[roxyh]

So I was in New Orleans a few weeks ago a this guy from Minnesota came up and started to talk to me. We were talking about Michigan and he asked me do you call the lower Peninsula the LP like you call the Upper Peninsula the UP?

No, we call it Michigan. I thought it was a really weird questions. I started thinking about it. I verbally seperated the two section of the states. The two are so different. Leaving to go up there from Grand Rapids, its like another state. Especially during the winter when its difficult enough to get around down here, I can't even imagine what it is like up North.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? From both sides of the states. I would love different perspective!

[jeeg]

My wife and I are Grand Rapids area natives who now reside in the U.P.
We call the region under the bridge "the L.P." to those out of the area and "downstate" to fellow yoopers. When discussing a trip to visit family to each other we'll say "Shall we go visit the trolls?"

[Bydand]

Lived in both and when in the UP we either called below the bridge "The Lower" or "Downstate." The most common was Downstate though.

[sixms]

At Michigan Tech anybody from Michigan south of the big bridge are "Trolls"

[suydam]

I think we refer to where we are in specifics (e.g. "I'm in Petoskey" or "I'm in Lowell"). We refer to where we aren't in generalities (e.g. Downstate, Up North, The U.P.).

For example, when I'm actually in Marquette, I don't say "I'm in the U.P." I just say "I'm in Marquette but heading downstate tomorrow."

Similarly when I'm home in G.R. I might say "we're driving over to Grand Haven to visit friends tomorrow before we head up to the U.P."

[lilbear]

Funny thing is, when I was a kid and we'd be going on vacation to visit family in the UP, it was just "going up north."

[MICoastieMom]

In my family "Up North" is anything north of Bay City. Have you ever notice that the woodland areas start to change there. It is also the place where the allergy-prone and asthmatics in the family can start to breathe freely. Similarly, we don't consider we are out of "Detroit" until we are north of Flint!

[dkf747]

When I was growing up, "up North" was confusing. I always thought it meant the UP, but kids were saying they went "up North" when they went to Frankenmuth. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered that Frankenmuth (which I had never visited until 2007) was not in the UP! I'm no longer sure what "up North" means.

[Tunky]

I grew up in the UP but had lots of family downstate. I always found it confusing when people would refer to Alpena and Gaylord as "Northern Michigan" rather than "Northern Lower Michigan".

As far as getting around in the winter...I've seen some hellacious winter storms on the lakeside of the Lower Peninsula...much worse than we experienced in Escanaba. I went to college in Marquette...and we really didn't have much trouble getting around. I guess we were equipped for it.

I live in Tennessee now and if there is a report of a snowflake coming, people react like a comet is heading toward us.

[michiganmom2008]

Originally Posted by sixms

At Michigan Tech anybody from Michigan south of the big bridge are "Trolls"

Im a troll!! Living in Adrian growing up we would go "up North" to houghton lake camping. Living in Traverse City we called it "downstate" when we would talk about southern lower Michigan and if we were going anywhere in the UP it would be "Over the bridge" Its so funny how everyone is....I have heard people in southern lower michigan called "fudgies" and "flatlanders". I have been all of them. Hubby would love to be a "YOOPER" though! Thats all I have heard for the past 10 years is "Lets move to the UP!" "I want to live in the UP"! He wants to be out in the middle of no where so he can drink his beer, pee in the woods and live off the land. I think we would starve though, cause once he starts drinking that beer he gets lazy.