My husband and I did not come from a place of snow or winters. We'd never seen (or driven in) SNOW or ICE until we moved to the Northeast.
We were here about 2 months, a little afraid to get on the Thruway due to the snow and ice, but we did one snowy day. The cheerful toll-gate keeper said "Watch out for the black guys!" HORRIFIED and shocked at such blatant prejudice, we said "EXCUSE ME? WHAT did you say???" She repeated "I SAID - watch out for the black ice; it's dangerous and there have been a few accidents already because of it". Not only were we not familiar with driving in snow or ice, but we also weren't tuned in to the Northeastern "accent".
We would later learn that places like "Long Island" would be pronounced "Lon Gailand".....and that places like Salina (a beautiful Mexican name) would be pronounced "Se-LINE-ah" or that a place named after a famous Polish-American "Pulaski" would not be pronounced as it was in Polish but would be pronounced "pu-la-sky" (as in "sky"!), or a place named Medina which is a beautiful word of Arabic origin would be pronounced as Me-DINE-ah! (as in "dine"!).
Regional "isms", but the hearts of the people in Northeast are warm and good.
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