A Transplant’s Eye View: 6 Fun Things to Know About Rhode Islanders

Rhode Islanders don’t leave. It’s the smallest state in the union, and I’m not sure where we’re putting them all, because Rhode Islanders don’t move out of Rhode Island. (And if they do, they generally come back.)

That’s why I’m here. Thirteen years ago this November, I made one of my life’s supreme good decisions and married my best friend. He’s a Rhode Islander, so it was never even discussed that we would live anywhere but Rhode Island (due to the aforementioned phenomenon: Rhode Islanders don’t leave.) At this point in my life I had been born in southern CT, spent childhood summers in Vermont, attended college in another part of CT, and lived in the Boston, MA area. It’s all New England, right? How different could RI be?

Well, let me tell you…as a transplant to RI, I had no idea how different life could be in this little corner of the East Coast. Now that I’ve lived here, run a business here, and had kids here, I know that this little state is quite different from its surrounding neighbors....and noticeably different from anywhere else in the world. So with my transplant’s eye view, I’m going to let you in on a few quirks about RI:

1) Rhode Islanders do not drive distances. There is a running joke that Rhode Islanders need to pack a lunch to drive a half hour in state. I don’t know about that, but I have heard tales of people who have their regular home and their vacation home in the same city. And it’s not hard to tell why, because most Rhode Islanders give directions based on landmarks. Outdated landmarks. I knew I had become a true Rhode Islander when I told someone to take a right by Garden City, on the side where the Borders used to be…no, not where the old Borders was in Garden City, by the new Borders that just closed down. (Still mourning that, by the way.)

2) The Rhode Island accent is, to my ear, an interesting cross between Boston and New York. Here is a quick primer:

WAW-wick=Warwick

Craaaaaaaaaaanstin=Cranston

Shaw’s=Shaw’s, but Shaw’s also =Shore’s. These are two grocery stores in RI. There is a Shaw’s and a Shore’s in my town, and asking for directions to one of them is like an Abbot and Costello routine.

3) Rhode Islanders are wonderfully friendly but they do not make the first move. It’s not meanness, and it sure as heck isn’t shyness. But they do not, in general, approach people they don’t know. My theory is that the state is so small that pretty much everyone knows everyone already, so if your face is unfamiliar, you are immediately marked out as suspect. I tend to make friends wherever I go (I know, I know, you can tell this already from my wit and sparkling personality.) It is actually because I talk to everyone, everywhere. I’ve made that first move with many a Rhode Islander and ended up with some amazing, fabulous friends. But if someone starts a conversation with me in the grocery store, I usually find out they’re a transplant, too.

4) Rhode Islanders do not know where Rhode Island is. Look on a map and see where RI is. Then talk to a Rhode Islander about traveling somewhere. Here’s an example:

Conversation with my father-in-law, lifelong Rhode Islander:

FIL: “Hey, what are you guys doing for Christmas? Going up to Connecticut to visit your family?”

Me: “Uh, yes...I mean, no. We’re going down to Connecticut.”

FIL: “Yes, that’s what I said, up to Connecticut.”

Me: “No, I mean, yes, we are going to Connecticut…but my hometown in Connecticut is south of here. We’re going to take I-95 South to get there, so we’re going down to Connecticut.” (Note: CT shares RI’s entire western border, so for some areas, perhaps I should be saying “over to CT?”)

FIL: “Sounds good. You always have fun up in Connecticut. What about next weekend? We were thinking of going down to Boston, do you think the kids would like to come with us?”

And so on.

5) Gravy in Rhode Island is not gravy, like the thick brown liquid you put on your Thanksgiving turkey. Gravy is red. What I grew up calling “tomato sauce” is referred to as “gravy” by everyone in RI from your next-door neighbor to former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci (who has his own brand of the wonderful stuff, by the way.)

6) The chowder here is clear unless you specify otherwise. Rhode Island chowder, which, as far as I can tell, only exists in Rhode Island, is clear broth. And don’t even ask for Manhattan clam chowder—preferring “the red kind” of chowder is a huge offense. Almost like being a Yankee fan (which I am, by the way, but we’ll get to that later.) However, you can get some of the most delicious New England (the white kind) clam chowder EVER in Rhode Island, and that, in itself, is worth moving here for.

Hmmmm….maybe my next blog will feature a Rhode Island tasting tour of New England clam chowder. I’ll have to pack a lunch, though, so I can drive over the new Jamestown bridge that replaced the old one that was falling into the ocean. We can head there after we’ve gone up to CT.