I had only heard my mother and father's accents for ten years after moving away from MA and when I came back I realized I had forgotten just how much variation there was in the local accents

And I was young enough when we moved away that I didn't realize people said "Wooster" (oo as in took not toon) instead of "Wister" which is apparently only the central MA pronunciation of it

I don't have a local accent except for this word basically lmao

I can imitate my parents very well, but I can't imitate all the other variations I hear

In fact, when I was living in Florida, during high school, I imitated my mother to a friend and he asked why she sounded like JFK. I didn't say they both had the same accent, because I didn't realize JFK even had a Boston accent

I also lost a lot of local vocab, but I kept a lot too, and I think they follow a pattern. Namely, the words I used around friends (bubbler) adapted to Florida versions (water fountain), whereas those I used only with my parents (carriage) stayed as they were (Floridian equivalent: [shopping] cart)

@jordyd if there was a set of words that made you (or your mouth) shine when you spoke them, it would be a glowcabulary