What was really popular where you grew up but you found out others didn't do the same thing other places?

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NicePatience43@reddit

I grew up in a very rural area, where parents didn't want to drive 5 miles to the next house for trick or treating or take kids to town. So every year our little school had an epic Halloween Carnival/Dance/Pot Luck we all left with a big bag of candy at the end of the night.

We did Square Dancing in elementary. In high school we did partner dancing and line dances; I was shocked when I got to college and so many people didn't know how to dance with a partner or how to do the Electric Slide.

We also had a marriage unit freshman year, you were placed with another classmate and had find professions, manage a budget, go grocery shopping, handle "emergency money" situations, some people got divorced, some had kids, some didn't.

We all got first aid certified thru PE/ Health.

We dissected worms, fetal pigs and cow eyeballs, watched the miracle of life in Sophomore Biology.

We had monthly dances through the high school, usually a different club or group each month raising money for their groups.

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EmmalouEsq@reddit

The kids at my elementary school got a little too into four square with signature moves and a dedicated teacher to call balls out of bounds.

Too intense for me, so I stuck to jump rope.

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c_b0t@reddit

We played a ton of that in elementary and middle school. At school and in the street at home.

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ipaintbadly@reddit

I used to rock at four square!

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Same-Manufacturer773@reddit

We did a little square dancing in TX but also line dancing. Booty scoot boogie and cotton eyed Joe. I moved back to Florida in 96 for 7th grade. Went to Tarpon Springs High. The Epiphany Dive was attended by most. School wasn’t closed but no one went. We were all Greek Orthodox that day.

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akm1111@reddit

This is the one thing I have never been able to find... the cotton eyed Joe we learned in elementary school is NOT what they do now. Now its a line dance, not a reel.

Yeah in Massachusetts we didn’t have mischief night goosey night or any other night centered on vandalism

Apparently they're taking about something different. Not sure why the downvotes because that's what I was assuming too. We have a mum fundraiser around Homecoming where the local PTA sells mums (chrysanthemum, the plant) to raise money.

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

Something like this. The more gaudy and frilly, the better (to those who follow this tradition).

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Initial_Entrance9548@reddit

Wait, what?? I was imaging a corsage made of mums (as in chrysanthemum, called mums), Which is weird enough, but it's the right time of year. This is some kind of next level!

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burjja@reddit

I was about to say I remember mums being a thing in Ohio. But seeing that picture, yeah, we didn't do mums like that. That's another level.

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akm1111@reddit

When my mom was in HS in the 60s/70s they were a real flower, one that used to be alive.

By the 90s when I was in HS, it was a silk flower, but only one, with trinkets in the ribbons. We pinned them to our shirt or jacket.

Found the Texan

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FuckYouNotHappening@reddit

mums

Nah, mate she’s Bri’ish

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BritOnTheRocks@reddit

Imagine coming home with an obnoxiously large Mum.

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Material-Imagination@reddit

There's nothing wrong with liking older women

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

gif

beans + cheese + onions
A cheese coney

Dickrubin14094@reddit

I never heard of Juneteenth till I moved to Buffalo, NY. Come to find out they’ve had one the longest continuous annual traditions of celebrating this holiday

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Eeyor-90@reddit

My workplace celebrated one year. It was rather insensitive. They served fried chicken, greens, watermelon, and two flavors of Kool-Aid: grape and cherry.

I volunteer at my kids field day and its nothing like that. Talking with other parents from other states and they never had field days like what I remember.

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I grew up in a suburbs and we had 6th grade, 8th grade, and high school graduations. I attended none of mine.

Meanwhile my kid has had kindergarten, 5th grade, 8th grade and 12th grade graduations. Between friends and family we've attended so many of them over the years. Thank god everyone is an adult or only have high school graduations left.

Fish fries on Fridays during Lent, at the local churches. Haven't found that level of lenten enthusiasm outside of Pennsyltucky.

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Steel1000@reddit

Chili with cinnamon rolls at school was normal.

NerdyTeacher77@reddit

We had “bunzas” at school in Lincoln, Nebraska. Probably because Runza threatened to sue or something. But chili and cinnamon rolls, square dancing, and learning how to score bowling games were all the rage in the 80’s. And the rope. I hated having to try and climb that thing. I remember a kid fell from the top of the rope to the safety “mat” below and just kind of laid there for a bit. Pry a major concussion. The gym teacher picked him up, dusted him off, and yelled for the next kid to go. I preferred the parachute days.

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Steel1000@reddit

I will never ever forget 39 cent cinnamon rolls.

Always tried to have the lunch ladies save a couple extra. I would save nickels all month

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EmmalouEsq@reddit

I grew up in South Dakota and it was pretty normal and I still do this. It's delicious

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Steel1000@reddit

Yes!!!

