The lighter side of Long Island life...

You Know You're from Long Island...

If you can identify with this list of Long Island truisms.

An email that has been circulating for some time now illustrates life here beautifully by crystallizing the Long Island experience into humorous, bite size pieces.

Most of us will find these funny if not just plain true.

Non-Long Islanders may see hints of their own locales but, unless they've spent some time here they won't understand most of this.

Have a nugget you think belongs here? Please share it with us using the comments box at the bottom of this page.

You know you're a Long Islander if...

When you're away from home you're puzzled that you can't find a gas station that sells beer at 2AM Good Friday.
You remember when all this was trees and "that development used to be a farm."
You know what Save the Oak Beach Inn bumper stickers are all about.
You understand the phrase going up-island.
You go to the beach right after school -- even in the dead of winter.
You live in the shadow of the greatest city in the world, but you almost never go there.
When you're away from Long Island, you love it and when you're home, you don't.
You think if you're not from Long Island or NYC, you're not really from New York.
You know the exact point at which Queens turns into Nassau simply on intuition.
You don't go to Manhattan, you go to "The City."
You never realize you have an accent till you leave.
Everything north of the Bronx is "upstate."
At some point in your life you've gone clamming.
Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.
You'd pay $11.50 for a movie.
You don't live in Long Island. You live ON Long Island.
You know where the Commack Motor Inn is (and what it's for) and the White Castle next door.
Your distant future might involve the state of Florida.
You can correctly pronounce places like Ronkonkoma, Hauppauge, Wantagh, Mineola, Islandia, Massapequa, Patchogue, Copiague.
You know the location of 6 malls and a dozen McDonald's and 36 7-11's.
You never, ever want to "change at Jamaica."
You've tried to find the Amityville Horror house.
No, you don't want mustard on that burger!!
You can't understand why a diner would ever close.
You've had a seagull poop on your car.
You have or someone you know has fallen asleep on the LIRR and ended up in one of these three places; Babylon, Port Washington or Hicksville. Or worse yet, Speonk. Can you pronounce that?
You went to an elementary school that promoted dodge ball as the number 1 game among children 7-13.
You or someone you know has owned an animal that came from North Shore Animal League.
You've never taken an MTA bus.
The LIE isn't really as bad as everybody thinks.
You don't associate Fire Island with gay men.
You know which parts of the Godfather were filmed here.
You've paid a $10 cover charge to get into a bar, but got nothing for it.
You miss whiffle ball and running through sprinklers.
Billy Joel said it best, "either you date a rich girl from the North Shore, or a cool girl from the South Shore."
You don't really see the big deal about the Hamptons, unless you got smashed at the Boardy Barn.
When people ask "where are you from?" you answer LawnGUYland and automatically assume everyone in the world knows that answer means New Yawk.
You've been stuck in a traffic jam for more than 2 hours (without moving).
Your parents took you to All American, Nathans or Carvel (on the way home from the beach).
You don't have to go far to see your family.
You remember Grumman.
You know the color of the water at Jones Beach is not BLUE and nothing beats a Jones Beach hot dog!
You were upset when all the Roy Rogers turned into Wendy's and Arby's closed for good.
You can spout off all the LIRR stops between Penn Station and Ronkonkoma.
You went sledding in the sumps.
You knew of Massapequa before the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco nightmare.
You think going to Queens is a hike.
The first time you heard the term "Long Island Ice Tea" you were somewhere else and you laughed.
When you live somewhere else and are astounded to see that people actually stop at yellow lights.
When you just sort of presume that wherever you live, you'll be able to find good delis, good pizza, and good bagels.
You can name at least three bands that came from Long Island.
No word ends in an ER, just an AH.
You remember when the Islanders won the cup (1980-1983) and you remember the parade down Hempstead Turnpike.
You tried at least one time to find Mt. Misery and had a blast looking for it.
You move away from Long Island because you thought that there was a better place to live, and now you can't wait to get back home.
You remember Lollipop farm, Jolly Rogers and Adventureland
A true Long Islander has ocean water in his blood & can still hear the surf no matter how far from the beach he is.
You know what a knish is, and that you put mustard on it.
You're shocked to find out that the American population is NOT roughly two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Jewish - most Americans are actually Protestants!
You're off Long Island and mention Hicksville or Yonkers and people start laughing.
You know what a crumb bun is and have come to accept the fact that the closest you'll ever get to tasting one again is Entenmann's crumb cake.
When you drive from Queens you know the instant you cross the line into Nassau county because there are no more pot holes in the road.
You're talking to someone from another part of the country and neither one can understand each other. "What? You want some kawfee?" "No! I want Coffee..." "Kawfee?" "NO!"
You automatically know that "the holidays" includes Hannukah.
You watch a game show and see people win a trip to New York and think "why are they so excited?"
You rode your bike behind the big cloud of the Town of Babylon bug sprayer trucks and didn't think anything of it that you were inhaling some really toxic stuff.

You Know You're from Long Island...

You know you're a Long Islander if...

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