Thursday, February 26, 2009

City vs Country - language confusion

When we moved from the city to the country we noticed the obvious differences . . . lighter traffic, fewer people, more open spaces. But there are subtle differences also. Some words are different down here.
  • In the city it's a street. In the country it's a road.
  • In the city it's a driveway. In the country it's a lane.
  • In the city you eat lunch at midday and dinner in the evening. In the country you eat dinner at midday and supper in the evening. This one can get you in trouble. If your neighbor says "come over for coffee after dinner" and you don't know about this difference you are likely to be mucking out the horse stalls when your neighbor calls and says "Did you change your mind? The coffee's ready!" Oops.
  • In the city your purchases are put in a bag. In the country "would you like a sack?".
  • In the city you spend an hour cutting the grass. In the country you spend the afternoon mowing.
  • In the city you get a job. In the country you are "helping out" - you are working and are getting paid but you're "helping out".
  • In the city "it rained cats and dogs yesterday". In the country "we got 2 3/8" of rain".
  • In the city "it drizzled" and in the country "we got 1/8 of an inch of rain".
And a couple of my favorites:
  • In the city the store is kitty-corner from the park. In the country the store is katty-wampus from the park.
  • In the city if you are driving and slip on the ice you skidded. In the country you whipped a kitty.
And my last one for today . . .
In the city the kids bring a favorite book or a favorite toy for show and tell.


In the country you bring your dad's tractor to school for show and tell.


6 comments:

Sarah said...

The katty-wampus thing is so funny! How ridiculous. John says it all the time (because someone at work says it all the time), but it doesn't mean kitty-corner, it means things are all messed up or funky. Weird.

Karen said...

Chuck says katty-wampus.....I never heard it before he said it.....he also uses it to mean messed up. As in :'This computer is all katty-wampus.'Funny. He lived in Sterling, Il as a kid, so he's kinda country.

Anonymous said...

Love it, love it, love it! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you should be a writer! Maybe replace Laura Rosen in the CP news, since she hasn't written anything lately! haha! I especially liked your two favorites, let's see, who WAS it that said that??.....oh yeah, it was ME!! The show and tell thing, tooo funny!! That morning, I saw about four tractors drive by my house, so I knew where they were going. That kinda thing never happened when I was in school, we had the regular show and tell stuff, like the city!
Later, Deb

Col said...

You are so funny. I can't see this suburbanite using the term katty wampus correctly- but you never know.

Anonymous said...

That is really funny,
Where did you live? I want to move to the country.

Kathleen said...

Amy, go for it! I'm so glad we did. Except for the part about being so far from family :(