What is it like to live in the Midwest.

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

<p>It is really interesting reading these anecdotes of the Midwest lifestyle. My impression of the Midwest is that the people are very nice, but mostly in the same lower to middle-class income bracket. And there isn’t much to do except farm, go to the community pool/your pool, or walk for hundreds of miles with no companions outside of haystacks. In California, most people are rude, you never meet your neighbors, and the smog makes sure that you’ll never see a constellation or the driver in front of you. It’s all relative, I guess.</p>

22

<p>Oh, and then the cities are sparse, but cute. The people there are under the impression that they are city folk, when the population is something like 200,000. And everyone eats “salads” made with either a pint of Jello or a pint of mayonnaise. :D</p>

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<p>I live in Chicago and it’s pretty awesome.</p>

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<p>

thats exactly my perception</p>

25

<p>^^^ Who the frig farms? Farmers are an incredibly tiny percentage of the population, Midwest or not. And haystacks? Lulz. Out-group homogeneity bias is so crazy.</p>

<p>Anyway, as my Location thing indicates, I live in Cincinnati. It’s okay here. If people want to do something, they go to Ludlow or Newport or somewhere like that, see a movie, eat something, etc. My sister goes out smoking hookah all the time now, that’s somewhat popular.
I think the West Side of Cincinnati is more like what a lot of people here described. Everyone there is German Catholic, and they play cornhole, and they identify themselves by parish. But I totally stereotype them, because I’m an East sider, and that’s what we do. On the East side there are a lot of people new to the city (my parents are from Alabama and DC) and we’re more “cosmopolitan,” I guess, but I would hardly describe Cincinnati as cosmopolitan.
A lot of people go to private school (Wiki says 2nd highest in the US), and a lot of those schools are single sex. It’s pretty normal around here.
I think East side is wealthier. Maybe.
We’re the Queen City and we like Kroger and Proctor & Gamble. We eat Cincinnati chilli, have the largest Oktoberfest in the US, a very good amusement park, and other junk. We have race riots and a sort of high crime rate. It’s mediocre here.
Once upon a time Jerry Springer was our mayor. And Charles Manson is from around these parts.</p>

<p>I’ve never really been to the MidWest though. I’ve spent a few days in Chicago and a few more in Ann Arbor. Maybe that adds up to a week in each place. I spent a week in Dayton, but that’s like 45 minutes away. So maybe it’s different there. And I’ve heard Cincinnati’s MidWest-erness is somewhat diluted by its proximity to Kentucky.</p>

26

<p>Well a suburb near east-st. paul.</p>

<p>People here (in my school/area) actually have ambitions and stuff, but otherwise, I agree with what others have said.</p>

<p>EVERYONE seems to have a cabin up north, and plan on going to UMN as their top.People are also either catholic or lutheran. :/</p>

<p>Lots of lakes/fishing here too.</p>

27

<p>I’m glad to see that someone around here agrees with me, matok! </p>

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<p>Ha. That’s hilarious! There’s a little bit of that in the Midwest, but it is definitely not the norm. As a whole, we aren’t seen to be as wealthy as the East Coast, but from what I’ve seen, most people fit into the middle class. There’s everything from gated communities to slums, though. Some towns with great natural resources are very blue collar. Nebraska, Iowa, and the southern part of Minnesota have many farms, but other than that, there aren’t that many :)</p>

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<p>The south and Texas are definitely where the poor can be found.</p>

<p>Here’s a poverty map. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.eleganthack.com/archives/povertymap.png[/url]”>http://www.eleganthack.com/archives/povertymap.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>My daughter (an East Coast kid) attends a large university in northeastern Kansas and really likes it there. As a whole, I’ve found Kansans to be conservative, very friendly, genuine, kind people who appreciate manners and a slower pace. Northeastern Kansas is very rural, green, with tallgrass prairie and rolling hills, and very few trees. Here are a few photos:</p>

