OID: Only in Delaware

Ever wondered what Delaware is all about? Probably NOT, but over our last year here, we have observed some things that are seemingly native to Delaware.

1) Unnecessary Medians on the Road: Seriously, Delaware LOVES using medians. They use them EVERYWHERE. A parking lot? Must need a median somewhere! In the middle of an intersection? Needs a median! Middle of the park? Perhaps a median will be good there! By putting medians everywhere, that also means that you have to do more u-turns here than anywhere else in the world. Because nothing says "go 1 mile out of your way to get to the next intersection in order to u-turn" like a Delaware median!



2) Parking backwards in your parking spot. Delawarians LOVE to take the 2 extra minutes it takes to park in reverse in their spots. Everyone does it. It annoys me.



3) "In Loving Memory" stickers on your back windshield. I wish I had a study to show the proportion of people in Delaware that use these stickers on their windows compared to other areas. Granted, it is very sweet and touching to memorialize a loved one, BUT is a bumper/window sticker really the best way to do it? At any given moment, you can find one either in the parking lot outside, or driving next to you.
(I got a picture of this, but couldnt crop out the name of the person being remembered, and I didnt want to put that out there with a name on it!)

4) OBX/BB/RB/26.2 Stickers on your car. They must love car stickers of all sorts here, because you cant go far in Delaware without seeing some loser with an OBX sticker on their car. Oh, you dont know what those letters mean? The Outer Banks in North Carolina, of course! Duh. And apparently that is the coolest place ever because when you go, you always come back with this stupid sticker on your windshield. (BB= Bethany Beach, RB= Rehobeth Beach, 26.2= d-bag who wants everyone to know they ran a marathon...this one isnt just a DE thing)



5) Putting up your windshield wipers when it is going to snow. I still dont quite see the benefit of doing this, but EVERYONE here does it if there is even a slight chance of snow. This is a pic from earlier this year, and I am sure if you look hard enough you will see some windshield wipers pulled up and out!


6) Bean Bag games anywhere you can imagine (locals call it "baggy" or something like that). Whether it is in the park, in the middle of a street, in the middle of the parking lot, or at a tailgating party before the big game, someone inevitably will break out their homemade backboard and bean bags to play a quick game.


7a) Broken Down Cars on the Road (always marked as such by a white wife-beater shirt in the window). Supposedly, your car has to pass inspection before getting registered in Delaware. Funny, because there are more broken down cars on the side of the road here than anywhere else I have lived. And, I dont know how people automatically know that you need to put the white shirt in the window, but, they always do it. Once I saw a red shirt and wondered if that meant something different than the white one.
7b) Trash on the side of the Road. Littering is a problem here. Trash on the road, along with broken down cars= a sad fact.


8) (possibly the most annoying) Parking in the Front of Stores (aka in the fire lane). There can be a completely empty parking lot (as seen in photo), and yet people still find it necessary to park in front of the shopping center, with or without their hazards on, so everyone has to go around them. Just pull into a parking spot 3 feet away!!!! Just because you put your hazards on doesnt mean its ok to park there!



9) This doesnt annoy me, but has actually given me many laughs as I drive by. What is Analtech? What does Analtech do?





***I decided to try and find pictures to show as examples of each annoyance. I thought it would take a few hours. It took me 30 minutes to find all of these.