I grew up in New England, and I'm not sure what other families did, but we never called the nighttime meal "dinner." We always called it "supper." Now I always call it dinner. I don't know when it changed, but somewhere along the line it did.
AOL Food has a fun poll where they ask you what you called certain food things in your region. Did you call it dinner or supper (there's also an "other" option, though I'm not sure what that would be). Sprinkles or Jimmies or 100s and 1000s? Sub, Hero, or Hoagie? Soda, Pop, or Tonic?
That last one reminds me of the day my grade school class went to New York City. One of the tips from our teachers was to not say "tonic" because they might not know what we mean. We were told to call it "pop." My friend Peter was a wiseass and kept asking everyone for "tonic." One clerk even said to him, "you mean pop?" And Peter said "no, I want some tonic."














