15 ways life in the Midwest is like nowhere else
There’s a lot to love about the Midwest.
Intro
If you’ve ever lived in the Midwest, you know that it’s a pretty special place. A lot of people who are raised there choose to stay, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a great place to live and a fun place to visit. Hey, we know life in the Midwest isn’t always perfect. The winter weather can be brutal, we’re not exactly trendsetters when it comes to food or fashion, and we can be a bit passive-aggressive from time to time. (“Oh, so that’s what you’re wearing to the party.”) But there’s a lot to love about the Midwest, and a lot of things that make it unique. Here are 15 ways that life in the Midwest is like nowhere else.
—McClatchy Tribune News Service staff
Above: Larisa Boeddeker, of Rochester, Minnesota, watches as her husband, Andrew, fishes off one of the docks at Pehrson Lodge Resort on Lake Vermilion on Tuesday, August 22, 2017. (Aaron Lavinsky/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Lake life
There is no shortage of lakes in the region, and a lot of Midwesterners have a family retreat “up north” where they can go to swim, fish, sail, water-ski or just hang out on the shore watching the sun rise or set. Work-related anxiety tends to melt away when you’re at the lake, and the world seems to slow down.
Above: Ellen Palmer plays with her daughter, Lilly, and son, Walter, at Lake Nokomis on Friday in the early afternoon June 29, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minn. (Alex Kormann/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
There’s snow — a LOT of snow
Winter snow is a way of life in the Midwest. Drivers keep a brush/scraper device in the car year-round because you never know when you’ll need to clear snow and ice from your windshield. People who live in certain spots near the shores of the Great Lakes are all too familiar with “lake-effect snow,” with snowfalls sometimes being measured in feet rather than inches. Snow can obviously make it harder to get around (although Midwesterners are very adept at driving through it). But it’s also a source of fun. Skiing, sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, snow forts – Midwesterners know how to enjoy the white stuff. And when you’re a kid growing up in the Midwest, there’s nothing better than a snowstorm that forces the cancellation of school. Snow day!
Above: Delta Airlines flight attendant Victoria Flees trudges through the snow with her bags in downtown Minneapolis on the way back home from the light rail station after her flight to Paris was grounded along with all other planes because of weather on Saturday, April 14, 2018, as the city is blanketed by a snowstorm that dropped rain and sleet before turning to snow. (Anthony Souffle/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Friendliness
This might be the best thing about life in the Midwest. Folks are friendly. Genuinely friendly. Oh, sure, there are nice people everywhere in the U.S. But Midwesterners are neighborly. They smile and wave. They hold doors open. They’ll let you merge in front of them on the road. (How often does that happen in New York City or Los Angeles?) People are especially friendly in the small-town Midwest. Communities are tight-knit, and people look out for one another.
Above: Darren Conrad, left, received a liver transplant from neighbor Dawn Strand, right, while fellow neighbor Tracey Vogen was also lined up to be a donor for Conrad. The three are shown on April 12, 2011, in Plainfield, Illinois. (Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune/MCT)
Sausage-fest
People in the Midwest have a serious appreciation for encased meats, whether it’s bratwurst in Milwaukee, mettwurst in Cincinnati or the simple but beloved hot dog in Chicago. (But don’t you dared put ketchup on that Chicago-style dog.) In Minneapolis, the meats have turned the tables with the Juicy Lucy, a burger with a volcanic lava flow of cheese encased in ground beef.
Tennis shoes
Almost everywhere else in the country they’re called sneakers, but Midwesterners refer to their sporty footwear as “tennis shoes.” (But please don’t call them “tennies” – that’s just obnoxious.) There’s no evidence that Midwesterners play more tennis than people in other parts of the country, so it’s unclear why these shoes are so closely associated with tennis in this part of the country. Maybe it’s a tribute to Jimmy Connors, who grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Above: Customers crowd the new Nike flagship store on opening day in Soho in New York on Friday, November 18, 2016. (Photo by Richard B. Levine)
Tornado warnings
Midwesterners don’t have to worry about hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or wildfires, but they’re familiar with the sound of a tornado siren. Tornadoes can occur virtually anywhere in the continental U.S., but Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri all average more than 45 tornadoes a year. “Tornado Alley” encompasses much of the Midwest, with twisters frequently raking the area from spring to fall.