<p>[Konza</a> Prairie Sunset on Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/juddpatterson/493289135/]Konza”>Konza Prairie Sunset | First of the wildflowers are blooming… | Flickr)
[Konza-Prairie-Grasses-29</a> on Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/lunarmoth/3238968617/]Konza-Prairie-Grasses-29”>Konza-Prairie-Grasses-29 | Native bluestem and other tall an… | Flickr)
[Konza</a> Prairie on Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/konzadocent/394095730/]Konza”>Konza Prairie | Sunrise on the prairie. | Chod Hedinger | Flickr)</p>

<p>Summers are very hot, winters are milder than in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, and spring and fall are beautiful. There is almost always a steady wind. Kansas is prone to severe weather from early spring through summer – big thunderstorms, hail, and the occasional tornado. The night sky is beautiful because there is so little light pollution – stars everywhere. The cities and the college towns – Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan – offer more culture and diversity than you would think, plus great sports. There are also lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. The cost of living is low. In short, it’s certainly an adjustment from the the coasts, but there is much to be appreciated in the Midwest.</p>

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<p>Eh it’s pretty boring here in Michigan. Let me see…I live near Detroit and there really isn’t anything to do other than shopping, the movies, and “hanging out”. You can go to the zoo, which sucks Toledo is better, a game, the DIA, or a show, but it’s really not common to do any of those things on a regular basis. Unless you have season passes for baseball. The most common vacation people make is going Up North. Seriously everybody knows what going Up North means and when you ask where you usually mean what lake. Really it’s boring here and the weather changes every five minutes. But in general everywhere in the midwest is really different. Michigan bores me to death, but I LOVE Chicago. Oh and if your grandparents are alive and grew up in Detroit all they do is talk about is how much better it used to be and how it was so pretty and just like Chicago…Michigan’s glory days are long gone though. Plus, whenever the national news says the economy is getting better you watch the local news an know its not in Michigan. And lastly if you live near Detroit there is no way you don’t know at LEAST one person who works/worked for the auto companies and if they still have a job they’re terrified of losing it. So right now everyone is laid off, are in danger of being laid off, or making way less money.</p>

31

<p>I guess Cleveland could be considered to be in the midwest…</p>

<p>Well, anyway, I love Cleveland. It’s still a big city, without actually being a “big city”. Traffic is never really bad and the city itself is small.</p>

<p>However, the suburbs are huge and spread out. You’d have to get quite a ways out to get away from any real “city”. Most people, at least whom I know of, don’t work in the city itself.</p>

<p>Aside from the weather (we seem to have two seasons… summer and winter) and the sports teams (amazing, I know…), Cleveland is a great place to live. Also one of the most affordable (except for taxes, but that’s Ohio’s problem, not Cleveland’s).</p>

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<p>Definitely two seasons. It sucks. There’s a two week time in spring which is amazing (warm, not hot), but sometimes this doesn’t happen. If I recall, this year it was like 50s in May and then got in 90s in June (with some 60 days in June and early July). Fall changes quickly, with Halloween being decent to cold and late September being pretty solidly comfortable. So one month of fall, pretty much. The rest is freezing windy winter and humid summers. </p>

<p>In chicagoland, there is suburbia for like two or so hours in any direction, which kinda sucks. At the edge is a harsh transition between developements and farmland, which expands every year outward. After that, rolling or flat farmland with an occasional rural town. </p>

<p>The culture here is pretty nice. Sports are a big part of life, especially winter when there really isn’t anything else to do. No one will chastise you for staying inside on a nice day. People dress pretty average. Jeans or warmup pants and a t-shirt are common. People are generally of the same social class wherever you live (with some notable exceptions), and almost no one (kids at least) flaunts their wealth. Really no rude people, but none of that southern comfort i hear about. Academics are important but not in your face, as is the notion of living a financially succesful life. </p>

<p>It’s pretty sweet here, actually. I’m gonna be leaving, and I’ll probably miss it. Even the winters, there’s a certain charm. The kind of thing where you just stay inside all day, maybe even in front of a lit fireplace :).</p>

