U.S. Dopers: what are your uninformed impressions of other states?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I was born and raised east of Chattanooga – putting me almost as far east in Tennessee as you can get – and while I’m not entirely fond of the area’s politics or religion, I wouldn’t call it backwards. Behind the times, too staid for its own good, and more than a little infuriating, yes, but the people in Rhea County that tried to ban homosexuals from there are not the norm, nor do I remember being particularly hassled for my atheism from anyone except my mother.

As a matter of fact, when I worked at Wal Mart in my hometown, a conservative company in a conservative city, there were at least three open and flaming homosexuals working there, one of which was very popular, even amongst the religious.

No offense to you but it seems like you’re trying to deflect some of Mississippi’s heat onto neighboring states and it’s only making the picture look worse. I mean, how much of a defense is “We’re backwards, but so’re they! And thrice as bad!”?

22

That’s probably the most accurate description of NH I have ever heard. :stuck_out_tongue:

I really don’t have any impressions of other states, for the most part. A lot of people say that they imagine the Midwest region as nothing but a flat plain, no hills, mountains, etc…I don’t even imagine this, cause I can’t! I cannot get it into my head that there is a region where there are no hills! That you can drive from point A to point B on a perfectly straight, level road. Having never done that/seen that, it’s unimaginable.

23

California is full of weirdos.

Texas is full of people with goofy hats on their heads and guns on their hips.

Washington (Seattle, more specifically) is full of people who wish they lived in San Fransisco.

Illinois is New York: Reloaded.

Nevada is Utah is Arizona is New Mexico is a big friggin’ desert.

Some of them rectangular states are really flat.

Hawaii has become part of Japan.

Alaska is Canada without the Canadians.

Everybody else thinks New York State = New York City.

24

Forgot a couple:

Eastern Massachusetts if full of people who want to move to Maine because it’s a better place to live, and then turn it into Massachusetts.

People in upstate New York and western Masachusetts have a hell of a lot more in common with each other than they do with people from NYC or Boston.

25

The freakiest thing about the Great Flat States is not the land - it’s that it’s not only flat, but there’s very very few trees. The mix of flat land + no trees makes the sky huge, and you feel very, very conspicuous. I never got used to it, despite 11 years in Colorado (Colorado, for those who don’t know, is very flat right up until the mountains start, and most of the cities are on the flat parts.) It was common to see a farm house in the middle of fields, with no cover, no trees, nothing. You felt so exposed.

To be fair, though, the people I know who grew up in such places always complained of feeling claustrophobic in areas where it was all trees and hills.

26

Oregon, being surrounded by Techie Washinton to the north, ganbling Nevada to the SE, potato-obsessed Idaho to the east, & hippie California to the south, has no identity!

Grey, faceless androids, in grey suits, vaguely nice people, feeling left out, their neighbors won’t let them join in any reindeer games, so they drink until they get red noses, etc. :wink: :smiley:

27

Well, correct us then. Is Alabama not disproportionately populated with of poorly educated, Christian conservatives? Is football not far more important than scholarship? Is the black population not marginalized (more so than in other states)? Is creationism not treated as a given?

I’m not being snarky here, it’s just that looking at the education test scores from down there, the fact that Alabama is a slam dunk red state in any presidential election and prominent Alabamans such as Gov. Wallace and Judge Roy Moore, I’m inclined to think that the stereotypes have some basis in truth. I’d like to hear that those impressions are misplaced.

28

These are the states I haven’t been to, or just drove through.

Alaska - mostly cold; mosquitoes when it’s warm. Beautiful, but the road ends 1/10 mile out of town, and then you need an airplane. Torn between preserving natural beauty, and milking the resources for all their worth.
Iowa - Flat; corn, hogs, cows. No reason to stop.
Kansas - See Iowa
Nebraska - See Kansas
Missouri - Mostly hillbillies, except St. Louis, which would be as bland as Wonder Bread except blacks made some good music there.
Arizona - Hot, dry, big canyon, right-wing morons
New Mexico - Like Arizona, but no canyon, less right-wing morons
Oregon - Pretty liberal, forest and mountains in west, desert in east; best place in US to be if you’re about to die.

Can’t do Ohio, because I’m from there. Sorry.

29

As we say in the Land of 10,000 Lakes:
How do you get to Iowa?
Walk south 'til you step in something.

Here’s another one (this time about South Dakota):
What do South Dakotans call a state park?
A pine tree and a farm pond.

Actually, both states are pretty nice and really do have something to offer. I’ve been to both! (Lucky me!)

30

Since I’ve travelled so much, I no longer form opinions of places until I see them. I’d like to see a thread along the lines of how preconceived notions of a place have been either entirely disabused or completely confirmed by a visit there, but I’m not in the mood to start one myself.

