Street verses road? (Or a little country learnin')

Never really gave this much thought until I moved to what is, for this part of the country, considered "the country". OK folks (yeah - I said folks), I grew up in a small town in Mississippi. The whole state, aside from the Capital and the Coast IS "the country"! No complaints, just stating. Now, when I lived in my small town of a couple thousand people (it has grown), we called it a STREET. You might hear, "I'm going across the street to visit the neighbors", "I live one STREET over from Lucille and Bob," "Be careful going across the STREET," "...go play in the STREET..", etc.

After my move to "the country" about 4 or 5 years ago, I would tell my children to be careful going across the street to their aunt's house, or to play with their cousins (now you know I was in the country). Inevitably, someone would catch me and scold me. Our conversation would go a little like this..."Be careful crossing the street guys." "What!? What did you call that?" "What did I call what?" "You said STREET. That's not a STREET, silly. That's a ROAD!" "Oh, sorry - didn't realize there was such a difference - it has asphalt. I thought a road was made of rock or dirt. Sorry." (And by the way - that was not a smart answer - I honestly thought that was the case.)

So - just a lesson if you decide to visit "the country", please don't confuse your STREETS with ROADS or you may get a gentle scolding as I did. But I will say, some of the nicest people I've ever met have come from...just across the road (or "street" if you live in the city. Don't want to offend my friends there either).