I don’t know why people just don’t try it. Best salty sweet winter lunch you can have.

As an adult it’s an excuse to have chili for breakfast!

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Jsmith0730@reddit

Supposedly Mischief Night (October 30th) was exclusively a NJ thing? From my understanding other places might have had local terms for it, but it wasn’t a state-wide phenomenon like Mischief Night was.

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Intelligent-Camera90@reddit

My husband (from NH and born in 77) calls it Cabbage Night. I’m from outside of Boston and it was just like any other night to us.

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HugeTheWall@reddit

We had this in Ontario but called it Devil's Night. I thought this was everywhere that celebrated Halloween so only now I'm discovering that's not the case!

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You left out thumps, bloody knuckles, and slaps.

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Dickrubin14094@reddit

I missed out on hiding an ornamental pickle in the Christmas tree. I never seven heard of this till my late 20s when I started dating my now-wife. Apparently this is a Polish tradition that turned into a general Buffalo, NY tradition due to the extremely high concentration of people with Polish heritage.

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BesusCristo@reddit

Livermush

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unlovelyladybartleby@reddit

When I was young, for your bachelor party, your friends would take an industrial stapler, staple you (by your clothes) to a sheet of plywood, throw you in the back of a pickup truck, take you to the bar, and lean you against the wall (almost always right side up) and people would party wildly around you and bring you drinks and a straw. Sometimes they'd leave one arm free so you could hold your own beer and pee into a bucket.

I never married and I'm pretty sure part of the reason is that I never found a man sturdy enough to survive a hillbilly bachelor party.

In California, we do a "Mission project" in the 4th grade. We each make a model of a Mission and learn about California history. Then we go on a field trip to a Mission for a tour.

Here are examples:

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TryTwiceAsHard@reddit (OP)

Like a religious thing in apublic school? No thank you.

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Individual-Schemes@reddit

Nah. We didn't learn about the religion. The history is all wrapped up in religion and slavery but none of that is brought up.

My progressive elementary school changed this tradition to “adobe house project” where we made adobe bricks using shoe boxes as the forms, and then used the bricks to build a fully unimpressive tiny wall.

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Individual-Schemes@reddit

And what year was this?

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

Buying a giant boutonniere for your date for a school dance. The bigger the better. Like... they might be as big as your date.

I am not sure anyone outside of Texas does this.

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a_solid_6@reddit

That was pretty standard back in the day as far as I know. But the woman's flower was a corsage and the man's a boutonneire. The man/boy typically purchased the matching set after finding out what color dress his date would be wearing.

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fakesaucisse@reddit

Oh no, it is an entirely different thing in Texas. They are HUGE and not at all what you are thinking visually.

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akm1111@reddit

That's a mum, for homecoming. Not for regular dances.

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a_solid_6@reddit

Good grief... okay, yeah... when they said "huge" I thought they meant regular huge lol

gif

Wedding cookie tables are apparently only found within a 100 mile radius of Pittsburgh.

1965, Bainbridge Island, WA. 🤷‍♀️

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TransportationOk657@reddit

I graduated in '97 in MN. I never even heard of pickle ball until a few years ago.

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Here, we call that a Stag and Doe. I think they’re tacky AF, so I usually skip them (pay for your own damn wedding!!), and I sure as hell didn’t have one.

And yes, where I am from, it’s tacky to have a baby shower for more than your first kid (but I get that other places are different).

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catsoncrack420@reddit

Handball. We even had tournaments between schools. Pro vs regular, what we played at the park. So common all over NYC. Came to find out was only big in some bigger cities and out west.

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LimeSalty4092@reddit

And paddleball

Popular in Brooklyn and wherever handball was played

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Suitable-Toe@reddit

I was just talking about this the other day. No one plays handball anymore. We got people hitting tennis balls in the handball court now

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lavasca@reddit

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TryTwiceAsHard@reddit (OP)

Tell me you're from Chicago without telling me you're from Chicago.

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from wisconsin. also call them jojos.

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SorrentoTaft@reddit

My little town in Maine, on a random day in the year we would randomly just call someone a witch, hog tie them, torture them and make up things that would happen only to witches during the torture, then burn them (somewhat alive) at the stake. Once it was done everyone just went back to their normal lives as if nothing happened.

It generally coincided with someone bringing up the fact that we randomly murdered a person for no real reason at some point in the year.

Me when I moved from Oregon to California: "What'd ya mean there's no JoJos, and you don't know what I'm talking about?"

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PopularSet4776@reddit

Euchre

Turns out it is mostly regional to the midwest.

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forever-salty22@reddit

There was a community pool next to my elementary school where our class would go to take swim lessons. I thought everyone got swim lessons in 5th grade.