Above: Storm chaser Brad Mack watches a funnel cloud form May 24, 2015, near Johnson City, Kansas. (Credit Image: © Gene Blevins/ZUMA Wire)
Frozen custard
What could be better than ice cream? Well, a lot of Midwesterners will tell you that frozen custard is the superior treat. The addition of egg yolks and a higher percentage of butterfat give frozen custard a creamier, smoother texture than ice cream. Frozen custard was introduced at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago and became popular in much of the region. Restaurant chains such as Freddy’s and Culver’s have spread custard throughout the nation, but the Midwest remains the spiritual home of this frozen treat.
Above: Leon's frozen custard is shown in a file photo in Milwaukee, Wis. (Benny Sieu/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/TNS)
Unique accents
“Ope, I’m sorry!” Some Midwesterners don’t think we have accents, but you betcha we do. You’ve seen the movie “Fargo,” right? The Coen brothers and their cast pretty much nailed the Minnesota accent (which also carries into the Dakotas). Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Robert Smigel were spot-on with their Inland North accents in the recurring “Saturday Night Live” sketch Bill Swerski’s Superfans, where a group of bar denizens celebrated the greatness of the Chicago Bears. (“Da Bearssss!”) Indiana has the Hoosier twang, northern Michigan has “Yooper” English, and a vowel shift is common within the region.
Above: St. Paul neighbors Sharon Jansa and Kristina Youso visit as they clear the sidewalks in front off their homes Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Farmland
The Midwest isn’t the only part of the country with farmland, but there’s a lot of here, and boy, a lot of it is beautiful. There are corn fields aplenty in the Midwest, there are also canola fields, soybean fields, apple orchards, cranberry bogs and dairy farms. America’s heartland is the heart of U.S. agriculture.
Euchre
Popular in Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, Euchre is a popular trick-taking card game played by four people in two partnerships. Cards below nine are removed from the game, leaving a slim 24-card deck. The Midwest is sometimes referred to as “The Euchre Belt,” and Michigan is probably the buckle of that belt. It’s a state that appreciates the blessings of “bowers.”
Above: Senior citizens play euchre at the Lake Adult Community Center on Friday, June 10, 2011, in Uniontown, Ohio. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal/MCT)
State fairs
Every state has a state fair, but they’re especially popular in the Midwest – possibly because Midwesterners are so eager to make the most of their all-too-brief summers. The fairs offer music, rides, carnival games and food – lots of food. And, uh, state fair menus aren’t exactly constructed with the dieter in mind. They’ll deep-fry anything at a Midwestern state fair: Twinkies, Oreos, butter. Yes, butter. (Thank you, Iowa!)
Above: Visitors walk past food vendors Aug. 13, 2015, at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. (Scott Morgan/McClatchy DC/TNS)
Hunting and fishing
Midwesterners have a great love of the outdoors, and that’s reflected in the regional enthusiasm for hunting and fishing. Midwestern kids often have fishing poles in their hands at a young age, sitting in a boat with their moms and dads on a tranquil lake, waiting for a smallmouth bass to hit. And while many people would fail to see the allure of waking before dawn, bundling up, trudging out into frigid weather and climbing into a tree stand to wait for a deer to wander along, a lot of Midwesterners consider that a blissful morning.
Above: Chris Ward of South St. Paul, Minn. reels in an Upper Red Lake walleye caught while fishing in 4- to 5-foot swells about four miles off shore in 2017. (Tony Kennedy/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
Ranch dressing
Ranch dressing was first conceived in Alaska and was first served to the masses in California, but Midwesterners have pretty much claimed it as their own. And it is not just for salads. No, sir. Midwesterners will slather it onto just about anything: pizza, sandwiches, tacos, you name it. Oh, and we love to dip fried things in it, too, especially our french fries and deep-fried cheese curds.
We call it “pop,” not “soda”
If someone in the Midwest asks if you’d like a pop, they aren’t threatening to hit you. Throughout most of the Midwest, sweetened nonalcoholic carbonated beverages are referred to not as “soda” or by their brand names (Coke, Pepsi, etc.), but rather as “pop.” Keep this in mind if you visit the Midwest – it may come in handy when you’re thirsty.
Cornhole
Take two wooden platforms, add two sets of beanbags, and you’ve got hours of fun. Known in some parts simply as “bags,” Cornhole is a game in which players take turns throwing beanbags at a raised platform with a hole in the far end. You get three points for getting a bag through the hole, 1 point for landing a bag on the platform. It’s a great social game, perfect for a family get-together in the backyard or a parking lot before a concert or sporting event. It’s said that the game originated in Germany, but it has become wildly popular in the Midwest.