It was a visit from an out-of-towner that started it all. 

Driving into town from her home in Massachusetts, she’d noticed something different about the signs along the road. They weren’t in English. Was that Hebrew, she asked? Why were there so many?

They were innocent questions that make perfectly good sense to ask if you’ve never been to Sullivan County. Answering them took us first on a circuitous journey from the 1920s to Dirty Dancing and Mrs. Maisel and, later on, a meandering path through our everyday lives, poking around to spot the “things that are not like the others.”

Wander a decent distance from home, and it’s easy to see what makes any area of the country (heck, the world) unique. 

A body used to the humidity of a New York summer will cry out for a drink in the dry Arizona heat. Ears accustomed to hearing a mix of English and Yiddish in the Monticello ShopRite will perk up at the sounds of Portuguese banter in a Massachusetts Dunkin. Noticing the distinctions that make our own corner of the world is harder. After all, they’re not distinct — not really. 

To us, they just… are. 

In part, this is what I’ve come to appreciate about visits from out-of-towners. Their questions lay bare the moments of the everyday that we miss because we’re too busy living. 

And so, I offer to you the list of “things that are not like the others” brought to my attention over the years by out-of-towners: 

1. The popping — Do your ears pop when you drive around Sullivan County? Are you sure? After more than 20 years traveling up and down our mountainous terrain, it took a comment from a friend who grew up on flat land for me to notice my ears reacting to the constant altitude changes. 
2. The “snow kick” — Slipping rear end first into the car so you can keep your feet outside and kick them together to remove the extra snow is a habit so deeply ingrained I never even knew I did it. Never knew, that is, until someone who didn’t grow up in a cold climate asked about it. 
3. The basements — If you don’t have one in the Catskills, you’re in the minority. Live on the California coast, on the other hand, and having a basement makes you the outlier. 
4. The set of beaten-up sneakers you won’t throw out — apparently it’s not normal to hold onto your old beaten up sneakers to protect your feet in the river. Who knew?
5. The hard rolls — Go ahead. Try to imagine a sandwich without a hard roll. Now imagine the whole world of people living outside the New York metro area who will never experience this culinary masterpiece. 

Do you have another “only in Sullivan County” item to add to the list? I’d love to hear it! Visit https://bit.ly/Only-In-Sullivan-County to share yours, and you could end up in a future column!