Do you ever get "where's that?" when you tell someone where you're from?

[bcla]

I live in the suburbs in a place few people would have heard of. Maybe I'll say the name but add that it's "near San Francisco".

I'm thinking of it because I just saw the movie "Lady Bird" on Amazon Prime. It took place mostly in Sacramento, but the titular character ends up on the East Coast and there's this discussion:

Okay. Where are you from?
Sacramento.
Sorry, where?
San Francisco.
Oh cool! Yeah, San Francisco is a great city.​

 

[dish rag]

Orlando, no. Waterloo Ontario, sometimes.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Always - I live outside a “town” of less than 500 people.

 

[LSUmiss]

Never. I live in New Orleans.

 

[BadPinkTink]

nope I have the opposite problem. Im from a suburb with a very bad rep, high crime, low education, single mothers, low income etc etc you get the picture. I say the city, not the suburb as people have a very negative stereotypical image of those from my suburb. Also people from my suburb have a very distinctive accent / way of speaking. I never acquired this accent, so when I speak and then tell people where Im from, they do a double take, as I dont sound like I am from this suburb.

 

[Malyficent]

I'm from Delaware - some people don't even know it's a state. We say we live "near Philadelphia". My husband is from NYC and we lived there until 2008 - at Disney last week he just told anyone who asked that we're from New York.

 

[amcnj]

If someone is not local, I usually say the town name and with it list a couple towns not too far away that they might be more likely to know. But sometimes they don’t even know them, so you have to go the “x miles from” a major city route instead.

One town has a three part name, two of them being a local body of water. Two other towns, one within ten miles and the other twenty miles, have those same two water body names in their three part name. So even when others thought they knew what town you were talking about, were really thinking about one of the other two.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I live in a small town just outside of Philly that very few people outside of the area have heard from, so yes. Philadelphia where I was born and raised, no. In fact, I've had a couple of people ask me if I'm from Philadelphia based on my accent.

 

[bcla]

At least with "Lady Bird" I'm not sure if the joke in the movie is really all that accurate. It's our state capital, and even has an NBA team. Maybe the joke was more about the time when the movie takes places which is around 2002. Once Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California, there was a lot more attention paid to Sacramento simply based on his presence.

 

[tileman]

Yep live out in the country small little town maybe 400-500 people

 

[bigbabyblues]

Yep, all the time. Our "city" is now a village. We are an hour from any place anyone not from here has heard of.

 

[bcla]

I guess part of it for me would be that I live in an area where most people actually live outside of the major cities. I think San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose have a combined population of less than 2.5 million, when the total Bay Area population is around 8 million.

I would contrast this with people I know who grew up in China. They basically call an entire region a "city", where even the suburbs were absorbed into the "city" proper. The city of Beijing is about the same area as the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

[mnrose]

No, because I say "suburban Minneapolis" and that's close enough. If I say the actual town name, people FROM Minnesota still don't know. LOL.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I guess part of it for me would be that I live in an area where most people actually live outside of the major cities. I think San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose have a combined population of less than 2.5 million, when the total Bay Area population is around 8 million.

I would contrast this with people I know who grew up in China. They basically call an entire region a "city", where even the suburbs were absorbed into the "city" proper. The city of Beijing is about the same area as the San Francisco Bay Area.

and my entire country is the size of the state of Indiana and the approx population of the country is approx 6 million. with the most populated area being the capital city Dublin with approx 1.8 million people

 

[tvguy]

I live in the suburbs in a place few people would have heard of. Maybe I'll say the name but add that it's "near San Francisco".

I'm thinking of it because I just saw the movie "Lady Bird" on Amazon Prime. It took place mostly in Sacramento, but the titular character ends up on the East Coast and there's this discussion:

Okay. Where are you from?
Sacramento.
Sorry, where?
San Francisco.
Oh cool! Yeah, San Francisco is a great city.​

Sacramento native here. 61 years. I have more than one East Coaster think it's a 30 minute drive to Disneyland from here.
Where I get funny looks is when I tell folks where my parents were born
My dad was born in Shanghai, China, a German citizen.
My mom was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, Canada. Her birth certificate says she was born "On SW1/4 Sec.24. Tp33, Rge 20 W3". The closest town was Druid, which really isn't a town many folks have heard of. And at the time my mom was born it was a "Village". In 1953 it incorporated as a "Hamlet". Population 324 today.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I just add in the home of espn

And no, there are no tours, no stores but you can see the huge iron fence around the campus

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

No because I usually follow it with what its near.
I say Lockport NY. Its about a half hour from Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
If I ever just say I'm from WNY (Western New York) everyone assumes NYC for some reason as though NYC IS New York State.

 

[Sweetpancake]

I'm from Delaware - some people don't even know it's a state. We say we live "near Philadelphia". My husband is from NYC and we lived there until 2008 - at Disney last week he just told anyone who asked that we're from New York.

I’m Canadian and even I know that Delaware is a state.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

DH and I used to get it when we lived in Agawam, MA. When the questioner gave us a blank look, we'd then say Springfield, MA. Still got a blank look, and then usually, "Is that anywhere near Boston?" (or the Cape). No. It's really nowhere near Boston.

Of course, I once heard a news meteorologist say that Boston was "the southern coast of New England," so...

 

[Malyficent]

I’m Canadian and even I know that Delaware is a state.

It's always my fellow Americans who are clueless. I've traveled the world and found people who asked me about specific towns in Delaware - or bars.