Rubber bands

[chlyn]

Massachusetts: Elastic bands
Pittsburgh: Gummy bands

Any others?

[KatyBr]

overheard in Minneapolis: rubber binders, to which her child replied rinder binders?


Wait! are we talking rubber bands or gummy bears/worm/name your favorites

Kt

[chlyn]

LOL! Rubber binders!

This topic is rubber bands

[dawncoyote]

My mom calls them gum bands. She was born and raised in McKeesport, PA.

I call them rubber bands. Learned to talk in SoCal.

-DC-

[Don 1]

Just as Dawncoyote's mom, I've always called them 'gum bands'. Of course, I'm from McKeesport also! I get a lot of quizzical looks too!

[dawncoyote]

Don--

Not to change the subject, but McKeesport has some particularly odd ways of saying things.

I bet your mom told "yins" to go "red up your rooms," didn't she? Or you told your kids that...

And if you did it, you were rewarded with a cream cheese and jelly sandwich, weren't you?

I'll have to think about some other McKeesportisms...mom's motoring at the moment, in transit, or I'd call her and ask her...

Ya know, she never lost her McKeesport accent--and I bet you have one too, don't you? I've heard it all over the country, and I always ask, when I hear it. I've only been wrong once, and that was recently. A man and his wife I met are from Maryland, and everytime I talk to them I have to ask, "Are you sure you're not from McKeesport?"

-DC-

[Don 1]

Hey Dawncoyote You're right!
I've been in West Michigan for 20 years and people still tell me I sound like I'm from Philadelphia!
I make my wife laugh when I ask her to buy some 'jumbo' instead of bologna. I even hear myself cutting 'war' instead of wire. I'm sure your mom will come up with a few other things 'like cat' (instead of 'like that')!

[sparrowgrass]

Oh, what fun!! I just discovered this site, and laughed out loud to read about jumbo and yins and redd up.

I was born in Pittsburgh, but left too early to carry many of those words with me to use.

However, I could hear my grandma and Pittsburgh cousins when I read that.

Anybody ever hear the word "grinny" for a chipmunk? How bout chipchop ham with barbecue sauce for dinner?

[Don 1]

Good morning Sparrowgrass,
This just keeps getting better!
When I was younger, my brother and I used to go hunting near a place called Round Hill Park (Southern Allegheny County) and many a 'grinny' were moving targets. I never really got any- no heart!
Had a friend that would go 'woolie' hunting too. Don't know if that's a Western Pennsylvania expression but it took me a few days to figure out that deer weren't safe either!

[mchugh]

That is too funny. I'm from northern PA where you can red up a room which is not quite as much work as cleaning up a room. Not that anyone outside PA seems to understand the term. Of course, they also think I'm crazy when I look for a MAC machine.

[Don 1]

Mchugh
A MAC machine! You want fries with that?
Jeff Foxworthy could have a good time with some of the Western PA expressions for sure!

[Perry]

In Hebrew you could argue for rubber bands or gummies. Rubber in Hebrew is gummy and rubber bands are gumiyot; so you could translate that one either way. Gum, on the other hand is mastik.

[gailr]

"Gum mastic" is a familiar art supply, with an interesting etymology and quite a range of applications:

NOUN: 1. The mastic tree. 2. The aromatic resin of the mastic tree, used especially in varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, and condiments and as an astringent. 3. A pastelike cement used in highway construction, especially one made with powdered lime or brick and tar.

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, mastic resin, from Old French mastich, from Latin mastichum, mastich, from Greek mastikh, chewing gum, mastic, from mastikhn, to grind the teeth.

-gailr

[Perry]

Mastic
Expensive and generally inferior to damar. Makes a mellow finishing varnish.

Hmm...should we move this one over to the discussion of WalMart wines?

[azhreia]

When I was a kid we called them elastic bands, or 'lacka bands.


There was a game we used to play with a large piece of elastic formed into a ring that involved jumping in and out and I was never very good at it. It was known as "elastics", and it was eventually banned at my school.

Azh