Where I'm from......

[Blade]

Where I'm from, you better plan an inside gathering for Thanksgiving if your home is near a soybean field, cuz they cut the beans then spread the chicken shit and let it sit a few weeks and get rained on and then plant the winter wheat. SO depending on when the beans were planted ya gonna smell chicken shit either at Thanksgiving or Christmas

[Jess]

Originally Posted by Blade

Where I'm from, you better plan an inside gathering for Thanksgiving if your home is near a soybean field, cuz they cut the beans then spread the chicken shit and let it sit a few weeks and get rained on and then plant the winter wheat. SO depending on when the beans were planted ya gonna smell chicken shit either at Thanksgiving or Christmas

Hey! AT least it's just chicken poo there! The plantation I used to live on would spread cow manure in the late fall for years. Then, in the last two years I lived out there, they started using a bio- engineered "recycled".. product from human waste facilities. You wanna talk about stench!

It may just be me, but for some reason the use of anything containing human by product in food grain production reallllllllly bothers me. It's like using human ( or sea bass) DNA in tomato production.. wtf???

Dude, if it gets too bad ya'll come up here for Thanksgiving! Bring da pups and we'll chow down poop free! Can't promise an exploding deep fried turkey, but we can usually pull together a decent spread!

[shadows papa]

Originally Posted by Jess

Hey! AT least it's just chicken poo there! The plantation I used to live on would spread cow manure in the late fall for years. Then, in the last two years I lived out there, they started using a bio- engineered "recycled".. product from human waste facilities. You wanna talk about stench!

It may just be me, but for some reason the use of anything containing human by product in food grain production reallllllllly bothers me. It's like using human ( or sea bass) DNA in tomato production.. wtf???

Dude, if it gets too bad ya'll come up here for Thanksgiving! Bring da pups and we'll chow down poop free! Can't promise an exploding deep fried turkey, but we can usually pull together a decent spread!

I can promise you and sis an exploding turkey and I won't even use a deep fryer to DO IT!!

[Kenna]

Where I'm from...
'Lil Gramma' would be makin' me grits for breakfast, with butter and brown sugar. And before noon, we would walk down to the Mennonite Farmers Market known as Dutch Foods...but on the way,we would stop at the HUGE Woodmen of the World barn to get open pit BBQ chicken. (...that we could smell from the house when they started grilling at the crack of dawn. It makes your mouth water!! and you can't wait till they start selling at 10am.) It's a good thing we would walk to town, because if we'd use the car, we'd get behind a dozen or so horse-n-buggies with Mennonite or Brethren families all headed to Dutch Foods or IGA.

At the market, Lil Gramma would get us some homemade, fresh outa the oven, soft wheat rolls with butter and honey, a bag of her horehound candies and my butterscotch, 2 bottles of homemade root beer or cream soda and some green tomatoes to fry up later for dinner.

On our way home, we'd stop by our Dunkard Brethren church...a very small, simple, plain, red brick "salt box" of a building.... to sweep and clean up before Sunday Service. We would then sit in the little handmade wooden kids chairs in the School room and delightfully dig into our BBQ chicken and other treats (that chicken was SO tender it would fall off the bones and the smokie flavor was all the way through), while she told me the story about how her husband built this church with his own hands, how the pews, hardwood floor and other furniture were all handmade by him and the other Deacons. That church felt like home as much as her wonderful, warm, inviting home did.

Before we left, we'd place out all the hymnal books and wind up the old antique "Regulator" clock...just about then, old Brother Uplinger and his wife would pull up in his military-retired 1945 Dodge WC 52 that had "farm tags"....we would shimmy into the back and I'd snuggle close to Lil Gramma as we'd putt putt up the hill to the Dayton Autumn Festival, where we'd get some pumpkin bread for that night's dessert.

I would give anything to be able to spend a day like that again with Lil Gramma.

To this day, that BBQ chicken is my FAVORITE.

[Jess]

Originally Posted by Sweet

Where I'm from...
'Lil Gramma' would be makin' me grits for breakfast, with butter and brown sugar. And before noon, we would walk down to the Mennonite Farmers Market known as Dutch Foods...but on the way,we would stop at the HUGE Woodmen of the World barn to get open pit BBQ chicken. (...that we could smell from the house when they started grilling at the crack of dawn. It makes your mouth water!! and you can't wait till they start selling at 10am.) It's a good thing we would walk to town, because if we'd use the car, we'd get behind a dozen or so horse-n-buggies with Mennonite or Brethren families all headed to Dutch Foods or IGA.

At the market, Lil Gramma would get us some homemade, fresh outa the oven, soft wheat rolls with butter and honey, a bag of her horehound candies and my butterscotch, 2 bottles of homemade root beer or cream soda and some green tomatoes to fry up later for dinner.

