We say "go to town" when we want to go to the biggest city nearby, even though we live in a town. In some cases that could mean Pine Bluff or Little Rock when we lived between the two, and now it means we have a choice of Fayetteville or Bentonville/Rogers, cuz that's where all the best shopping is. Sometimes we don't decide which town until we're in the car. (Um, 50,000 people in three of those "cities".)

I have a friend in NY state who uses "crick" for creek. I thought she was making fun of me when I first heard her say it--or "puttin' on airs", like she was now some kind of country-folk, having moved from The City. Then the more I heard it I thought she must be illiterate, because surely she can see it is spelled with two e's! Then I realized that's just how they say it up there.

I had some regional immersion today. I read a book of my son's grandmother's letters she had written to her daughter over the daughter's life. They were put together in a binder for everyone on that side after the grandmother passed. (Isn't that sweet?) The most quaint expression she used was "Myrtle's waiting." Every fourth letter had a phrase about Myrtle waiting for her baby--Grammaw's first grandchild--to be born. "Myrtle's still waiting." Just that phrase and nothing more about Myrtle or a baby. I had to divine what she meant by the dates, and then of course, the baby came and got his first mention in the letters!

Karen