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The picture that comes immediately to mind is red barns set aginst flat cornfields
The scene you just described is one of my favorite parts about living in the Midwest, believe it or not. I can't wait to have a place of my own that fits that description!!
I don't apologize for what the Midwest looks like. And yes, my area of Michigan looks like that. But I find a ton of beauty in it, even if a lot of people don't. Maybe they aren't looking close enough. But I think Michigan farmland is every bit as pretty as the lakes, rivers and woods, if not more.
In many ways, the way you described Michigan reminds me of the state of Washington where I used to live. The Puget Sound area is pretty much maritime, just as Michigan is with its lakes. There is logging in both states.
I lived out in Oregon for a year...and the Oregon forests did remind me a lot of Northern Michigan. A LOT. Also, the fact that both have coastlines with beaches, but are generally too cold for swimming most of the time.
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Originally Posted by Ben Around
Many people from outside the Midwest have a hard time imagining the region's diversity of landscapes, culture, peoples, economies, topographies. The picture that comes immediately to mind is red barns set aginst flat cornfields, and small towns full of white people and Protestant churches. Never mind the region's factories, skyscrapers, iron mines, coal mines, timber industry, Great Lakes' shipping and commercial fishing indistries, vast urban ghettoes, significant enclaves of eastern Europeans, American Indians, Hassidic Jews, African refugees, Southeast Asians, as well as unbridled suburban sprawl, just to name a few. It's all here--I found out myself by moving here as an adult and traveling extensively to all corners of the region.
So true...and I think Catholicism is much stronger than Protestantism...I think, anyways. Well, Where I grew up in Michigan, there were Irish and Polish everywhere.
I also like to give a plug for Michigan as having the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East - I think most people just assume that title would go to a NYC or somewhere else...but actually Michigan has that title.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluefly
^
Oh, I think people are well aware of the urban ghettos. Hard to even mention the words Detroit, Flint, Toledo, Cleveland, or any of the others without illiciting a look of disgust.
I think most people out east and west would be a little disheartened to realize just how similar life in the Midwest is.
Not that I'm proud of the urban ghettos of Michigan. But I do have to remind people of Detroit, Flint, etc.
Often if I say I'm from Michigan...people quickly associate it with some really boring, quiet, dull, nothing happens, slow 'midwestern' place of nothingness. As soon as I say 'Detroit' or 'Flint', people's eyes seem to get a bit more alert...but it seems most people don't generally associate 'Michigan' with 'Detroit'.
Actually if I just leave it at 'I'm from Michigan', ten minutes later they'll introduce mas the guy from Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota...which gives me the impression they have absolutely NOTHING in their head about Michigan, except its some random state in the middle of the country that starts with 'M'...
Quote:
Originally Posted by YAZ
Bob Eubanks is from Michigan. So is Lily Tomlin, Don Henley, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Madonna, Gerald Ford, George Romney (Mitt's Dad), Francis Ford Coppola, Grand Funk Railroad, et al.
Plus Iggy Pop, Eminem, Kid Rock, Muhammad Ali, and more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YAZ
I've been around this great country, and I gotta tell ya, MI autumns are the most colorful. Maple, oak, poplar (aspen type tree, really), hickory, etc. All mixed in with some coniferous green is quite a sight. Too bad it doesn't last that long.
ME TOO. I've lived in places like NY where I drove around New England...and it was very nice, for sure...very nice. But in my mind, it felt like I might as well be in Michigan, same thing. Yet New England seems to be famous, tourist-attraction famous for it.
I've also lived in South Korea for years, and Koreans ALWAYS remarked on Korea's four seasons and how beautiful AUTUMN was there...but it didn't strike me as visually striking as Autumn in Michigan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YAZ
Euchre.
OH YEAH!
Quote:
Originally Posted by YAZ
Rudyard Kipling spent the night in... well... Rudyard, MI. Hence the name.
I didnt know that, and I went to school in Rudyard for one year as a kid.