31

I was born and raised in Texas and we were taught that everything North and/or East of Little Rock, Arkansas looked like the South side of Chicago, I was shocked when I drove to Detroit, Michigan in 1999 with a few stops in Ohio (Mid-Ohio for AMA vintage motorcycle days, Wauseon, Toledo, Cincinatti),
Ohio is gorgeous (once you get out of the cities!).
Detroit is everything that the stereotypes say it is, but Michigan is awesome (same deal as above, get away from the cities, the UP absolutely blew me away!).

But

When I joined the Army in 1985 I flew into Philadelphia (on my way to FT. Dix) and I was shocked! by how ugly Filthadelphia was, it was easily the dirtiest, ugliest place I have ever been (and I was born and raised in Houston).

Unclviny

32

[QUOTE=Captain Lance Murdoch re Alabama]
Is football not far more important than scholarship?

[QUOTE]

What? You mean that’s not the whole country? Because it sure is the impression us foreigners get :stuck_out_tongue: and not just when looking from abroad: when I was teaching at U of Miami, we were supposed to bend backwards, sideways and even a little bit further forwards for any collegiate athlete who missed class due to training or a game, but were not allowed to let someone make up a class they’d missed due to an interview (job or grad school).

Judging from your own movies, books and my own experience, full scholarships based on brains and grades are completely non-existant (in other countries they do exist: I got one from my local government for two of the three years I spent in grad school). I have had roomies who were paying for their college by playing tennis and get enough money to live on to boot (I used to tell them that they were professional tennis players, just not top-paid ones) and coworkers who paid for their Bachelor’s, several MBAs and even an LD by playing some sport for the university. Excuse me while I go have some chamomile tea… this issue always makes my stomach act up.

33

North Dakota
South Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas

All, flat as a board and freezing cold. Amber waves of grain as far as the eye can see. No fresh seafood. No concept of what the beach is like.

I’m sure that all of these states are wonderful places to live, but I couldn’t do it.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan

Cold and gray.

Again, I’m sure that my mental images are way off, but that’s what I “see” when someone names those states.

34

Rapidfire stereotypes off the top of my head:

AL - Bible thumpers sicking police dogs on black people and spraying them with fire hoses
AK - Lumberjacks, glacial mountains, huge fish, no women
AZ - Scorching desert, senior citizens in vast swaths of tract housing
AR - Flat & grey, mobile homes
CA - Plastic people in sunny SoCal, Berkeley students in NorCal
CO - Blonde nordic types, skiers
CT - Wannabe New Yorkers
DE - Ghettos
DC - Ghettos surrounding ivory towers
FL - Beach roller bladers in pink spandex with yellow headphones
GA - Southern plantations, Southern belles, heavily black Atlanta
HI - Luaus, grass skirts, tropical forest
ID - Mountains, lumberjacks
IL - Flat, green
IN - Flat, grey (I don’t know why)
IA - Flat, corn
KS - Flat, wheat
KY - Rolling grass fields, but the grass is all blue
LA - Ragtime bands, French people
ME - Crab fisherman
MD - Blank
MA - Boston liberal intellectuals dripping in cash
MI - Roger & Me, industrial towns gone bust, crime-ridden ghetto Detroit
MN - Sacndinavians in purple sweatshirts & funny accents
MS - See Alabama
MO - Everyone looks like Dick Gephardt
MT - Flat land , Big sky
NE - Flat, corn, maybe wheat
NV - Vegas lights surrounded by vast desert, gluttony (in a good way)
NH - Forest
NJ - Very grey, where’s the garden everyone speaks of?
NM - Native Americans selling turquoise trinkets and woven stuff in the desert
NY - Manhattan juxtaposed against small towns strewn about the forest
NC - Quiet beaches
ND - Flat, snow
OH - Flat, old factories
OK - Flat, Native Americans (the comma is important here)
OR - Green Forest paradise with stoners running through the chilly damp woods, Portland is a the emerald gem in the crown
PA - Rusty factories, dark dirty blue collar towns
RI - Isolationists content in their little world
SC - Humid plantation homes
SD - Mt. Rushmore sitting by itself and nothing else, no people, nothing
TN - Everyone walking around in gaudy country western outfits with tassels and beads on their shirts, many with guitars strapped on their backs
TX - Rugged cowboys, big hats, big belt buckles, tight jeans, boots, women with big hair (except Austin, which is attractive slacker college students mixed with yuppie politicos in suits. San Antonio is urban vaqueros. Houston has a big oil tanker parked on the coast)
UT - Road runner cartoons
VT - Lush forest
VA - A forest full of Republicans bearing rifles
WA - High tech, Starbucks, clean city Seattle nestled in the rainy forest
WV - Hillbilly: skinny, straw hat, no shirt, tattered overalls with one strap undone, no socks, no shoes, few teeth, piece of hay sticking out of the mouth, carrying a jug of moonshine
WI - Dairy farms
WY - Rodeos

I don’t know why I came up with some of these. Just the first thing that popped into my head.

35

Nobody is better than me at bashing the culture of athletic privilege at jockocracies like the U of Miami, but that’s another thread.

There are loads of non-athletic scholarships in the U.S. and the majority of American colleges (including the one I attended) have no athletic scholarships at all.

