Some differences:
- The pronunciation of the word “finance”.
In the West, it’s ‘fi-nance’. Out East, you get a cross between the West and the British pronunciation ‘fin-ons’(I’m not great at spelling phonetically. Bear with me). They say it ‘fin-nance’. I thought that was the stupidest sounding pronunciation of a word possible, and at my old job, that word got said like that a lot.
- The use of formal identifiers like ‘Mr.’ and ‘sir’.
At least in my (admittedly unrepresentative) part of California, you greet someone by their first name. None of this ‘mr.’ nonsense. I once greeted Barbara Boxer as ‘Barb’. Never mind that she was a Senator in the US Congress.
Out East, I doubt you can get away with that.
- BBQ.
California’s main addition to BBQ is tri-tip, Santa Maria style. Out in the Carolinas, it’s all about pulled pork. I miss the pork I had at the Skyline Inn in Carolina.
- Drug use.
Marijuana is much more acceptable here than out East. Cocaine is less of a big deal there.