An Explanation of Extra Words

No idea what possessed me to think I didn't need to explain all those words, but duh, if you're not from there, you just might not have a clue what some of the terms mean.  So, here's an explanation, followed by some more terms I thought of.  And since I'm giving specifics that gives away where I'm from, I'll stray from my cryptic writing today and let you know that I grew up in NOLA, although I'm sure many of you figured that out from my anniversary post.

K&B Purple--K&B (Katz and Beshtoff) was a local drug store. Their sign was purple, and that particular shade of purple became known as K&B purple around the city. I'm feeling a little silly now because I was going to mention their ice cream, but it seems as though who ever wrote for wikipedia managed to cover that too.  K&B NEVER should have sold to Rite Aid.  K&B was SOOOO much better!  Rite Aid made a near fatal mistake in their purchase too--they had a contract to only sell Pepsi products, so Coke products could not be carried in the store for a period of time (one year?) after the purchase.  BIG mistake in the south, especially among the large group of people who did not want K&B to close.

Grocery--kind of self explanatory.  It's a grocery store, but I just said grocery (left off the store part) growing up.  Apparently people around here find that weird.

Snowballs--are just like sno-cones, but they are made with the most amazing shaved ice as opposed to crushed ice.  Every bite is like letting flavored snowflakes dance on your tongue. Delicious!  Hansen's, I believe, began the whole shaved ice idea.  They are very well known in NOLA.  When I was little, my parents and their friends would get a HUGE snowball from there for the adults (and perhaps add an adult ingredient) and another one for the children (we're talking small garbage can size) and go to the park.  My parents actually still have one of them that they use as a fun garbage can.  Pontchartrain Pete graciously allowed me to link his visit, and let's face it, if you can't go yourself, the next best thing is tagging along for the ride. 

Bobo--a booboo, but there we said bobo.  My skin crawls when Linus says booboo.  I'm just a bobo person.

Gimme some sugar--give me a kiss.  It's just part of a greeting there. 

Alligator pear--an avocado.  Think about it...the skin of an avocado looks like and is rough like an alligator and it's shaped like a pear.

Neutral ground--a median.  The neutral ground was literally neutral ground years ago between the French and the Spanish.  At least I think that's the case.

Poboys are sandwiches made on long pieces of French bread.  They're called subs, hoagies, heroes, etc elsewhere, but trust me, they aren't on real French bread!

A muffaletta is a sandwich made with ham, salami, provolone cheese, and olive salad served on a large (Italian?) round loaf.  It's yummy, but it will make your breath stink!

Dressed--lettuce, tomato, pickles...you get the picture

Grillades--meat (veal?) served with gravy, often with grits for breakfast.

Gumbo, at least within my family never mixed seafood with meat. Never.  We always had seafood gumbo. Here they make seafood, chicken, and pork gumbo all mixed together.  

Shotgun house--small, narrow house with doors connecting room after room. Supposedly you can shoot a shotgun from the front door, and the pellets will go through the back door.  The houses we were looking at were much wider than traditional shotguns, but they still have the room after room theme.

Camelback--a shotgun type house that has a second floor added to the back, thus looking like a camel's back.

Break tag--an inspection sticker.  

A go cup is literally a to go cup for outside.  When I lived there, they were plastic rather than styrofoam, but that may have changed. Usually they contain a drink with alcohol. **I need an itsy bitsy bit of clarification here.  Go cups can (or could, I haven't done it lately) contain alcohol in them on the streets, and you didn't get in trouble. I think that's actually why they were used.  While talking with a friend (at the park of all places, I'm going to hell!), she told me that you can't have alcohol in any open container outside.  Is this true? I though open container was an open beer can/bottle, NOT a cup!  Yikes! 

And now for some I forgot:

Hello????  How could I forget Lagniappe?????  It's definitely not used everywhere!

Y'all, if you're in NOLA, it's a streetcar, never ever a trolly.  It cracks me up when tourists try to fit in, yet they'll make mortal errors like trolly.  

Directions are explained according to the river.  I was dumbfounded (which likely has a lot more to do with my utter lack of geographic knowledge outside NOLA) the first time I was given these directions, "At the intersection, go west for 1.5 miles."  Huh?  Army can find his way out of a maze blindfolded, but I can't get to my destination even with a gps.  I need directions like 'go towards the river!'  That I can do.

And for fun, I'll do a pronunciation guide soon. Look for the CORRECT way to say New Orleans, praline, cement (haha, I know it's not just a local word, but I found out recently that people from New Orleans are the only ones that say it the way I do), etc. :)

So, do you use any of these words? Do you have any word that you want a pronunciation for? ;)