You might be from Chicago if ...

[Riot]

1. The 'living room' is called the 'front room'.
2. You don't pronounce the 's' at the end of Illinois . And, you become irate at people who do.
3. You measure distance in minutes (especially 'from the city'). And you swear everything is pretty much 1/2 hour away.
4. You have no problem spelling or pronouncing ' Des Plaines '.
5. You go to visit friends, or family, down south and laugh when they complain about the traffic.
6. You understand that no person from Chicago can be a Cub fan AND a White Sox fan.
7. It's 'Kitty corner' not 'Katty corner'.
8. You know the difference between The Loop and Downtown
9. You eat your pizza in squares, not triangles, and you never refer to it as 'pie'.
10. You own celery salt.
11. You understand that the primary is the official local election.
12. You have drunk green beer on St. Paddy's Day.
13. Stores don't have sacks, they have bags.
14. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: 'Where's my coat at?' or 'Can I go with?'
15. Your idea of a great tenderloin is when the meat is twice as big as the bun, 'everything' is on it and a slice of dill pickle is on the side.
16. You carry jumper cables in your car.
17. You drink 'pop'.
18. You understand that I-290, I-90, I-94, and I-294 are all different roads.
19. You know the names of the interstates: Stevenson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, and the Edens.
20. You call the interstates 'expressways'.
21. You refer to anything South of I-80 as 'Southern or Central Illinois '.
22. You refer to Lake Michigan as 'The Lake '.
23. You refer to Chicago as 'The City'.
24. 'The Super Bowl' refers to one specific game in January 1986.
25. You have two favorite football teams: The Bears, and anyone who beats the Packers.
26. You buy the 'Trib', not the 'Tribune'; or the 'Times', not the 'Sun Times'.
27. You know that despite being on the lake, there is no such place as the Waterfront.
28. You think 45 degrees is great weather to wash your car.
29. You picnic or ride your bike in the 'forest preserve'..
30. You cried when Bozo was canceled on WGN.
31. You know what goes on a Chicago style hot dog.
32. You know what Chicago Style Pizza REALLY is.
33. You know why they call Chicago 'The Windy City '.
34. You understand what 'lake-effect' means.
35. You know the difference between Amtrak and Metra, and know which station they end up at.
37. You have ridden the 'L'.
38. You think your next door neighbor is a cousin to Tony Soprano
39. You can distinguish between the following area codes: 847, 630, 773, 708, 312, & 815.
40. You have, at some time in your life, used your furniture...or a friend's body, to guard your parking spot in winter.
41. You respond to the question 'Where are you from?' with a 'side'. Example: 'WestSide,' 'SouthSide' or 'NorthSide'.
42. You know the phone number to 'Empire Carpet'!
43. You know what a 'garache key' is!

[Scav]

I was on the Bozo Show, got to the fourth bucket

Still got the wagon

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Riot

3. You measure distance in minutes (especially 'from the city'). And you swear everything is pretty much 1/2 hour away.
7. It's 'Kitty corner' not 'Katty corner'.
14. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: 'Where's my coat at?' or 'Can I go with?'
39. You can distinguish between the following area codes: 847, 630, 773, 708, 312, & 815.
41. You respond to the question 'Where are you from?' with a 'side'. Example: 'WestSide,' 'SouthSide' or 'NorthSide'.
42. You know the phone number to 'Empire Carpet'!

These are my favorite typical ones -- and add in 224 as an area code we have to manage now too

[Riot]

"The suburbs" - used to be Oak Park!

My favs:
18. You understand that I-290, I-90, I-94, and I-294 are all different roads.
19. You know the names of the interstates: Stevenson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, and the Edens.

[Scav]

Originally Posted by Riot

"The suburbs" - used to be Oak Park!

My favs:
18. You understand that I-290, I-90, I-94, and I-294 are all different roads.
19. You know the names of the interstates: Stevenson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, and the Edens.

I know none of those

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Riot

"The suburbs" - used to be Oak Park!

My favs:
18. You understand that I-290, I-90, I-94, and I-294 are all different roads.
19. You know the names of the interstates: Stevenson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, and the Edens.

And when you throw in I-55 and I-355, there's a whole mess of expressways and bypasses and they're all relatively close to each other which is potentially even more confusing

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Scav

I know none of those

You are a child, Grasshopper :-) I remember when Schaumburg and Elk Grove were fields, and Barrington was "way west".

I read nothing about Ditka or heart
attack by way of Bratwurst.

[miraja2]

I lived in New York City for three years and it confused me when people there would say they were "on line" at a store (or anywhere else where they had to wait) when people in the midwest would say "in line." As far as I knew, "on line" just had to do with the internet. Is that a New York thing, or an east coast thing?

