Everyone - I’m doing a paper on George Ryan and his debacle as a governor. I’m wondering, and will include in my paper depending on if I get any feedback at all, what residents of other states thought about Illinois in general, the scandals Ryan has been through, and Illinoisans in general.
Can any of y’all help me out here?
Just looking for opinions…
Chicagoans go about with an electric guitar (for playing the blues) in one hand and a Thompson submachine gun (for shooting members of rival gangs) in the other, on their way to eat deep-dish pizza while whining about the Cubbies.
Outside of Chicago, everyone is a pig farmer.
No offense is meant by this and it does NOT neccisarily represent my personal opinions, but in Wisconsin the general opinion is that we don’t like Illinoisans as drivers. But I’m guessing that’s not really relevant.
It’s cold up there. Very cold.
Huckleberry and Jim were trying to get to Cairo, but missed the steamboat landing in the weather.
My Grandmother was from Illinois.
How do you pronounce “Cairo”?
We pronounce it like the city in Egypt down here.
I dated a lawyer from Winchester one time. His family lived in a 4-story house; the first floor was a funeral home and they kept the caskets on the 4th floor.
They were honest, sweet, and … boring people. 
Land of Lincoln and Carol Moseley Braun …sorry that’s all I’ve got for Illinois.
Did they know my Grandmother?
Same here. My father’s entire family is from near Kankakee. I drove across the state from west to east about 6 months ago on my way back from Oregon, and visited them all. They hadn’t changed in 20 years since I was a kid. Blue collar, unimaginitive, monocultural, etc. I’d never want to live anywhere there but Chicago. But nevertheless, I think we still need people like that. They’re the nuts and bolts of our country, figuratively speaking.
Illinoisans were very friendly when I visited (and that was Chicago, even!). I guess it’s a midwestern thing.
I think of the rest of the state as very bland and monotonous–both the land and the people. I’ve never been south of Chi, so this is just an uneducated perception.
And cold, very cold.
To put it another way, if I had to put together an army to take on Nazi Germany, i’d rather have 100,000 rural Illinoisans than twice as many southern Californians. They may be dull, but they’re tough.
They’re all jerks
Most of my time with Il people was working in Door County, which is a major tourist destination for Il (and WI). During the summer IL people definitely outnumber locals and probably outnumber WI people. Most tourists are jerks (demand unreasonable things for example). Most tourists are from IL, so most IL people I encountered were jerks.
Also, I went to UW-Platteville where the Bears used to train. It did not surprise me that people came and watched. What surprised me was seeing people standing outside the dorm where the Bears stayed (what? to get a peek of one in a window? or when the left?). Tho Packer fans are probably worse.
I have a Bro-in-Law who originally from IL, and he and his family are nice. And one of my friends at school was from IL. The exceptions prove the rule, or something.
Brian
who points out that niether IL nor IA is very flat near the Mississippi (esp in the driftless area)
Kay-Roe
I am from IL, grew up and educated, thank God I left, and have never came back. I grew up outside of Decatur, the education I recieved should have been better, but I learned enough and got the Hell out of there.
The only thing I know is, having visited several times, IL is in a time warp, nothing ever changes. I am very glad I left, went into the Navy and lived, experienced life. People in IL or very Closed-Minded, they do not expand their life or views. I feel like, when I go back I have never left, like I am 12 years old even though I am in my 30’s. I often feel like Bill Murray in GroundHog Day, when I go back. Let’s just say IL - Sucks, and this is a Native Illinoisan.
Illinois in general: Corn and terrible roads.
Ryan scandals: He had a lot of them for someone from Illinois. I don’t think of Illinois as a scandal-plagued state.
Illinoisans: I know way too many Illinoisans to stereotype them at all.
Glad to be of pretty much no help, but I don’t think about Illinois as much more than a generic state (and that after having lived in IL during my early childhood years and having most of my family there). Sorry!
Well I thought people from Illinios said “yous guys” and not “y’all”
Now I’m really confused.
My vat of nutritive fluid is located in central Illinois. When we were first moving here, I would tell people I was moving to Illinois and they’d say, “Chicago?” When I said I wasn’t moving to Chicago, they were clearly all out of ideas. I think most people have a hard time coming up with place names in Illinois that aren’t Chicago. People talk about Peoria a lot but not as a real place. Springfield is, of course, where the Simpsons live.
The other thing I’d get when we were moving here was “Oooh, it’s so flat there!” This coming from people in Louisiana. Yeah, it is.
People also think it’s preternaturally cold here. That’s because Chicago, being on the lakes, does get very cold. However, I’m only a couple of hours away from Chicago and we don’t experience anywhere near the bad weather they do.
People in Illinois think they don’t have accents, but we get a lot of those nasally Chi-cah-go accents in this town. It’s kind of funny.
It was no surprise that Lincoln’s on our state quarter. If I had been able to pick, I would have had Al Capone and Michael Jordan playing basketball, with one riding a bull and one riding a bear, and Lincoln as a referee.
Um…it’s mostly empty and brown and boring to drive through, except for the bit around Chicago which is bleak and industrial and even less fun to drive through. And Champaign-Urbana is one long strip of fast-food restaurants, gas stations and cheap motels.
Oh, and I always used to take the Illinois piece out of my wooden “Map of the States” jigsaw puzzle and pretend it was an Indian arrowhead. (Florida made a pretty good gun, too. Better than Idaho, anyhow.)
They’re yankees.
They can’t help it.
Be nice.
(Besides your fellow Arkansasan is 25% one of…them)