Redwolf wrote:
I don't know if this is the case in other states, but in Washington it was typical to refer to the practice of not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign as a "California stop." Here in California, where they're actually much less common than they were when I was growing up in Washington, they're called "roll-through" or "rolling" stops.
Spokane also has the Midwestern habit of referring to fizzy soft drinks as "pop." Here in California, the word is "soda." Poor Johanna used to get so confused when we'd visit my folks and my mom would ask her if she wanted a "pop," as that's the word we used for a light, admonishing slap on the rear-end!
Redwolf
I disagree with a few and I'm from here, fwiw. We have always called rolling stops, "Hollywood stops." Where I grew up, (Martinez), everything was a "Coke" or the actual brand name of the soda. Tom Hanks, who grew up in Oakland made a whole routine about calling everything a Coke. He is my age, almost exactly, I think...
I never heard anybody say "pop" though. Or soda. When I was little, I thought "soda fountain" sounded mysterious.
I can't think of any other unique terms off hand, except that anyone from Bakersfield north, calls San Francisco "the City." And in print, it gets capitalized.
I am thinking about this now, maybe I'll come up with a few...
Editing in: I have noticed that in California, we don't use the word "pond" too much, except for very tiny bodies of water. I was surprised to see Walden Pond back east. We would call that a lake. We use the word reservoir more, probably because we are a dry state and use so many of them. I guess it's because we don't really have too many ponds, except up in the Sierra, but even tiny ones up there are called lakes.
We rarely use the word "farm" in California, though we have farming. If beef cattle are raised, it's a ranch. If dairy cattle, it's a "dairy" without the word "ranch" unless the person is specifically distinguishing it in a sentence. If you see a farm that is obviously raising fruit for example, you say they have "orchards." it's almost like the word "farm" is missing in action, without a good substitute, and even though you sometimes use the word farming, as a verb.
"Farm" just doesn't sound like a California word. Weird, huh? Of course, it's our Spanish heritage of ranchos, but it's still peculiar.
Most typically, you refer to the crop the person is raising, and that actually includes dairy cattle. You would say "I raise (or grow) artichokes" rather than say, "I farm artichokes." And people often say, "I raise dairy cows" without ever using the word farm or ranch. If pushed, they will say "dairy ranch" not dairy farm.
Now with the hi-falutin organic-y joints, they are using the word "farm" much more. The usage has changed, but I am giving you the usage of my age group and before.
I wonder what happened 