As for the Chicago list, I certainly do the add a preposition thing, (as in "Where's my coat at?), but I had no idea that was a Chicago thing.
The pop/soda thing is sort of interesting. I'm from Springfield originally and people there say "soda." I guess somewhere between Springfield and Joliet must be the dividing line between soda and pop.

[Sightseek]

In Chicago, do you ask for "sprinkles" or "jimmies" with your ice cream?

Do you put sauce on your pasta or gravy?

[Scav]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

In Chicago, do you ask for "sprinkles" or "jimmies" with your ice cream?

Do you put sauce on your pasta or gravy?

Sauce....

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

In Chicago, do you ask for "sprinkles" or "jimmies" with your ice cream?

Do you put sauce on your pasta or gravy?

gravy at a real Italian house or joint.

sauce at Olive Garden

and the number three is simply pronounced as tree

we also have trifectas and not triples

[skippy3481]

tree is actually how you pronounce three in avaition speak. I didn't know that normal people actually used it.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

In Chicago, do you ask for "sprinkles" or "jimmies" with your ice cream?

Preakness Barbie,

'Jimmies' is a VERY New England term ranging from Rhode Island through Massachusetts and Southern New England portion of Connecticut. Essentially spread by the pale of settlement of the original Blake Brothers' Friendly's restaurants. A lesser known, even more provincial term for jimmies, is 'shots'.

[docicu3]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Preakness Barbie,

'Jimmies' is a VERY New England term ranging from Rhode Island through Massachusetts and Southern New England portion of Connecticut. Essentially spread by the pale of settlement of the original Blake Brothers' Friendly's restaurants. A lesser known, even more provincial term for jimmies, is 'shots'.

Which would be also the geographic distribution of Red Sox fans or "Tonic" instead of soda or Pop. The line that turns Yankee from Sawk"s would be just south of Hartford Ct. and certainly prior to exit 5 off 95 in Greenwich or Bykville.....

If you know what a Fribble is you probably lived there....

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by docicu3

Which would be also the geographic distribution of Red Sox fans or "Tonic" instead of soda or Pop. The line that turns Yankee from Sawk"s would be just south of Hartford Ct. and certainly prior to exit 5 off 95 in Greenwich or Bykville.....

If you know what a Fribble is you probably lived there....

I'm actually more from the Southern New England area, what's known as 'East of the River', off I-84 towards Boston from Hartford... Manchester... as opposed to New York-ish Fairfield County.

If you're really looking for a regional identifier, see who from here can identify what a 'cabinet' is.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by docicu3

Which would be also the geographic distribution of Red Sox fans or "Tonic" instead of soda or Pop. The line that turns Yankee from Sawk"s would be just south of Hartford Ct. and certainly prior to exit 5 off 95 in Greenwich or Bykville.....

If you know what a Fribble is you probably lived there....

Think you're confusing Steve's current residence (Greenwich NY pronounced greenWHICH, outside Saratoga) versus my location of employment, (Greenwich CT pronounced GRENich)... Steve's a Hartford-area guy which is most definitely on the New England side of CT.

We have this debate a lot at work... usually Bridgeport is defined as the end of NYC metro and the start of New England. The debate usually arises due to people splitting their fan allegiance between cities, i.e. Red Sox & Giants or Yankees & Celtics, etc. I define it as where Dunkin' Donuts stops selling Yankees coffee mugs and starts selling Red Sox.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Kasept

I'm actually more from the Southern New England area, what's known as 'East of the River', off I-84 towards Boston from Hartford... Manchester... as opposed to New York-ish Fairfield County.

If you're really looking for a regional identifier, see who from here can identify what a 'cabinet' is.

If I'm right about what you're asking, Preakness Barbie should be able to answer this question. I heard it used at Foxwoods and was like WTF are you talking about.

Originally Posted by miraja2

I lived in New York City for three years and it confused me when people there would say they were "on line" at a store (or anywhere else where they had to wait) when people in the midwest would say "in line." As far as I knew, "on line" just had to do with the internet. Is that a New York thing, or an east coast thing?

As for the Chicago list, I certainly do the add a preposition thing, (as in "Where's my coat at?), but I had no idea that was a Chicago thing.
The pop/soda thing is sort of interesting. I'm from Springfield originally and people there say "soda." I guess somewhere between Springfield and Joliet must be the dividing line between soda and pop.

NYC only.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Kasept

If you're really looking for a regional identifier, see who from here can identify what a 'cabinet' is.

*raises hand* one also has to enjoy a hot weiner from NY System.

No one pronounces car, orange or mall like a true New Englander.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

gravy at a real Italian house or joint.

sauce at Olive Garden

and the number three is simply pronounced as tree

we also have trifectas and not triples

A true Rhode Islander would also have gravy, preferably on "the Hill" (Federal Hill) while driving their car with a "Save Buddy (Cianci)" bumber sticker.