At any rate, I was thinking more in terms of high school sports in my post. I’m not suggesting Alabama is the only state like this either. In my state hockey is numero uno. It seems that in the south this is taken to a greater extreme than it is here.

36

I think you mean lobstahs. Crab fishermen would be Maryland, I believe.
Exgineer I agree with both parts of your post.

37

As an Iowan now living in Minnesota, I can only say this:
Yeah, well do you know why Iowa doesn’t have an NFL football team? If they did, Minnesota’d want one too. (rimshot)

Having grown up in Iowa, I can tell you that it’s not all flat land. The northeast corner, as well as the eastern edge (right along the Mississippi River) is very wooded and hilly. In fact, the house I grew up in had a 150-foot high hill in the backyard.

As for some stereotypes of my own:
North Dakota: The city of Fargo, which everyone has heard of but only about 10 people have ever actually visited.

California: 10,000,000 aspiring actors, movie writers, and producers. Most waiting tables while searching for their ‘big break’, which is never actually going to happen.

Wisconsin: Like Iowa and Minnesota, only with more drunks.

38

“Flat land” was pretty much my idea of Iowa. Now I’ll try to remember that it’s “mostly flat land.”

Similarly, since I think there was at least one mention in here of “flat” for Ohio, I feel compelled to mention that more than a little bit of Ohio is not flat. Much of the southeastern third or so is hilly and largely wooded. Also, it is hilly along most of the rest of the Ohio River border, to include, for example, Cincinnati.

39

I’ve been to 37 of the 50, so here goes:

I kinda lump all of New England together–sorry, but I do! Tons of trees, so many friggin’ trees that I get a bit claustrophobic and want a horizon line that does not involve salt water…

Nobody is ever from Delaware, and nobody knows anyone from same. It’s the phantom state, to me.

Florida–tourists, old people, crappy elections, heat that can kill you, humidity ditto, bugs ditto, ditto. (I was born in FL and happy to leave–too hot for me!).

The South–Lawd help me. It’s Bible verses carved into the area above the garage door. It’s there is only creamed corn or carrots/iceberg lettuce at the salad bar. Billboards advertising hokey shit line the highway–so ugly. Red soil, better manners than NE or Midwest, pine trees everywhere. Garbage everywhere–rusted old cars, tires, etc–where are the landfills? Scriptural billboards and a church every mile. And country music played everywhere. Horrific poverty–literal shacks line the back roads. Being looked over when you stop for gas, so that you feel like the banjo music should start soon… I haven’t been back in a few, so forgive me if this has changed.

Texas: I am sorry, I have a prejudice against Texas. Too arrogant, too ignorant, too size obsessed, too insular. Heat, lizards, shitkickers, cowboy hats and sloth.

West: California is a crazy mixed up place. Thinks it’s “all that”, but preys on the water from other states; people persist in living in places that just aren’t livable–fires, mudslides, floods, earthquakes…Hollywood is another planet!
For some reason, I have no recollection of Nevada. Hmm.
Utah-sand, salt, gorgeous Green River. Nice dinosaurs. Sorry, but people are a tad strange. Felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode. Ached to see a minority/gay/Asian.
Colorado-another part of my college years. Stunning mountains–I could go all John Denver on you. Gun-totin’, coke snortin’, cowboy hat wearin’…
Arizona–Indians, desert, lizards, turquoise, hot.
NM-same, really.

Pacific NW: breathtakingly beautiful and stuck in about 1955. Found a "shopping center"l outside of Seattle–felt like a time warp had taken place. Again, it’s been about 10 years, so…the San Juans are wonderful.

Midwest:
Kansas, not so flat, really. Wheat and cowboy hats–and conservatives.
Nebraska: glorious sky, but flat, flat, flat–and grey. And smelly–the factory farms for hogs etc. ugh. Cowboy hats and cattle.
Iowa: got a soft spot here-went to college here for awhile. IA has alot of rolling hills, some good scenery, friendly people. No more cowboy hats (thank God).
Illinois-this is home. Because it’s so long, the geography changes alot. It has rolling hills, flat as a pancake and also some rugged terrain. Lurve Chicago. Downstate, no such thing as a Democrat–and we even have some cowboy hats(yikes!). Corn, tempered with soybeans for variety.
Indiana–corn, soy, corn, soy, corn, soy…zzzzzzzz.
Ohio–rolling hills, pretty scenery, NOBODY exceeds the speed limit. Very weird. And they all drive sedans, I swear…
Michigan-very blue collar interspersed with Money. Spoile for choice re: natural beauty.
Wisconsin-fun! gorgeous, lots of cows. No, really–LOTS of cows.

Hawaii–hot, tropical, expensive, fun, crowded.

I mean this to be slightly tongue in cheek…hope noone takes offense!

40

We have a friend who moved from NY to Michigan. He comes back during the winter and marches around in short sleeves when there’s snow on the ground. Because of him I always think of Michigan as one big ice cube filled with people wearing summer clothing.