September 3, 2007

You know you're from central New York when...



  • You stay in your house most of the summer because you aren't used to the heat.
  • You drive 55 mph through 10 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching.
  • You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
  • You install security lights on your house and garage, and then leave both unlocked.
  • You've noticed that True Value Hardware on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas.
  • You define summer as three months of bad sledding.
  • One of your neighbors constantly has bonfires.
  • You carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
  • There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the supermarket at any given time.
  • You know 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, cold, and construction.
  • It takes you 2 hours to go to the store for one item because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town
  • Cows are just part of the scenery
  • You know that the phrase, "Goin up ta," applies to going north, south, east, or west, up or down in elevation, and pretty much any other way you can travel.
  • The smell of freshly spread cow manure doesn't bother you.
  • Its perfectly normal for your life's aspirations to be working for the county.
  • Getting "dressed up" means tucking your shirt into your jeans and putting on clean work boots.
  • Halloween costumes are always designed around a snowsuit and winter boots.
  • You know what cheese curd is, and love it.
  • You can name everyone you graduated with.
  • You know what 4-H is.
  • You said the 'F' word and your parents knew within an hour.
  • You ever went cow-tipping.
  • School gets canceled for a sports team going to State
  • You had a senior skip day.
  • Your car is always covered with mud, slosh, and salt.
  • You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
  • The town next to you is considered "trashy" or "snotty" when it is just like your town.
  • You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week.
  • Getting paid minimum wage is considered a raise.
  • You refer to anyone with a house newer than 1980 as the "rich people."
  • You think driving is better in the winter because the potholes get filled in with snow and the snow banks protect you from the guardrails.
  • The Country Club doesn’t have a golf course.
  • You wear shorts when it hits 50 degrees.
  • You know exactly what time it needs to start snowing in order to have a snow day (3:30am).
  • Winter starts Halloween night.
  • You think that they don't have enough weather coverage on TV and radio.
  • You live within 10 minutes of an Ice Rink.
  • Weekend excitement involves a trip to RiteAid drugs.
  • Even ugly people enter beauty contests.
  • You decide to walk for exercise and 5 people pull over and ask you if you need a ride.
  • Your graduating class has no more than 500 kids, including the 100-200 that didn't quite make it through.
  • Your doors to your car freeze shut.
  • Your teachers call you by your older sibling's name.
  • The local phone book has only one yellow page.
  • You leave your jacket on the back of the chair in the cafe, and when you go back the next day, it's still there, on the same chair.
  • You don't signal turns because everyone knows where you're going anyway.
  • You call a wrong number and they supply you with the correct one.
  • You have to name six surrounding towns to explain to people where you're from.
  • The town population increases by one-third when the universities go on break.
  • Your snow blower gets stuck on the roof.
  • The mosquitoes in your yard have legal landing rights.
  • Catching lighting bugs is a way to entertain your kids for hours.
  • You’ve ridden your bike on the Erie Canal.
  • You can speak a second language: Native American. (onondoga, chittenango, oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, Canaseraga, Canastota, Oswego, Otisco, Owasco, Cayuga, Sauquoit, etc.)
  • You suffer a heart attack while shoveling snow out of your driveway.
  • You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car.
  • The mayor greets you on the street by your first name.
  • You keep the snow tires on your truck all year because it ain't worth taking them off for only two months.
  • You consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches
    of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by.
  • You're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights a year
    because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, and Syracuse gets more
    snow than any other major city in the US.
  • Your l ocal Dairy Queen is closed from October through May.
  • If you get 131 inches of snow in a week and you comment that 'winter's finally
    here', you might live near Oswego.
  • You instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year
  • Someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don't work
    there.
  • Your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead.
  • You have worn shorts and a parka on the same day.
  • You have had a lengthy phone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong
    number.
  • Down South means Corning .
  • Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.
  • You go out for a fish fry every Friday .
  • Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
  • Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.
  • You measure distance in hours.
  • You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
  • You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
  • You know you’ve lived in Syracuse too long when…

  • You know the correct pronunciation of "Pompey."
  • You no longer need to brace your eardrums when exiting the pressurized Carrier Dome.
  • You can tell all the Hafner establishments apart.
  • Your chest bursts with pride when Syracuse's climate runs as the top story on cable TV's Weather Channel.
  • You know where to find parking spaces in Skaneateles.
  • You're surprised that people from other parts of the country know nothing about lacrosse.
  • Your idea of fun is to pack a picnic lunch and go watch the mosquitoes get sprayed in Cicero.
  • You attended a Syracuse Chiefs game at MacArthur Stadium. Bonus points if you attended a Chiefs game at Municipal Stadium.
  • You've shopped at Switz's novelty store in North Syracuse.
  • Attending the State Fair is a family tradition, and you go more than three times during the 12 days it's open.
  • You've shopped at the Tri-County Mall.
  • Half the change in your pocket is Canadian.
  • You can make a weekend out of going to Carousel Mall.
  • Erie Boulevard is the place to go on weekends.
  • You request the Syracuse vs. Miami Football game off from work a year in advance.
  • You go on a "big" camping trip to Green Lakes.
  • 75% of your friends work at Wegmans.
  • You accept the fact that the Carrier Dome isn't air conditioned, despite being named after the World's Largest A/C Company.
  • You have a stuffed Orange in your car (Otto).
  • you can accurately forecast just how warm the day will be according to the intensity of the stench coming from the lake during your morning drive.
  • Jim Boeheim is starting to look sexy to you.
  • You feel like you're being subversive when you go to Hoffmann's instead of Heid's.
  • You know that Gate 2 at the Fairgrounds is always open.
  • you chuckle with glee whenever you hear that yet another truck has had its top sheared off by the rail bridge over Onondaga Parkway.
  • The word "iniquity" inspires images of a bejeweled hand gesturing from the edge of a grainy black-and-white television screen on Channel 5's Monster Movie Matinee.
  • You call the intersection of Salina and Jefferson streets "Downcity."
  • Your children dream of being on WIXT-Channel 9's "Storm Team."
  • You have the time and temperature number memorized
  • You're beginning to suspect that the time and temperature lady actually died years ago and her voice is now computer-generated and preserved for all eternity.
  • You miss Bowling for Dollars and its host, Bud Hedinger.
  • You remember the key to open the door of local TV's Magic Toy Shop.
  • You automatically give speeding cars with Canadian license plates the right of way on I-81.
  • You can determine how much a person's house is worth by the way he or she pronounces Skaneateles".
  • You can explain to visitors what salt potatoes are.
  • You remember Fairmount Fair. Bonus points for remembering it before it expanded at the western end; double points for remembering it before it was enclosed.
  • You've shopped at the Penn Can Mall. Bonus points if you remember its jingle or know that it's named Penn Can because of its location between Pennsylvania and Canada.
  • You know not to drive through Baldwinsville's Four Corners between 3 and 7 p.m.
  • You know how to decode the weather star on top of the MONY Tower.
  • You remember when Doug's Fish Fry had only one location.
  • You know the service elevator shortcut out of Hotel Syracuse's 10th-floor Grand Ballroom.
  • 2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    You're making me homesick!

    Doug Doan said...

    you're free to go back, anonymous!