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Coldnorthcountry@reddit

Shoes are Not Worn In The House. Not at your house, your friends house, no one’s house. Adult dinner party is a pile of shoes just inside the front door.

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poohfan@reddit

Around us, it was clog dancing & bagpipes---not at the same time thankfully!! Clogging was super popular & there were competitions & everything. My mom put me & my sisters in dance classes & one of them was clogging. It was fun, but I wasn't too upset when my mom said they couldn't afford dance anymore. When I was about 14, the band leader finally got approval from the school board, to start the first high school pipe band in the state. Kids everywhere were learning either pipes or drums. My sisters both started, but gave it up pretty quick, much to my parents relief!!

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TrustAffectionate966@reddit

When I lived in South Los Angeles County, we did square dancing for PE. I always thought it was weird. The teacher got sick of it herself and brought some South African Folk Pop music instead ("Pata Pata") and our other teacher brought some Mariachi music as sung by Linda Ronstadt - bar songs!

🧉🦄

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AtlantisInMotion@reddit

I also grew up in central FL and remember the 5th grade square dancing well. Cringe!

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Obi_Wan_Benobi@reddit

BBQ Pork steaks.

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PokerbushPA@reddit

We did the square dancing in 5th grade. Seemed so weird for a bunch of kids in the suburbs of Baltimore to be yukkin' it up like we're on Hee-Haw in Arkansas.

How about the parachute? Did you have a giant parachute in 5th grade PE? I guess it was just some cardio exercise, all we did was lift it up and let it fall down on us. The repeat.

I got one that I am CERTAIN is Baltimore specific. Yelling "OH!" during the national anthem at the final "Oh say can you see" line. It's an baseball thing. I found out the hard way this is Baltimore specific the first time I went to a sports-ball game outside of Bawlmer. I got a LOT of dirty looks for screaming during the anthem while everyone else was silent.

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ragingchump@reddit

We put a bunch of different sized balls on ours and called it popcorn

And put it high up and pulled it down behind us and all sat on the edge and screamed at each other

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Desperate-Chip1819@reddit

I grew up in Louisville. Derby parties were a thing. The Derby is a thing. For two weeks there are events all over the city: steamboat races, hot air balloon races, marathon, gigantic fireworks show. I was told growing up that the Kentucky Derby is a big deal all over the world.

Canning Cars:

You take two cans and tie them together by the tabs with fishing line. Then you shove them in the bushes, then you run the fishing line across the road at bumper height and tie two more cans and put them in the bushes. Then you hide and wait for a car. Mostly harmless stuff

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cattleya17@reddit

Cabbage night.

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Professional-Ad6803@reddit

We did a square dancing unit in gym class and also a pickle ball unit in gym class in high school. This was in the 90's. Pickle ball was a thing back then and most people I've talked to thought it was a new sport. It has gained a lot of popularity the last few years in Michigan and a lot of people had never heard of it before.

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Professional-Ad6803@reddit

Also devil's night (Detroit)

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Cube-in-B@reddit

Square dancing was taught in schools because Henry Ford was afraid of black people.

I’m not wrong. Look into it.

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Peanut083@reddit

The International School Song. My school always made us sing it during school assemblies. It’s in Latin, and there was a line where the Latin sounds an awful lot like “Post ya condoms to ya grandma”. So, of course, that’s what 3/4 of the school body sang it as.

I’ve spoken with many people, both within Australia and elsewhere in the world, and no one I’ve met IRL has heard of it unless they went to the same high school as me. Which was a bog standard public school, not a fancy Catholic or independent private school.

I just went and looked it up, and the song is actually called Gaudeamus Igitur. My school referred to it as the International School Song.

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This kind of sounds like an episode of Reply All. You should pitch it to Alex Goldman on his new podcast Hyperfixed which has similar vibes.

Reply All episode 158: The Case of the Missing Hit is where my mind went. The person could remember the melody and the lyrics but there was no evidence of the song existing. They brought in musicians to help him create a rendition of the song when all their leads went cold. It's one of the best podcast episodes of all time.

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Majestic-Marzipan621@reddit

This just reminded me of the radio show Open House Party. I used to call constantly to make requests but always got a busy signal. The one time I actually got through, I was so shocked to hear John Garabedian answer that I got nervous and hung up lol.

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CharliePinglass@reddit

Girl Talk Danger Mouse

Not the same but kinda

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Lucasa29@reddit

This used to happen in the NYC listening area too!

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nutznshells@reddit

In middle school, we got to take boaters safety and firearm safety. Then we went on a canoe down the river and shot a variety of guns at a shooting range.

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Jr5309@reddit

Going to the bar with your parents. Yes, I am from Wisconsin and yes, we still do this.

