Warren man's hilarious Rhode Island video goes viral

Ben DeCastro's short video gets hundreds of thousands of views in first few hours online

Posted 6/24/16

A video on all that is great about Rhode Island has accumulated more than 130,000 online views since it was posted Friday morning by Warren resident Ben DeCastro.Mr. DeCastro, a volunteer Warren …

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Warren man's hilarious Rhode Island video goes viral

Ben DeCastro's short video gets hundreds of thousands of views in first few hours online

Posted

A video on all that is great about Rhode Island has accumulated more than 130,000 online views since it was posted Friday morning by Warren resident Ben DeCastro.
Mr. DeCastro, a volunteer Warren firefighter, came up with the idea for the video Wednesday afternoon, after going to a Red Sox game with a friend of his from Little Rock, Ark.

Watch the video here:

In it, he shows sheets of paper on which he’s written all that he loves about Rhode Island and its citizens, and everything that drives him crazy about folks from other states.
“A buddy of mine was in from out of town. He’s a band conductor for Ringling Bros. He got a Del’s at Fenway; he was using a straw and I was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”
Mr. DeCastro went home and started writing out a list of all the great things about his home state and all of us who live here. He had to go to CVS at one point as he didn’t have enough paper to complete his cards.
“It’s just cliche Rhode Island stuff,” he said. “A lot of these I’d been thinking about for a while.”
Did he have any idea it would take off as fast as it did?
“Not at all! I thought friends and family would see it. But it really just took off!”
Here's what he has to say:

I'm a Rhode Islander
Hi, my name is Ben. I’m a pretty normal guy but I’m from Rhode Island.
In fact, I’m from Warren, RI: Smallest town in the smallest county in the smallest state!
Like most Rhode Islanders, I give directions based on Dunkin Donuts locations and where things used to be.
My first bike came from Benny’s.
My furniture is from Cardi’s.
I have 27 ice cream batting helmets from the Pawsox.
And on special occasions my entire family eats at Wright’s Farm, where everyone has their entire meal served to them within three minutes of being seated.
Life is great … but it hurts me when:
•I see people eating a Del’s using a straw.
•It hurts when people ask if Rhode Island is part of New York.The Yankees suck.
•It hurts me when I wear my Pawsox hat to Fenway and people ask me what the “P” stands for.
•It hurts me when people put the coffee syrup in the cup after the milk is already in there.
•It hurts when tourists ask where the nearest Olive Garden or Red Lobster is.
I miss Salty and Almacs.
When someone says the word “Cork Screw” I have a moment of reflection and shed a tear.
I remember Ann & Hope, Zayre’s, House of Horrors, tokens for the Mt. Hope Bridge.
Rhode Islanders are awesome. We can order some of our favorite foods and drink with minimal words:
* Three all the way
* Two stuffies
* Medium regular hot
*Chocolate Awful Awful
And if more than 3“ of snow is predicted, we wipe out the entire northeast supply of bread and milk in 90 minutes.
We act tough so we don’t get picked on by people from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.
I remember that summer when the Big Blue Bug was being refurbished and taken off the roof of New England Pest Control. New Yorkers headed to Cape Cod ended up in Maine cuz they didn’t know when to turn on 195. Haaa! (morons)
My Garmin GPS freaks out when I’m on the iWay Bridge because it thinks I’m underwater.
If you visit Rhode Island this summer please don’t ask about:
•The City of Quahog or Spooner Street.
•Don’t ask us if we know where Taylor Swift lives.
•And do not eat your Del’s with a spoon or straw. Because we will laugh at you.
And by the way we drive perfectly. Deal with it. No blinker=no problem. Unless you get spotted by a statie, in which case, I know a guy.
Oh, and one last thing: The yankees suck.

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