You're truly from Long Island if you can relate to the following:

You're truly from Levittown if you can relate to most of the following:

• You've always liked Billy Joel and you own several of his "records".
• You know someone who went to Chaminade.
• Seeing a concert at Jones Beach Theater - the best place in the world to see a show.
• Is it just me, or is every girl from Rockville Centre a b...?
• Billy Joel said it best, "either you date a rich girl from the North Shore, or a cool girl from the South Shore.
• What's the big deal about the Hamptons?
• If you're not from Long Island or NYC, you're not really from New Yawk.
• You don't go to Manhattan, you go to "the City".
• The Belt Parkway...
• You know what it means to "change at Jamaica" ... or Babylon or Ronkonkoma.
• You never realize you have an accent until you leave.
• Your parents took you to Nathans or Carvel (on the way home from the beach).
• You've wondered why there was never a trademark lawsuit against Marvel in Long Beach.
• Block parties...
• The name "Donna Donna" means something to you.
• News 12...
• You are friends with at least one black person, an Italian, someone Hispanic, a Jew, and someone Irish.
• You hate the radio commercials for the Dublin Pub.
• Somehow, you know the OBI was cool, but you've never actually been there.
• At some point in your life, you've either gone clamming, or caught a bluefish.
• You know where at least one strip club is.
• Regular gas - $1.30
• You remember concerts at Malibu.
• You curse. A lot.
• You can name at least three players on the Islanders Stanley Cup teams.
• You have come to terms with the fact that the Islanders have completely sucked since La Fontaine left.
• You've purchased a 40, underage, at the bodega.
• You remember the exact day you stopped going to Jones Beach and started going to Robert Moses.
• Public beach? What's that?
• Is Huntington really that cool?
• You've been to Utopia at least once.
• You've been to McHebe's Depot (Did an Irish guy and a Jewish guy really open that place up together?)
• Pizza Supreme (The pizza place that used to be in Roosevelt Field years ago)
• The Marathon
• Does anyone know why the HOV lane on the LIE stops in Hicksville instead of the Northern State?
• "I'm going to the park."
• You've had a seagull crap on your car.
• Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.
• You had a bicycle with a banana seat.
• You or someone you know has owned an animal that came from North Shore Animal League. or the Bide-a-Wee Home.
• Even the concept of the Islanders EVER leaving is unrealistic.
• Al Arbour
• The guy who thought up the "new" Islanders logo -- no way he's from Long Island.
• You've cruised on the "turnpike".
• You know someone with a cabana.
• You've played golf at Eisenhower Park (a.k.a. Salisbury Park)... legally or otherwise.
• The feast (?)
• If you're from Nassau County, you've been to Safety Town.
• Quick! Who's the Suffolk County Executive? Don't know do you?!
• You hate paying tolls.
• You don't have to go far to see your family.
• Grumman
• You know the exact streets that divided your school district, but you have no idea which election districts you were in.
• The Parkways, the LIE, the Causeway, Robert Moses Bridge
• You've been to or seen a Pergament, Modell's, Genovese Drug, King Kullen (or know one of the family members).
• You bought a bike at Mineola Bicycle or Brands Cyclery. (or Danny's Ride Away. or Willie-Mae.)
• Remember Bill Baird?
• You live in a town called Hicksville, and it doesn't bother you.
• You'e gotten drunk at "The Green" - or on or under the bleachers of some high school (and the cops will verify this)
• You know the difference between WLIR and WDRE, even though they played the same music
• You were an Islander/Met/Jet fan or a Ranger/Yankee/Giant fan: there was no crossover.
• You can correctly pronouce places like Hauppauge, Copiague, Islip, Islandia, Massapequa and Ronkonkoma
• You know the location of 6 malls, 12 McDonalds and 36 7-11's -- and can direct the designated driver to any one of them although you can't remember how to get to your own house!
• The Loop is more than something on your shoelaces
• You remember who you were dating during Hurricane Gloria
• You know what pool-hopping is
• You rode all around town holding your boom box in one hand while controlling your 10-speed with the other hand
• You know what and where Gertz was
• You remember Zip's and had your birthday party there
• Mid Island Plaza
• You think the people from Brooklyn are "da wunz dat tawk wit a accent"
• Sledding in the sumps
• Adventureland was our Coney Island
• AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long" brings up specific memories for you
• You knew of Massapequa before the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco nightmare
• Levittown Roller Rink -vs- Laces
• You thought going to Queens was a hike
• You had "big hair" before those guys in Bon Jovi
• At some point you went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show -- and liked it!
• You remember being allowed to crush the peanut shells on the floor of The Ground Round
• Turnpike Tech
• Trying to find the Amityville Horror house
• Hot Rod BK
• Movie-hopping at Nassau Mall
• You pronounce it LonGisland, or LoNGisland, just as one word. (Or get accused of doing so.) I've been taking grief for over 25 years from non-Long Islanders.
• The first time you heard the term "Long Island Iced Tea" you were somewhere else and you laughed, because you always knew it as just "Iced Tea" (with a wink-wink, poke poke, know what I mean, know what I mean.)
• You remember the weekly square dances held during the summer, behind Mays Department Store
• You remember waiting to get into one of the Levittown pools on a hot summer day. Do you remember the lifeguard named Walter?
• You recall watching the Long Island Expressway being built and remember the first time you ever went over the Throggs Neck Bridge and the Verrazano Bridge.
• You always call them sprinkles, not jimmies.
• You remember the guy who used to bring that pathetic, tired looking pony in front of the West Green for kids to take rides on.
• You don't go to the "shore". You go to the beach, of course.
• You went to one of the doctors on Bluegrass Lane.
• You remember when it was called Hofstra College.
• When you live somewhere else and are astounded to see that people actually stop at yellow lights.
• When you call it rubbernecking, not a gaper delay.
• When you just sort of presume that wherever you live, you'll be able to find good delis, good pizza, and good bagels.
• When you know exactly where All American is and have waited on line there for the best burgers and fries on Long Island.
• What do you mean "Is that for here or to go?"? Does that mean "To stay or to go?"?
• You're not from the Island unless you know it's a Chocolate "A" Cream (not an "EGG" Cream) and you know how to make it. -- (1961 grad)
• Driving down Mount Misery road with your lights off.
• "Darkness at the Edge of Town" didn't mean anything to you until you got off Long Island (or way "out east" on Long Island).
• You were never lost if you had your Hagstrom's Atlas. (or Geographia.)

(additions welcome.)

last edited 2005.04.15

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