In PA, if something needs to be done, "It needs done."

It needs ironed, it needs fixed, it needs said, or deleted...

In N. central PA, "Yes" is "Yepp-er," two equally accented syllables, but "Yep" is "You're welcome."

My area of N. central PA itself is sometimes fondly (sometimes not) known as "Pennsyltucky," abbreviated of course "PY." There is a cartoon I have seen, I believe an ancient Popeye one, where that is also the name emblazoned on the side of a large ship. Not sure which is the chicken and which the egg.

"Jug milk" here is an old fashioned glass bottle from a home dairy or the home dairy's store, with a deposit paid on the bottle, and the bottles often from old dairies of days long past, the names and logos still bright and evocative on the jug, er, bottle.

Oh! and the new jail here is the Blue Roof Inn. (Whereas the one in Illinois, an hour and a half outside Chicago, was the Huntley Pokey Club.)

Secretaries and inmates who spend too much time sitting on their "bee-hinds" get "a case of the bubblebutt" --those large bulbous protuberances made famous by Carol Burnett's secretary routine. But you may get another kind of "bubblebutt" at the "dish to pass" (potluck) supper, and be sure to bring your "service" (your own plates and utensils). And in either case, if someone is rude to you about it, you may find yourself with "a terminal case of the red-ass."

Going somewhere? "Goin' up the spring (going up to the spring) after (for) water." Visiting a neighbor "up over" the hill? Take the "Road to Cherry Flats" (which does have some real name or other). It's a "hard road" (paved) (not a "road, AKA "a township road" or "gravel road"). If they aren't home, "try goin' over Wallyworld" (going over to WalMart), since everybody's probably there "visiting the World" (shopping or pretending to and just seeing people).

"LeafPeepers" (tourists) arrive in fall, second weekend of October. Most "flatlanders" (from outside the mountains of the county) who like to hunt with guns come for "Buck Day" (the Monday after Thanksgiving when deer season opens) but a few show up later for "Environmental Awareness Day" (Doe Day, but I'm not aware of the exact date).

The next county over is "God's Country," or at least they say so. But our county has the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, so we're almost even up. BTW, that canyon, with Pine Creek, doesn't flood in the spring and fall-- but the "runs" (creeks, streams) do, so if we've made plans to get together, I'll be there, "Lord willin' an' the creek don't rise."

Words we brought with us from the Chicago area, from family conversations, that seem to be creeping around the town and coming back to us, are "AccuSuck" (shop vac) and "Planting" (funeral). And "Gomorrahfied"-- being mortified, horrified, and morally outraged all at once. Also you are not from a dysfunctional family-- you belong to the support group for "People Raised by Dogs from Hell." Oh, and if you aren't supposed to tell me something but it is something I really need to know? Simple. We can have a "nonversation." Otherwise, if you come see me to "have a conversation with me," you are probably coming over to give me a terminal case of the red-ass because I have "sinned" (acted like an arsehole).

And since I can't get into the frozen Lapsang Souchong thread, may I express here my longing for what we drank last week in South Carolina-- "sweet tea," which is to iced tea as good espresso is to "hawss piss." Now I wish I had taken a jug-- no, that would be the Igloo cooler, not a glass bottle-- to fill up and carry (bring) home.

~S~