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SufficientZucchini21 t1_j9yasje wrote

Reply to comment by maybebullshitmaybe in Just no respect from the northwest by dexbasedpaladin

Where in the US have you gone that they’ve been unfamiliar with RI? I’ve run into it with non-native English speakers and in foreign countries but no one I’ve met in the US has admitted they didn’t know about us. Lol

When I’m abroad I just say “Boston.”

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maybebullshitmaybe t1_j9ygglv wrote

As with the other commenter...Florida, and also Utah.

Florida is the home of "Florida Man" so I mean 🤷‍♀️... and Utah is loaded with homeschooled Mormons.

It's shocking tho isn't it? Or I've gotten "Where are you from?" Rhode Island "Oh long Island, NY?" No RHODE Island (blank stares).

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breakinghbts t1_j9ywozz wrote

Just to throw a funny story out there. A few years ago I went to Europe with my dad. A man who never travels outside the state, except Seekonk and Attleboro. I warned him that nobody would know of RI, so just say we are from outside of Boston. He did not like the idea of saying he was from Boston.

A few days into the trip, we ran across a family from California. My dad jumps on the chance to say we are from RI. Me and my sister look at each other, knowing where this is going to go. The parents seems confused, but act like they know. The teenage girl with them, said something along the lines of "oh I love the hamptons". I corrected her, saying no not Long Island, Rhode Island. She responded that she "knew". But clearly she didn't.

A side not, I graduated H.S. out in Phoenix. Nobody there knew what RI was. They all just assumed it was a synonym for Long Island. However, on a trip to HI, a waiter knew of RI and referred to it as "one of the colonies". Something I had never heard before.

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SirIsaacGnuton t1_j9yjlzm wrote

Depends on what you mean by familiar. A lot of people place it in New England but don't know where New England begins. Does it include Connecticut? Long Island? You have to remember that some people are map illiterate.

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SufficientZucchini21 t1_j9yk0v5 wrote

The post I replied to was that they didn’t know RI existed. I don’t expect people to know where everything is but to not know RI is a state is crazy to me.

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SirIsaacGnuton t1_j9ylbbs wrote

Think of the people you went to high school with. How many of them paid attention in geography? How many were there only because they had to be? How many spouted the "I'll never use this info after I graduate" line? And Rhode Island isn't exactly a headline grabbing place either so it's below the radar for lots of folks. It's not a freak show like Florida or a shootout a month like Texas.

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