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<p>I live in Michigan and the lakes are nice, but i don’t like most of the ignorant people.</p>

34

<p>generallyrong, do you live in Johnson County? Because I do!
But yeah, he was completely right about that.</p>

35

<p>Yeah, that makes four people!</p>

36

<p>I live in southeast Nebraska.</p>

<p>Around here the people are nice, for the most part. Most will stop and lend you a hand if you have a flat tire, need help, etc. Everybody knows everybody. I used to live in a town of 800 and I knew probably 98% of them. We just bought an acreage about 3 miles out of town and have since built a new house and work shop (5000 square foot shop for our racing team).</p>

<p>The towns are a little spread out. Most have about 5-10 miles of crop fields between them. Most people in our area go to Lincoln to do their shopping, hanging out, etc. Each little town is basically a school, park, pool, gas station, post office, bank, a few other small businesses (auto repair, grocery store, salvage yard, etc) and a co-op. There’s quite a few paved highways, but there are a lot of gravel roads too.</p>

<p>We definitely have 4 seasons. Winters are usually pretty cold and snowy. Summers are hot and have storms probably 2-3 times a month. Springs are mild/warm with lots of rain/storms. Falls are mild/cool with the occasional snow storm.</p>

<p>The weather can be crazy. Here’s an example of a day we had a few months ago.</p>

<p>7AM - Foggy, 50 degrees
9AM - Sunny, 70 degrees, beautiful day
Noon - Sunny, windy, 95 degrees
2PM - Cold front moves in, weather drops to about 70 degrees
4PM - Dark/Cloudy, heavy rain, thunderstorms, hail - tornadoes temps can drop to 60
9PM - Storms move out, tempurature is around 70-80 degrees, you can see all the stars.</p>

<p>Sports are very popular. On Friday nights during football season the stadiums (yes, we have stadiums…not just wooden bleachers like you may think) are packed and EVERYONE goes to the games.</p>

<p>There’s lots of outdoors stuff to do. Fish, hunt, ride ATV’s, basically any sport, swim, bike, etc.</p>

<p>We have a racing team (oval dirt track racing), and racing is really popular around here. There’s probably 15 race tracks within 200 miles of here. (And we don’t hesitate traveling 200 miles on Friday, 350 miles on Saturday, and 100 miles on Sunday to race). We have a large car hauler, fully equipped with tools, parts, etc and still have plenty of room for our crew.</p>

<p>Here’s a bunch of pictures that pretty well describe the area I live in.</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nebraskaweatherphotos.org/Dsc_4590d80sm1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nebraskaweatherphotos.org/april2008photos.html&usg=__6d9XMxyBgEaPvcHLi0T3YAOtmUY=&h=389&w=900&sz=35&hl=en&start=43&tbnid=Abk_GKngQxrVWM:&tbnh=63&tbnw=146&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsoutheast%2Bnebraska%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40[/url]”>http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nebraskaweatherphotos.org/Dsc_4590d80sm1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nebraskaweatherphotos.org/april2008photos.html&usg=__6d9XMxyBgEaPvcHLi0T3YAOtmUY=&h=389&w=900&sz=35&hl=en&start=43&tbnid=Abk_GKngQxrVWM:&tbnh=63&tbnw=146&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsoutheast%2Bnebraska%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Any other questions, feel free to ask.</p>

37

<p>Michigan isn’t that great. Except for Ann Arbor.</p>

38

<p>jrt336, I beg to differ. Go Bucks!</p>

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<p>OH! I actually live in Johnson County, (overland park,KS) I think it’s great, and most people here are white, the only asians i see are the ones i go to church with, (since i go to a chinese church).Theres just one thing tho, if you can’t drive, then too bad. because we dont have buses and taxis here, its really hard to get to places when your parents have busy jobs.</p>

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<p>That makes 5. <(^.^<)</p>