"In Kansas, grocery stores 'sacked' your purchases...here they 'bag' them"

A few years ago I was travelling cross-country by car and stopped for groceries in Oklahoma. (I was raised just outside Boston and my grandparents are from New Hampshire, so my Downeast accent is pretty strong.) I went through checkout but I couldn't find one item. I asked "Where can I find a bag of ice?" and met a blank stare. The manager and another clerk were called over to solve the problem. Blank stares. I finally spotted the ice cooler in front of the store and made my purchase, but everyone was still pretty uncomfortable about what had just been said. I think now that I would have had better result if I'd asked for a "sack of ah's," but I'm not absolutely sure of that. That was 30 years ago, and I'd bet that we would be able to puzzle out the meaning now, due to TV voices. Not about the British, I know....

How about this one:
While riding on the subway in Boston I overheard a man who thought he'd figured out the American/British habit of shortening place names like Worcester (Wusta) and Gloucester (Glosta). He asked for directions to Dorchta. Unfortunately, nobody (even the British, I checked) shortens Dorchester in that way.