ME TOO. I've lived in places like NY where I drove around New England...and it was very nice, for sure...very nice. But in my mind, it felt like I might as well be in Michigan, same thing. Yet New England seems to be famous, tourist-attraction famous for it.
I've also lived in South Korea for years, and Koreans ALWAYS remarked on Korea's four seasons and how beautiful AUTUMN was there...but it didn't strike me as visually striking as Autumn in Michigan.
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Climate change seems to be impacting the fall foliage season I think. The vivid colors seem to be less pronounced compared to the past. Invasive species also seem to be more of a problem everywhere it seems. Northern Wisconsin lake country also has great fall foliage.
It was really funny, but when I moved from MI to ND, I was referred to as being from "Out East." On either coast, all of the center of the country is referred to as the Midwest, but IMHO, there are immense differences between "Great Lakes" and "Great Plains." MI, OH, IN, IL, and WI have a much larger manufacturing presence mixed with the agriculture, and the size and scale of farming is much, much different. In ND production ag rules; a large farm is over 10,000 acres and no one ever was able to make a living on less than a full section. I realize I've been gone a while from MI, but in my grandparent's time, a full section was a sizeable farm and many families lived on 80 acres (see Ron Jager's book Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm).
The "Out East" thing may be based on speech pattern, unless you are from "Da UP". ND has those rounded letter "o" sounds, and folks say "ya" instead of "yeah" or the Upstate NY sounding "yup" with the upward lilt one hears in rural parts of the mitten and around GR. I can appreciate where a Michigan accent would sound Eastern to someone from North Dakota. ND, MN, WI, Northern Iowa, and even Rockford, Illinois have an accent that was strongly influenced by German and Scandinavian immigrants. Lower MI has an accent more akin to Western NY than anyplace else. To a person from Fargo, this accent probably sounds rather Eastern.
Answering mackinac81 above... "I don't know about everyone else, but sometimes the lakes make me feel a little cut off from the rest of the region. I mean, when I'm on Lake Michigan, Wisconsin seems so much further away, even though it's only about sixty miles across the lake. When you're in MI, especially up north, everything else seems sort of "out there".
I've also heard that places surrounded by water tend to have a more insular mindset. Not making an attack, but sometimes MI seems more off on it's own than other places might be."
And don't most of us harbor that little fantasy of cutting ourselves off from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to the south and Minnesota and Wisconsin on the U.P. side...and become our own "country"..."off on our own"? A little ...or LARGE paradise island...four seasons, well 5 if you include "mud" season...(NOW)...all manner of fruits, vegetables and livestock, forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls for "peace and tranquility"... sunrises or sunsets overlooking blue waters. Many, many cultures with diversity in music and arts. Yep... "off in our own little world"... sounds perfect to me.
There is much that is great in MI, yes, but like every place, there are some negatives. If MI wants to keep the drug problems and gang violence of Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw, I don't think anyone in South Bend or Toledo will mind for a moment. I also don't think that folks in neighboring states will mind if MI keeps the economic problems of being overly dependent on a single industry. What we would mind would be if MI decided that we could not vacation at gorgeous spots like Tawas City, where the waters of Lake Huron are crystal clear and refreshing. Lake Erie cannot begin to compare to the wild beauty of the Lake Huron shore!! While places like Flint make most of us want to say no to M!ch!gan, places like Tawas City make us want to say heck yeah!!!
Minnesota actually has over 12 thousand lakes that are ten acres in size or larger, Michigan does not have as many lakes. Minnesota has just as many northern forests and lakes and rivers as Michigan if not more, so the rest of the Midwest isnt all corn except Michigan. And Michigan does happen to have one of the crappiest and most rundown major cities in this country, not much to brag about there when your talking about Detoilet. By the way Michigan fishing doesnt not even come close to competing with Minnesota fishing, nor does any other state.
Maybe you should share your information with whomever designs your license plates. You can take your quarterback back too....
I lived out in Oregon for a year...and the Oregon forests did remind me a lot of Northern Michigan. A LOT. Also, the fact that both have coastlines with beaches, but are generally too cold for swimming most of the time.