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sjp1980@reddit

Ballroom dancing. I think it was pretty common in the 1980s and 1990s in New Zealand schools to have children dancing anyway as we did all sorts of 'folk' dancing. It was a good way to increase heart rate workout making people all hyped up i guess.

Anyway my high school was really into Ballroom dancing. In winter we would yo to the school hall to learn how to waltz, fox trot and whatnot. Turns out it was because they gym wasnt bit enough to accommodate us all for PE in winter. The only reason the principal would let us use the hall was because ballroom dancing was less damaging on the floor than say playing sport in there and leaving marks.

So yeah my school produced hundreds of kids who could dance solely so the school don't have to clean marks off the floor.

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onions-make-me-cry@reddit

Telegraph Avenue. Thrifting.

Street piercing.

Political action and protest.

I grew up in Berkeley.

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NextPrize5863@reddit

I went to a private school and by the time I was in the middle school of the private school we were doing Sweating to the Oldies in PE class.

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Beetso@reddit

I had square dancing in CA. Just a little bit though.

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TransportationOk657@reddit

When we were around 10 or 11, most of the kids were playing "Kiss or Kill." Usually the girls chased the boys around. If the girl caught a boy (typically a boy she liked), he would then have to choose "kiss or kill." If he didn't like the girl, he'd choose kiss which she would give him one kiss. If he liked the girl, then he would choose kill and she would kiss him 10 times. Such a strange game.

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Nisi-Marie@reddit

South San Francisco

Trick or treating was on “Beggars Night”, October 30th, so kids weren’t out on Halloween when people were out causing problems (according to our city council anyway). Also, kids had to either tell a joke or do an actual trick to get their candy at each house. The city in the 50’s or something had decided that just saying “trick or treat” wasn’t polite.

I had no idea that any of this wasn’t normal.

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AlmiranteCrujido@reddit

Big-city stuff, mainly: subway passes.

And a lot of stuff that other people had that we didn't: high on that list was football, rallies, any of that stuff' in general having no culture around sports in high school.

The school I attended, basically, if you weren't directly friends with an athlete, you probably didn't even know there were competitions going on.

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Middle_Earthling9@reddit

I’m on the west coast and we had to square dance in PE as well, but it was in middle school. This cute elderly couple came to teach us.

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Ckn-bns-jns@reddit

I grew up and still live in Orange County CA, we learned square dancing in 6th grade and had a square dance ho down during our week away up in the mountains for outdoor education. I remember one part where us guys would put our fingers up on our heads to make horns and we were dancing buffalos.

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jbt55@reddit

We did square dancing in Vermont PT as well, but we were not required to do the show.

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whyisthissticky@reddit

The last day of school the 8th graders would have a giant shaving cream fight at the park next to the middle school after everyone was let out.

We also did square dancing in elementary school for a PE unit. They only played one song and I forever hate it since then. (Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart)

Also 16 inch softball was pretty popular. You can probably guess what area I grew up in from that. The balls were soft enough that you could play without baseball gloves. There used to be adult leagues, but I don’t hear of those anymore.

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cloudydays2021@reddit

Brooklyn-Queens Day. Us public school kids in Brooklyn and Queens got a day off to celebrate the two boroughs. It fell it the beginning of June and it was like a bonus day off right toward the end of the school year when everyone is sorta checked out anyway. By high school, I was in Manhattan and I was like “oh shit, I guess we don’t get that day off here” haha

A few years after I graduated high school, the city granted kids in all the boroughs the day off. Yeah, even Staten Island 🙄🤣

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BravaCentauriGFL@reddit

So mine is Central Florida based too. We always went outside and watched the Space Shuttle launches from the yard - and listened for the sonic booms upon their return.

This is just a dumb kid thing, but it didn’t occur to me (at the time) that this wasn’t a normal part of everyone’s life. We relocated in middle school and nothing else has really compared. I did manage to catch a couple of shuttle launches as an adult and I missed the Falcon Heavy launch by a day. I dream of moving back to our country’s spaceport.

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Impossible_Habit_248@reddit

Devil's Night

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More-Soil7455@reddit

I grew up north of Orlando and we had square dancing in 6th grade. It was fun.

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dragon_morgan@reddit

In 6th grade around 1997 for whatever reason old reruns of the Gong show from the 70s enjoyed a surge of popularity and whenever anyone made a joke that was too corny or fell flat everyone would shout "GONG" at them. As far as I know this was never a thing anywhere else except my school.

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CharliePinglass@reddit

To my surprise my fourth grader has to square dance later this year! All other schools around here eliminated it but not theirs.

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mjh8212@reddit

Finding the pickle in the Christmas tree and getting a prize. It’s usually a pickle ornament and I heard it’s a German tradition and our family has German roots. I people about it and they never heard of it. Also I’m from the Midwest we square danced in gym.