As a Southerner, how do you think I would be treated? (Fort Wayne: sales, how much)

[nova]

90 degrees in indiana corn fields in brutal, else were it's cool. Indiana has decent weather besides being in tornado alley.

[CollateralEvidence]

while I understand your question and why you ask it, it kind of makes me laugh. Northerners, as a rule, are entirely and completely unaware of any reason to think twice about whether someone is from the south, save those who think a southern accent is "cute." The reverse would not, of course, be true -- if you happen to be from the north and move south. Which I would advise against. I've been in every state repeatedly (except Alaska) and the only state I like in the American south is Lousiana, and that only because it remains heavily influenced by its past affiliation with France.

Which is not to say northerners aren't biased. If you are, for example, Italian, or gay (I used another word, in fact the word I prefer and it was edited out, too funny), or fill in the blank, you could be, depending on where you lived in Manhattan or New Jersey to keep things simple, going about your business, or recovering from assault. Southern? Northerners have forgotten The War.

What are people like in Indiana? Do you know '50s sitcoms? "Father Knows Best"? I believe it's true that they know real life isn't like that ancient tv show, but they think it should be. One man in a meeting I was in said, apropos of nothing: You know women who hyphenate their names after they get married? Hate that. I refrained from saying, You know women who give birth? I think their children should use the mother's name, not the father's. I remained silent. You know, in the interest of avoiding the shock such an idea would have engendered.

[shamus]

hey thats just like when i moved from IN to California and everyone asked me if I was from Texas and if I had ever been to a shopping mall. I kept quiet too because telling them how dense and retarded they were would have shocked them quite a bit coming from a silly midwest bumpkin like myself.

[HoosierSith]

I can tell you as a transplant to Chicago and a former extreme Southern Indiana native (Tell City) there is much open disrespect of anyone perceived as being not from the North of Indiana.

The dividing line is Washington St. in Indianapolis. If you are not from North of there you are a second class Hoosier. Don't worry though because that status is mostly irrelevant to anyone except Northern Indiana natives with Southern accents and Regioner's.

Regioner's are people who say they are from the region of Indiana nearest Chicago. In my experience Regioner's prefer belittlement from real Chicagoan’s and therefore use this geographical term to celebrate their dysfunctional kinship, proximity and sometimes-questionable proximity with the aforementioned opolis. People who say they are from the Region are "Temporal First Class" Hoosiers and they don't get along with the illustrious dueling “Original TFC's", Carmel-ites and Noblesville-ians.


I've lived in Bloomington, Indiana also and as someone else mentioned the better-educated transplants living in Bloomington, attending IU and post-grad-tune-outs may give your accent a hard time. However if you use your brain anywhere in Indiana real Hoosiers are of a perennially pragmatic mindset. If you pull your own weight i.e. have a job, don't mind generally harmless un-PC banter and don't have a rebel flag painted on your General Lee you'll fit right in.

If I were moving back to Indiana I would live within driving distance of major cities like Cincinnati OH, Indianapolis or Louisville KY. I would also look into the University cities like Bloomington, Lafayette, South Bend, Muncie, and Valparaiso. My next tier of cities would include Columbus, Danville, Greenfield, Madison, and Avon. If you are into small college towns I would check out Crawfordsville, Hanover, Franklin and Greencastle these small towns have a healthy population of well educated citizens and are all within distance of the major cities.

I hope my input helps. Of course my opinion isn't skewed or anything but Indiana is the best state in the Midwest.

[nova]

The border thing in indiana is there. I just don't think it is as bad as some think. It's more of a corn fed life or city life, it's not a true border. If you live in the fields like i did you'll do just fine in the city if you keep in contact with that world. You'll hear jokes about the contry life of the corn fields, but most jokes are about west virgina and kentucky. Just remember they are jokes alot of poeple are from those states and this is why they say them. Don't forget about crownpoint and knots, these areas are known through out indiana people for there views of the old ways.

[j33]

I'm finding this thread amusing because my family moved to northwest indiana from the south suburbs of chicago 14 years ago because my dad got a manufacturing job over there and the schools and neighborhoods I grew up in just south of chicago were not doing so well (I had graduated from high school by this point). After living in chicago for a bit I found myself finishing up school in Bloomington, and that is where I learned of regionalism in Indiana having never even heard the term "the region" until that point. Granted I'm back in chicago and have been quite a few years (this time the city proper and a much nicer area) and only lived in northwest indiana about a year of my life, but my family all lives out there in 'da region' as the joke goes. In many respects, it does have a different feel than central and southern Indiana, that is indeed true, but I don't find it all that bad of a place to visit, and it is nice to be so close to the lake, hell, I've even been to a Gary Railcats game, so I must be coming to terms with the place

To go back to the original question. Nobody with any brains whatsoever should care if you are a southerner or have a southern accent, and I highly doubt anyone in Indiana would care because to my northern tinged ears (a lot of my family is originally from the northeast coast) most people in Indiana seem to have a bit of a twang in their voices, and that has never bothered me. My grandmother, with a pronouced Boston accent ended up living in northwest indiana too near the end of her life, and she made many friends, none of who cared how she spoke.

[hdwell]

Here is my advice to the originator of this thread. If you decide to move outside the south, you'll find good and bad with people just like in the south. Personality types don't change with sections of the country. I would at least try to soften up my southern accent if not lose it althogether. You know there are people in the south that don't really sound southern and they are not from other parts of the country. Largely I think the accent is a big put-on for a lot of folks who take that southern pride thing a little too seriously. I'm from Louisiana originally but most people around here think not. I don't have time to argue about it, but it's true. You don't have to sound southern if you don't want to. And if someone inquires about your origins, you can be truthful about that or you can say a lot of different places. Sometimes changing a few things can help you servive. Just don't go up there flaming southern or you will "get the business".

[nova]

Hdwell is right about you don't have to sound southern. No matter who you are there is some things that will stick no matter how hard you try. I hear it all the time from people around here telling me I sound different (from Virginia, now in Arizona). Really I think they do and sometimes it messes with me. I definitely had to try and lose it, just to make my life alot easier in Idiana and Arizona. In Indiana though it will blend in alot easier, you won't have to try as hard.

[domergurl]

Regioners? Whaaaaa? Sweetie, folks growing up in NW Indiana are called Region Rats. How do I know? Went to college with many of them who proudly referred to themselves as such. I'm married to a region rat. It's funny how people in Porter county (Valparaiso), and even as far east as Michigan City refer to themselves as region rats. The region is really Lake County and let me tell you, it's booming right now. All the folks from the Chicago suburbs are tired of paying high taxes for no good reason and moving to Lake County (and Porter) to get a nicer house in a better school system. We drove up to Whiting on Saturday and I was astounded at how many houses are going up in Crown Point. It's not native Hoosiers buying up those houses!

I grew up near Notre Dame. I always called US 30 the accent line. People south of 30 always had southern accents. Then when I was in grad school at IU, the southern accents were very thick. Everyone thought I was from Chicago ... they thought I had a Chicago accent. Good thing I hightailed it to that great city after I graduated.

[elfyum]

How can you say that you don't have to sound southern?! I don't think those people are faking! As for getting rid of an accent, sure you could force it I guess, like tv & radio announcers, but why would you want to?! Wherever you're from, be PROUD! You can't change your roots! People tend to pick up the accent around them, but never lose their original...