So true...and I think Catholicism is much stronger than Protestantism...I think, anyways. Well, Where I grew up in Michigan, there were Irish and Polish everywhere.
I also like to give a plug for Michigan as having the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East - I think most people just assume that title would go to a NYC or somewhere else...but actually Michigan has that title.
Not that I'm proud of the urban ghettos of Michigan. But I do have to remind people of Detroit, Flint, etc.
Often if I say I'm from Michigan...people quickly associate it with some really boring, quiet, dull, nothing happens, slow 'midwestern' place of nothingness. As soon as I say 'Detroit' or 'Flint', people's eyes seem to get a bit more alert...but it seems most people don't generally associate 'Michigan' with 'Detroit'.
Actually if I just leave it at 'I'm from Michigan', ten minutes later they'll introduce mas the guy from Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota...which gives me the impression they have absolutely NOTHING in their head about Michigan, except its some random state in the middle of the country that starts with 'M'...
Plus Iggy Pop, Eminem, Kid Rock, Muhammad Ali, and more.
ME TOO. I've lived in places like NY where I drove around New England...and it was very nice, for sure...very nice. But in my mind, it felt like I might as well be in Michigan, same thing. Yet New England seems to be famous, tourist-attraction famous for it.
I've also lived in South Korea for years, and Koreans ALWAYS remarked on Korea's four seasons and how beautiful AUTUMN was there...but it didn't strike me as visually striking as Autumn in Michigan.
OH YEAH!
I didnt know that, and I went to school in Rudyard for one year as a kid.
Where are you in Japan?
I worked in Yokohama, Tokyo, and Tatebiashi City (Gunma perf).
Minnesota actually has over 12 thousand lakes that are ten acres in size or larger, Michigan does not have as many lakes. Minnesota has just as many northern forests and lakes and rivers as Michigan if not more, so the rest of the Midwest isnt all corn except Michigan. And Michigan does happen to have one of the crappiest and most rundown major cities in this country, not much to brag about there when your talking about Detoilet. By the way Michigan fishing doesnt not even come close to competing with Minnesota fishing, nor does any other state.
Where do you come up with your figures and "facts"? Over 12,000 lakes that are 10+ acres in size? Do you know of a couple hundred more than your own DNR, because they only know of 11,842 lakes over 10 acres. I'll take fishing in MI over Minnesota and day of the week as well. Unless you like the smaller fish, then Minnesota does alright. I'll take the 39,000+ square MILES of water in MI any day over the 7,300 Square Miles of water in MN for the bigger fish. I would hope you have a few hundred more inland lakes than we do here in MI, after all you do have an additional 13,000 square miles of land area to put them into.
Yeah, we have a couple run down cities big whoop! We also have a whole lot more water to get away from them and enjoy ourselves in the warmer winters and cooler summers. Keep MN, most of us don't want it. It IS a beautiful state, but I don't like bitter cold winters and broiling Summers.
Where do you come up with your figures and "facts"? Over 12,000 lakes that are 10+ acres in size? Do you know of a couple hundred more than your own DNR, because they only know of 11,842 lakes over 10 acres. I'll take fishing in MI over Minnesota and day of the week as well. Unless you like the smaller fish, then Minnesota does alright. I'll take the 39,000+ square MILES of water in MI any day over the 7,300 Square Miles of water in MN for the bigger fish. I would hope you have a few hundred more inland lakes than we do here in MI, after all you do have an additional 13,000 square miles of land area to put them into.
Yeah, we have a couple run down cities big whoop! We also have a whole lot more water to get away from them and enjoy ourselves in the warmer winters and cooler summers. Keep MN, most of us don't want it. It IS a beautiful state, but I don't like bitter cold winters and broiling Summers.
Whenever my "troll radar" goes up, I always look at what other posts the person has made. MinneapolisMan is a college student in North Dakota, looking to move to Tucson. Moving on.
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