Hampton Roads is a funny place. Interstate 64 East goes south -- and then west. Things aren't said the way they're spelled -- Gloucester, Norfolk, Portsmouth. A rain-snow-mix boundary is enough to throw the area into chaos.

There's a funny e-mail that has circulated around Hampton Roads for the past few years, sort of a take of on "You know you're a redneck if..." The joke starts, "You know you live in 'The 757' when ... " Add your own funny ending.

After publishing some of them, we heard from someone who says he originated the idea. Ben Kennedy, first compiled the jokes with help from his friends on his band's Web site about five years ago. Shortly after that, he wrote it up with a friend for a cover piece in the Virginian-Pilot. Here are some of those jokes and others suggested by area readers:

You know you live in 'The 757' when:

1. You are amazed whenever any city within 50 miles of your house is mentioned in a textbook, national news, etc.
2. You know Mount Trashmore is a real place.
3. Any eastbound trip you've ever made involves at least one tunnel.
4. You've dated someone in the military.
5. You don't stop and look skyward when aircraft fly over.
6. You can name all the I-64 spurs.
7. You don't slow down in the tunnel.
8. You can say "Norfolk" without sounding obscene or incorrect.
9. You can leave town for years and return to find the same roads still under construction.
10. An inch of snow closes everything down. Three inches is a blizzard.
11. You know Newport News is not the name of a newspaper.
12. It's not a peninsula; it's the Peninsula -- with a capital P.
13. It's not Portsmouth; it's P-town.
14. It's Hampton, not the Hamptons.
15. You've seen Pat Robertson in the Farm Fresh.