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We hear a lot of discussion about the Midwest having some of the friendliest, down to Earth people in the country. Now down to Earth, I agree with, but friendly?!
I fully acknowledge that there are friendly and not so friendly people everywhere. I grew up in the South and even in the land of "Southern hospitality" this was certainly the case. But (1) having lived in Louisville and Cincinnati (more Midwestern than Southern in identity, and I don't care who disagrees with me ), (2) having worked with plenty of customers from Milwaukee, (3) having worked for a plain psycho boss from Minneapolis, and (4) encountering impatient drivers here in California with license plates particularly from Illinois and Missouri, as well as (5) hearing people who live in California and Florida complain about Midwestern snowbirds, I'm thinking that Midwestern "hospitality" might not live up to its reputation. (Sorry for the long sentence.) At least in some areas. In fact, I've found people from Louisville to be downright rude and people from Milwaukee to be kinda...weird, at least in my experience.
I will say that rural Buckeyes, Iowans and northern Wisconsinites seem to be pretty friendly and even enjoyable to be around. Maybe it's more of a rural versus urban dynamic, I dunno, but it makes you wonder. In the South, you can find plenty of friendly people even in Nashville, Atlanta, and Texas' cities.
I'm just commenting based on experience. I have relatives and friends from the Midwest, so I know that many great people live there. Maybe I've just had bad luck.
I've been to and lived in a number of different parts of the country, and I've come to the conclusion that people are more or less the same everywhere. Midwesterners and Southerners aren't necessarily any more friendly than those in the Northeast or West, and those in the Northeast and West aren't necessarily any more jaded, reserved, or "busy" than those in the Midwest or South.
Most folks tend to mind their own business, extend a helping hand as long as there is a genuine need for it, and are more polite than friendly to strangers or those they're not all that familiar with, and gradually open up when they know each other better. Basically it's human nature rather than a regional characteristic.
Midwesterners are very pleasant from what I have seen. I live in Florida and of all the migrant types we get those are the ones I like the most.
That being said, CHICAGOANS are some of the rudest people on the planet! What's even worse about them is that they actually think they are nice and pleasant. Completely oblivious to how they act those people.
Midwesterners are very pleasant from what I have seen. I live in Florida and of all the migrant types we get those are the ones I like the most.
That being said, CHICAGOANS are some of the rudest people on the planet! What's even worse about them is that they actually think they are nice and pleasant. Completely oblivious to how they act those people.
I travel all over the country for work, and have spent a lot of time in Missouri and Chicago. Chicago folks aren't especially polite, but Missourians are! They're the friendliest bunch out of anywhere I travel.
I am willing to bet it has NOTHING to do with fezzador. We get tens of thousands of tourists in this area from all over the place every summer. I can pick out Chicago very easy by their attitudes. 90% of the time if someone is running their mouth or knocking the area they always end up with a variation of how that/this isn't how it is done in Chicago tossed into the conversation. Big whoop, none of us care how you do it in Chicago.
Or maybe not. Like I said, Chicagoans are often oblivious as to how rude they act around others.
I'm born and raised in the state that defines hospitality. I could teach Chicagoans a thing or two about at least about putting on the facade of politeness. Haha.
I've always found Chicagoans to be very friendly. They may be a little blunt, but most of them I've met have been pretty "normal." I wonder how long this will take to turn into a thread about us Midwesterners being passive-agressive and fake.
During my brief cross country travels and my extensive time in the South, I do find Southerners more openly friendly and outgoing. Midwesterners are friendly in the smaller towns and rural areas, especially Ohio and Illinois. In Kansas, people were more polite but distance and less outgoing, like they wanted to be left alone. In both the South and the Midwest the rural folks are friendlier than city people.
Further west, I found the cities to be friendlier than rural areas, particularly in Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado. Las Vegas and Colorado Springs were two of the friendliest large cities I've visited, more so than Dallas and Memphis.
I DO want to point that there is more of a hostile ghetto element in the South. Even a city the size of Baton Rouge has large percentages of ghetto people with a hostile attitude, while the ghetto element is not as prevalent in Topeka or Jefferson City. The Southern hospitality I've experienced has mostly been in rural and suburban areas and in the nicer parts of big cities. In the Midwest the ghetto element is limited mostly to large cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City and Cleveland while in the South smaller towns can also have a ghetto element.
Midwesterners are definitely friendlier than coastal people. It's common for runners to say hi to one another when they run past each other. I tried that when I was in California and DC and the runners looked at me like I was crazy.
Comparing apples to apples, city people in Midwest vs city people in California/Northeast, Midwestern city folk are significantly friendlier.
However, there's a distinction between Midwestern politeness and southern hospitality. Midwesterners are friendly in a polite and reserved manner, and can be viewed as overly politically correct to the point of vanilla. Southern hospitality is in-your-face and highly effusive, overflowing with emotion, usually sugary, and can be viewed as fake. A lot of doll, sweethearts, honeys, in southern speech.
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), (2) having worked with plenty of customers from Milwaukee, (3) having worked for a plain psycho boss from Minneapolis, and (4) encountering impatient drivers here in California with license plates particularly from Illinois and Missouri, as well as (5) hearing people who live in California and Florida complain about Midwestern snowbirds, I'm thinking that Midwestern "hospitality" might not live up to its reputation. (Sorry for the long sentence.) At least in some areas. In fact, I've found people from Louisville to be downright rude and people from Milwaukee to be kinda...weird, at least in my experience.
