What's The First Thing People Say When They Hear You're From PA?

PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania residents encounter a wide variety of stereotypes — some largely true, some fueled by geographical jealousy, some just sheerly bizarre — when they tell someone where they're from.

That's according to a recent survey of readers across Patch sites who offered insight on the basic question: when you tell people you live in Pennsylvania, what's the first thing they say?

"Say water," was possibly the most common response. "Wooder." "It's spelled warter." "I thought so, you have an accent." And, related for its controversial depiction of the Philadelphia area dialect: "No, I don't know the Mare of Easttown."

Many also encountered some version of the trite and trivial: "Are you from Philly? No? Are you from Pittsburgh?" There are other parts of the state that exist, frustrated Poconos and State College residents chimed in.

Questions about pretzels, and yes, cheesesteaks, were also common. "How are the cheesesteaks?" was a frequent response. "What's the best cheesesteak?" "Pat's or Geno's?" Also, more curiously: "what's a cheesesteak?"

Others made things political.

"I feel sorry for you!" one reader wrote. "Your state is a mess, from governor to drugs and pot holes!" "Too bad, Dems killing the state," another said they'd be told. "What about those corrupt politicians?"

For another, the first thing that someone says to them when they find out they're from Pennsylvania is "Second largest snake pit for supremacist hate groups outside of Alabama according to Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks these groups."

Finally, no survey of outsider opinion of Pennsylvania life and culture would be complete without a torching of Philadelphia sportsdom.

"Some kind of comment about Eagles fans."

And the eternal, the inescapable:

"You threw snowballs at Santa."