beer. Total tab was $7dollars and change.

Hell not that long ago a Penn Dot crew was out painting white and yellow lines on the highway and they just painted a white line over a dead Deer on the road edge and kept on going.

Mine is pronounced mayan in PA

I live near Tidioute and Tionesta.

Pronounced Tiddy-Youte and Ti-o-Nesta

I don't see it much out here in the west, but growing up back east, accents etc could pretty well nail folks to even just adjacent communities. Much like the boroughs of New York.

My Dad is a graduate of Hooker High in Pa! Still live about 5 miles from there. Could you imagine being the Hooker Prom Queen????

Also another "weird" little town in Pa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.N.P.J.,_Pennsylvania

How about being a resident of Turkey Neck, Maryland?

Then again I went to school at Potomac State College in Keyser, W Va. Always shortened to Pot State when applied to ones attire.

There is also La Jose. Lay-joce. Never thought anything of it till I took spanish in junior high.

In left PA in 64 and it took me 40 years plus to quit saying " yunz"
I grew up outside a little town called Monongahela. Born in New Eagle, Washington, County in the very SW corner of the state.

We had pop, not soda.

You had your choice,you could work in the steel mills around Pittsburgh or work in the coal mines.

Small world I went to high school in Monongehela.
I graduated 3 years after Joe Montana.

I went to a car show in PA once. One of the locals kept referring to his bud as a "choke-wad". And every time he did is bud would say "I ain't no choke-wad". I'm still not sure what that was all about and I'm not sure I want to.

[quote=1minute]How about being a resident of Turkey Neck, Maryland?

And then there's Lusby, Md.
Home of the Lusbians.

I used to travel up to Indiana, Pa. quit a bit. One of our regular beer stops was in Cresson, Pa. The Tiltin Hiltin Tavern. Pretty sure it burned down years ago.

Funny!!....not only did I grow up in PA, I also lived in Lusby, MD for a few years.

Stationed at PAX River?

Grew up 5 miles east of Tamaqua in the town of Coaldale in Northeastern Pa. Heart of the anthracite region. Reading through the idioms brought back memories. One that I remember, if you wanted to rinse clothes on laundry day, you "wrenched" them out.
Wish I could think of more.

One thing I'll never understand though is why a town with a classic name like Mauch Chunk would change it to Jim Thorpe. It'll always be Mauch Chunk to me.

My dad's family is from Holsopple near Boswell and Jerome between Johnstown and Somerset. He and both of brothers moved out to Wyoming in the late 60's. I then grew up hearing the accents and eating gobs. Red the table, a rift is apparently a belch. Youze or Youins. I have always thought everyone there says questions kind of different, with a higher pitch at the end of the question or something.

My uncle was buddies with Jeff Hostetler's (the NFL quarterback that won the superbowl with the Giants.) younger brother. They lived in Holsopple.

My cousin that lives back there refers to underwear Guccis sp? (sounds like Goocheese).

My dad and uncles have lost most of the accent but dippy eggs and other strange names still work their way into conversations. Everyone is Stiller fans.