On our way home, we'd stop by our Dunkard Brethren church...a very small, simple, plain, red brick "salt box" of a building.... to sweep and clean up before Sunday Service. We would then sit in the little handmade wooden kids chairs in the School room and delightfully dig into our BBQ chicken and other treats (that chicken was SO tender it would fall off the bones and the smokie flavor was all the way through), while she told me the story about how her husband built this church with his own hands, how the pews, hardwood floor and other furniture were all handmade by him and the other Deacons. That church felt like home as much as her wonderful, warm, inviting home did.

Before we left, we'd place out all the hymnal books and wind up the old antique "Regulator" clock...just about then, old Brother Uplinger and his wife would pull up in his military-retired 1945 Dodge WC 52 that had "farm tags"....we would shimmy into the back and I'd snuggle close to Lil Gramma as we'd putt putt up the hill to the Dayton Autumn Festival, where we'd get some pumpkin bread for that night's dessert.

I would give anything to be able to spend a day like that again with Lil Gramma.

To this day, that BBQ chicken is my FAVORITE.

WOW, Sweet, Thank you for the visual! What a great area it sounds like and what rich warm memories!

I love the quiet of the Mennonite/ Amish/ Dunkard areas. The "peace" is almost palpable. We have that sort of calm in the foothills here. Nothing quite like a slow drive on a crisp sunny morning to lift your spirits and allow the worlds troubles to melt away.

Thanks again!

[Hack]

Where I am from, you are either going "up north" or "downstate." You are either a "Yooper" (live in the Upper Peninsula or U.P. or Yoop, thus Yooper) or a "troll" (because you live in the Lower Peninsula, below the Mackinac Bridge, thus you live under the bridge and are a troll). We call tourists in the northern part of the state "fudgies" because they often frequent the many fudge shops. You often use your right hand as a map of half the state and point to where you are from, if you were born in the Lower Peninsula. You can kind of use your left hand as the Upper Peninsula. Where I am from (northern Michigan), most schools close on the opening day of deer hunting season because so many teachers and students call in sick so they can go hunting. Where I am from, it can snow as early as October and as late as April or May. Where I am from, Canadian coins are accepted as change and given as change just like American coins, except for the Loonie...we don't take the Loonie. Where I am from, you either eat your coney dogs Flint style or Detroit style. And always with mustard and onions. In fact, that's the only time I put mustard on a hotdog.

Where I am from, my little hometown on the shores of Lake Huron, it is not unusual to hear a little Polish at a certain butcher shop because the butcher knows Polish to talk to some of the older customers, some of whom still feel more comfortable talking what they grew up talking (Polish). So, you sometimes hear "Dzien dobry" in the morning. In my hometown, there is a restaurant attached to the bowling alley (hey, the population is only 4500) that usually serves an all-Polish food buffet on Thursdays. All you can eat - $6, and that includes the duck blood soup. In my hometown, people buy their meats at the butcher, not at the grocery market. And there are two outstanding butcher shops for such a small town. In my hometown, there was a radio program every Saturday morning on the local radio station that was dedicated to playing Polish folk music and polkas for two hours. The man who hosted it recently died, so I think the show will die too...and that makes me sad. In my hometown, there are essentially two churches -- Catholic and Lutheran. My town is almost evenly divided between the churches and between Polish and German ancestry (I am half and half). On Christmas Eve, the Catholic Church has a 6 p.m. Mass and the schoolchildren from the Catholic school sing Christmas carols in Polish and the little old Polish ladies (who still wear scarves or kerchiefs on their heads at church) sing along in Polish too.

Fun thread.

[CrankyOldGuy]

Originally Posted by Hack

Where I am from, you are either going "up north" or "downstate." You are either a "Yooper" (live in the Upper Peninsula or U.P. or Yoop, thus Yooper) or a "troll" (because you live in the Lower Peninsula, below the Mackinac Bridge, thus you live under the bridge and are a troll). We call tourists in the northern part of the state "fudgies" because they often frequent the many fudge shops. You often use your right hand as a map of half the state and point to where you are from, if you were born in the Lower Peninsula. You can kind of use your left hand as the Upper Peninsula. Where I am from (northern Michigan), most schools close on the opening day of deer hunting season because so many teachers and students call in sick so they can go hunting. Where I am from, it can snow as early as October and as late as April or May. Where I am from, Canadian coins are accepted as change and given as change just like American coins, except for the Loonie...we don't take the Loonie. Where I am from, you either eat your coney dogs Flint style or Detroit style. And always with mustard and onions. In fact, that's the only time I put mustard on a hotdog.

