Do You Scoop or Shovel?

You may be thinking, what are you talkin’ about woman? Let me explain. I don’t claim to be well traveled, or worldly (gasp!) but I have now lived in two places in the mid-west and let me tell you, semantics and location do make a difference. We are about to discuss some linguistic observations that I have made. Maybe I should have been a sociologist (I love to people watch and then rehash my observations) or maybe I’m just a bit odd (I know I am and I am good with it) but some of the phrases that are used in South Dakota are just too funny not to share.

***disclaimer: in my family if we don’t tease you, that means we don’t like you – therefore this really just shows my true affection for all things SD so don’t get all bent out of shape

Let’s start by discussing the first time I was invited to a potluck in SD. I was excited to be extended a truly mid-western invitation to share one of my best dishes with others, I felt I was really being “accepted” into this little small town I have come to love. “What can I bring?”, I asked with utmost enthusiasm. “A salad would be great!”, is the reply. I hang up the phone and start to make my grocery list for this amazing spinach, strawberry and walnut salad with raspberry vinaigrette that everyone back in Illinois raved about. Potluck day comes and I proudly set my salad down on the sprawling buffet and everyone looks at me as though I have clearly missed the mark. You see, salad in SD has nothing to do with greens, lettuce, vinegar or oil and has EVERYTHING to do with mayo or cool whip. Salad here is: jello salad, macaroni salad, pasta salad, potato salad, egg salad, ham salad, and the list goes on. Clearly salad isn’t as straight forward as I thought (LOL).

Truck vs. Pickup- in a city anything that is bigger than a 4 door sedan and possibly could fall in the SUV category is called a truck. A semi truck and trailer is called a semi. Not the case here in SD. A truck is a semi, a pickup has a bed, and every other vehicle is called by its model and or make. I drive a suburban, there are a lot of Buicks in town, most farmers drive pickups and if you mix these words up everyone is very confused.

Speaking of trucks…. maybe it is the teacher in me or that my Grandpa Gene was a linguist, but the fact that people just willy nilly leave out articles in a sentence drives me mildly insane. For example, I could ask, “What do you do for a living?” ” I drive truck”, a lovely man replies. I tilt my head to one side and think to myself. You drive THE truck? You drive A truck? What does it mean to just “Drive truck”?

Why we are talking grammar I would like to discuss the conjugation of the verb GO.

I go to the store today.

I went to the store yesterday.

I have gone to the store before.

I will go tomorrow.

Okay, grammatical rant over.

Now back to the food. One time some friends said we were having BBQ for supper. Great, I love me some pulled pork or other BBQ items. I was very excited. I belly up to serve myself to find ground beef in a tomato based sauce. This, my friends, is not BBQ, this is a Sloppy Joe. As I announced this, very loudly, people met my Sloppy Joe talk with guffaws. The same goes for hot dish and casserole. Where I grew up it is a casserole here it is hot dish (notice not A hot dish or THE hot dish, just hot dish).

I was asked to go to a baseball game one of my first summers here. I said yes with great anticipation of eating a delicious pork chop sandwich at the game. I get to the game and go immediatey to the concession stand and read the menu, no pork chop sandwiches to be found only Sloppy Joes that are for some reason listed as BBQ on the menu. I ask my mother-in-law if they serve pork chop sandwiches and she said she had never heard of such a thing. I google the origin of the pork chop sandwich and find it to be Chicago. Every time I am back in Illinois I seek out some pork. For those wondering it is a butterfly pork chop on a bun seasoned with season salt and topped with onions and pickles after being grilled to perfection. My mouth is watering even as I type and most often at any sporting event this is on the menu

Finally, one winter I was on the phone with my mom and I told her “I have to go scoop the snow.”

“You have to do what?!?” she asks appalled

“I have to go scoop the snow mom.”

“No, Kelly, you shovel snow and you scoop poop”

No mom here in SD you shovel grain out of a grain bin and you scoop snow. How about you? Do you scoop or shovel?

I hope this made you giggle like it does me and if you have any other sayings I missed please share them in the comments.