Seventeen years ago, new to Boston, my then-fiance had approximately the following conversation at the counter of a local pizza place:
Her: Can I get a chocolate milkshake.
Counter Guy: {Skeptical look} Sure. {Picks up a carton of chocolate milk, shakes it, hands it over} Not sure what you want that for.
Her: Uh, the kind with ice cream!?
Counter Guy: Well, if you wanted a frappe*, why didn’t you say so?
*(always pronounced frap, never frappé)
OMG, I can’t believe I forgot to include frappes! They have those at Friendly’s, where you can also get jimmies on your ice cream.
I’m from semi-rural Pennsylvania originally, and I heard the term jimmies at a local restaurant as a kid, so I assumed it was a pretty common term.
I had to learn the frappe thing when I moved here, too, and I still mess up and call them shakes all the time.
It took me a year or so to stop saying “pop” when I wanted soda, as well. I had a few skeptical counter guys ask why I want their dad when I asked for pop.
My mom lived in Michigan for quite awhile as a kid. Funnily enough she didn’t use the word much as we were growing up, but every time we went to visit our grandmother there we had to ask for “pop” if we wanted soda.
I don’t know how strictly regional it is. “Jimmies” I’ve only heard out of Boston. Not even the rest of Mass. But “Jimmy Hat” I’ve heard from the Carolinas to Eastern Canada (Anglophone Quebecers specifically).
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