There's s subtle but definite difference here between what we call thongs and flip flops.

As a kid all that was available were thongs which are the foam rubber soles with the uppers held in place by rubber or plastic straps which protrude through holes in the lowers to the bottom and then are held on by having round tabs on the bottoms.

Flip flops use similar material for the soles yet tend to be made with cushier and thicker foam soles and the uppers are cloth instead of plastic and are held in place by being glued and bonded between layers of the soles, hence having no offensive hard tabs on the bottom of the soles, which my oh-so-tender size 11-1/2 EEEEs really appreciate.

Love flip flops and wear 'em most of the year since the openness of 'em helps keep my feet and the rest of me cooler which is a plus since we have more warm weather than cold. Can't stand thongs though 'cause the plastic uppers make my feet sweat!

Also, in between thongs and the creation of flip flops there was a craze of something in between which used surgical rubber tubing for the uppers and were branded as Titties, which helped sell more than a few of 'em since after all, who dudn like Titties

Always thought it was odd that here in Dallas, the home of Dr. Pepper, all carbonated drinks are generically called Cokes, like PJ mentioned. If you have a house full of company and say you're headed to the store to get some Cokes for your guests you might need a pad to write down their choices

2 things that seem to perplex folks from other parts of the country are the use of "fixin to" as in "I'm fixin to go to the store, wanna go?" and "over yonder" as in "Put that pallet of boxes over yonder by the strapping machine."

Then there's our propensity for odd local contractions here in the south

Wanna= Want to?
J'wanna= Do you want to?
Yontoo=Do you want to?
I'da=I would have
We all=All of us
We'da=We would have
They'da= They would have .... and the list goes on



In my travels in the northeastern US one thing I found puzzling was using the word "yet" in place of "still" as in "Does your Dad work at Ford yet?". Here that would not make sense at all and would be interpreted to be asking if your Dad has started to work for Ford yet, while to Yankees it means does your Dad still work for Ford.

Language can be fun stuff and the permutations of the variations of the English language can indeed be interesting, if not challenging to grasp the colloquialisms of.

Just in car terms there's a great divide between the US and most of the rest of the english speaking world.
Hood= Bonnet
Trunk=Boot/Hatch
Windshield=Windscreen
Shifter=Gear Selector
Headlights=Headlamps
A grabby clutch is said to exhibit "clutch judder"

And ... since Americans were the 1st to truly embrace widespread use of cars in society we all know you drive on the right side of the road, not the left