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You can think of Illinois as the quintessential midwest state. It's also geographically in the middle of the midwest. On the fringes, you have parts of the Midwest that have things in common with the Plains, the South, and the East. When people from one end of this vast region, look at people from the other end, things get confusing.
When I lived in Minnesota and I told people I was from Ohio, they called it the East, not the Midwest. The culture in Ohio is totally different from Minnesota, and compared to them, we are more like the East. I've also noticed on some Cleveland broadcasts, when they say there's a storm in the "midwest" they're not referring to Ohio, but rather to Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. We also refer to ourselves as Midwest, but I think we are conscious of the differences between us and those states.
I disagree that the culture in Ohio is that much different from Minnesota. Both are in the Midwest, and I disagree that Ohio is more like the east compared to Minnesota. Compared to the Plains states maybe but not the states east of there. Ohio for the most part as a whole state is more like its fellow Midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri than it is like Pennsylvania or Upstate New York.
Most of my older relatives are/were from Wisconsin and Michigan, and all referred to those states as "back east" after moving to California.
A lot of people on the west coast call states east of the Rocky mountains "back east". Those two states are east of the Mississippi river as well, so in that respect they are part of the East. That does not mean Northeast however, as they are quintessential Upper Midwest places. At least half of the Midwest is in the eastern half of the nation.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by U146
I disagree that the culture in Ohio is that much different from Minnesota. Both are in the Midwest, and I disagree that Ohio is more like the east compared to Minnesota. Compared to the Plains states maybe but not the states east of there. Ohio for the most part as a whole state is more like its fellow Midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri than it is like Pennsylvania or Upstate New York.
Depends on where in Ohio you are.
Appalachian Ohio is very much more like PA and upstate NY as well as northern WV.
Cleveland is very much like Buffalo NY and Erie PA.
Central and west Ohio are very much like the rest of the Midwest.
I have an aunt and uncle that live in Omaha and they refer to it as "back east" when they're in Oregon, but that's about the furthest west I've heard it referred to as.
A friend of mine that lives in New Jersey considers "out west" to be anything west of Denver, so it seems that's a common dividing line.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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I tend to consider anything west of the "frontier strip" western and anything east of it eastern. Between the strip itself and land west of the Mississippi it''d be fair to call that the true central US.
To clarify I consider the following states to be the center of the US as far as east-west is concerned. The Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota. To me east of that is east, west of that is west.
Appalachian Ohio is very much more like PA and upstate NY as well as northern WV.
Cleveland is very much like Buffalo NY and Erie PA.
Central and west Ohio are very much like the rest of the Midwest.
Cleveland is also very much like Detroit and Chicago, and Buffalo and Erie are much more like those cities than the Bos-Wash Corridor.
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