New England Terms Ipsum

Basement: the restroom, especially of a school. when i was growing up in the 60s and 70s, we would ask to go to the basement. drug store: also known as a pharmacy. this is where you went on sunday when the package store was closed and got your bottle of pickwick ale for medicinal purposes. fluff-a-nutter: peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. for those of you who don't know, marshmallow fluff is a regional delicacy. it's a very sticky white cream, usually just called fluff. it has the consistency of a big vat of melted marshmellows. i like fluff and strawberry jam, but the traditional application is with peanut butter. you only get one pass at applying it to the bread (because it's extremely sticky) and you certainly don't dip the knife in anything else once it's been in the fluff jar. grinder: i'm told that elsewhere the long sandwiches they serve in pizza joints are called subs and hoagies. bizarre! jimmies: tiny candy that goes on ice cream. come in plain 'chocolate' and 'rainbow' varietys. known elsewhere as sprinkes! sprinkles to me sounds a little, well, feminine. leaf peepers: people who head up to new england to check out the foliage. usually found driving 20 mph on major roadways. of course, this is usually restricted to the mohawk trail (route 2 west of westminster). interstate i-190 is really nice too, and not really well known, of course the speed limit is like 70mph, so it's not as cool for the old folks. package store / packie: package stores are not where you buy boxes, it's where you go to get beer. usually, people refer to them as "packie's". you go down to the packie on a friday to get ready for the weekend, especially if your from southie. you have to remember in massachusetts, the blue laws keep the packie's closed on the weekend. you want beer on a sunday? better drive north to new hampshire, it's cheaper there anyways. you also need to remember they don't generally sell alcohol in grocery stores here either, that requires a lot of paperwork and generally isn't done. racka: rocking chair soda: pop is your father, not a drink. tonic: this is another word for soda, i don't hear it in worcester too often, mostly out by boston. this is the original word for soda in new england..