Where I am from, my little hometown on the shores of Lake Huron, it is not unusual to hear a little Polish at a certain butcher shop because the butcher knows Polish to talk to some of the older customers, some of whom still feel more comfortable talking what they grew up talking (Polish). So, you sometimes hear "Dzien dobry" in the morning. In my hometown, there is a restaurant attached to the bowling alley (hey, the population is only 4500) that usually serves an all-Polish food buffet on Thursdays. All you can eat - $6, and that includes the duck blood soup. In my hometown, people buy their meats at the butcher, not at the grocery market. And there are two outstanding butcher shops for such a small town. In my hometown, there was a radio program every Saturday morning on the local radio station that was dedicated to playing Polish folk music and polkas for two hours. The man who hosted it recently died, so I think the show will die too...and that makes me sad. In my hometown, there are essentially two churches -- Catholic and Lutheran. My town is almost evenly divided between the churches and between Polish and German ancestry (I am half and half). On Christmas Eve, the Catholic Church has a 6 p.m. Mass and the schoolchildren from the Catholic school sing Christmas carols in Polish and the little old Polish ladies (who still wear scarves or kerchiefs on their heads at church) sing along in Polish too.

Fun thread.

i love a good pierogi

[Soft*Silver]

I make GREAT perogi's...and we say it with an H sound for the g, not a hard G sound...

Originally Posted by CrankyOldGuy

i love a good pierogi

[WolfyOne]

When I first saw the title of this thread all I could think of is........

................from my mother and that's where I'm from

I'll be back at a later date to post again
When I return, it'll be as a grown up

[Laerkin]

Where I come from...

...my high school principal surfed every morning before school. He drove an old yellow VW Bug and rode around with the board on top - in case the swells were awesome enough to head back after work.

...Christmas is a time for flip flops and a thin sweater, Christmas lights wrapped around palm trees, and snow is something you see only see on TV.

...cutting school meant racing to the beach for a day of seeing and being seen.

...everyone got a brand new car for their 16th birthday - usually a convertible (except for the handful of us that were middle-class - I got a used 1984 Cavalier in yellow with solid black vinyl interior).

...it's called a freeway (not a highway), it's called "THE 5" or "THE 15" when referring to said freeway, and no matter how much you resist - a touch of Valley Girl sneaks into your speech.

...Round Table Pizza, hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints, In-n-Out burger, and sun-baked unsweetened iced tea are a staple of survival.

...everyone thinks it a liberal place but it's actually very conservative in an odd way.

...kids in high school frequently get plastic surgery as birthday and graduation presents from their parents, looks are more important than skill or intelligence (though those are valued, too, if you're lucky enough to be blessed with both), and education is the highest standard (I was lucky in this way).

...people are nice, everyone is relaxed and social, and the speed is much more chill than my current location on the East Coast.

[rockybcn]

Originally Posted by Hack

Where I am from, you are either going "up north" or "downstate." You are either a "Yooper" (live in the Upper Peninsula or U.P. or Yoop, thus Yooper) or a "troll" (because you live in the Lower Peninsula, below the Mackinac Bridge, thus you live under the bridge and are a troll). We call tourists in the northern part of the state "fudgies" because they often frequent the many fudge shops. You often use your right hand as a map of half the state and point to where you are from, if you were born in the Lower Peninsula. You can kind of use your left hand as the Upper Peninsula. Where I am from (northern Michigan), most schools close on the opening day of deer hunting season because so many teachers and students call in sick so they can go hunting. Where I am from, it can snow as early as October and as late as April or May. Where I am from, Canadian coins are accepted as change and given as change just like American coins, except for the Loonie...we don't take the Loonie. Where I am from, you either eat your coney dogs Flint style or Detroit style. And always with mustard and onions. In fact, that's the only time I put mustard on a hotdog.

Where I am from, my little hometown on the shores of Lake Huron, it is not unusual to hear a little Polish at a certain butcher shop because the butcher knows Polish to talk to some of the older customers, some of whom still feel more comfortable talking what they grew up talking (Polish). So, you sometimes hear "Dzien dobry" in the morning. In my hometown, there is a restaurant attached to the bowling alley (hey, the population is only 4500) that usually serves an all-Polish food buffet on Thursdays. All you can eat - $6, and that includes the duck blood soup. In my hometown, people buy their meats at the butcher, not at the grocery market. And there are two outstanding butcher shops for such a small town. In my hometown, there was a radio program every Saturday morning on the local radio station that was dedicated to playing Polish folk music and polkas for two hours. The man who hosted it recently died, so I think the show will die too...and that makes me sad. In my hometown, there are essentially two churches -- Catholic and Lutheran. My town is almost evenly divided between the churches and between Polish and German ancestry (I am half and half). On Christmas Eve, the Catholic Church has a 6 p.m. Mass and the schoolchildren from the Catholic school sing Christmas carols in Polish and the little old Polish ladies (who still wear scarves or kerchiefs on their heads at church) sing along in Polish too.

Fun thread.

I lived in Michigan almost 40 years and I am also from a German and Polish heritage. I miss Fat Tuesday and sharing Paczki´s with everyone. I miss homemade gumpkis ánd I miss the pasties made in the UP. I just plain ol miss Michigan....well, ´cept for the snow!