Regionalism's

[Flur]

I went to college in NJ, and we had quite a mix of people from different parts of the US. I learned that in some parts of the country, jimmies are the same as sprinkles, but in other parts jimmies are condoms! It made quite a mess when a bunch of us would go out for ice cream....

When I lived in NY and NJ people referred to New York City as "the city" as if it was the only one. Everything else was a town. This drove my family nuts. Now I'm in Minneapolis and it's "the cities", again as if they're the only ones. LOL!

The biggest regionalism from my childhood in MI was "pop". When I moved out east people would either laugh (at me, not with me) or they just wouldn't understand - "pot?", "popcorn?" I picked up "soda" pretty quickly. I've been in MN now for almost 4 years and still say soda, and no one seems to mind, even though here it's "pop".

[Kimmyt]

When I lived in NY and NJ people referred to New York City as "the city" as if it was the only one. Everything else was a town. This drove my family nuts. Now I'm in Minneapolis and it's "the cities", again as if they're the only ones. LOL!

I think it's habit for a lot of folks that live in the direct area of a large city to call that city by a generic term instead of it's proper name. Maybe it's a more casual way of referring to it, or a way of establishing ones familiarity with it.

I grew up my entire life around Philadelphia and therefore almost always call it 'The City'. 'Hey let's go into the city for dinner' or 'do you want to see a show in the city?'

A friend of mine (who lives in the city, but isn't from there originally) made fun of me once for saying that and it kinda pissed me off.

To me, if you were referring to any city, it was Philly, because that was the closest one, being only 10-15 drive away. If you were going to NY you said New York. But, The City, was Philly.

I would imagine it'd be the same for folks living in the suburban areas of any large city.

I guess I'm saying that most people when they say 'The City' don't mean 'This is the only City, everything else is just a town'... it's just a quick and casual way of referring to 'their' city.