# What I hate about the Midwest. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599 "2007-04-25T15:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AHoosierMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@AHoosierMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHoosierMama)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/61 "2007-04-25T20:46:31Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Because “South” isn’t about geography, but about culture. How can the southern end of Indiana, a state which touches the Northern border of the country, be South? 'Cause it is, that’s how. [/QUOTE] Nuh - uh 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/62 "2007-04-25T21:31:55Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Because “South” isn’t about geography, but about culture. How can the southern end of Indiana, a state which touches the Northern border of the country, be South? 'Cause it is, that’s how. [/QUOTE] No, must disagree with you. Firmly midwest. My ex and all his family lived in Madison Indiana. You could see Kentucky from there. It’s southern Indiana, which is beautiful and nice, but not The South. The OP doesn’t even know where he is. I disqualify this thread from being a rant since it was based on such an unfounded assumption. South or Southwest or whatever you’d like to call Texas, it’s not the Midwest! Keep it far away from here! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/63 "2007-04-25T21:36:30Z")
Texas is Texas first. And then parts of it are Southern. Texas is so varied that it needs to be split up to talk about it. Not just geography, but what the general population is like, too. I split it up pretty much like this: You got Gulf Coast Texas - Beaumont, Galveston, Houston, Corpus Christie, etc… Piney Woods or East Texas - Tyler, Kilgore, Henderson … Hill Country - Austin, Hondo, Georgetown … Panhandle - Amarillo, Hereford, Levelland … Rio Grande Valley - McAllen, Brownsville, Edinburg … West Texas - Midland/Odessa, El Paso, San Angelo … Damn Yankee Texas - Dallas, Waco … And the places that don’t fit in where they are - Witchita Falls, Fort Worth, Victoria, San Antonio … (They may be in the Hill Country or DYT, but they don’t feel like the rest of the area) Houston might need a catagory all its own, now that I think about it. It is a huge mix of people surrounded by swamps, freeways, and the Gulf Coast. Anyways, lots of variety in Texas. An image search for Texas maps brought up [this,](http://www.ibbp.com/figures/Maps/Texas.jpg) among several dozen others. Kind of makes the same distinctions I did. Just in a slightly different way. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/64 "2007-04-25T21:44:16Z")
I think of the Midwest as Plains states – northern, central, and southern. Texas would be Southern Plains. Does that work? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/65 "2007-04-25T21:57:08Z")
Midwest has to be north of the Ohio River, and then some parts to the west of that, like Missouri and Kansas. South of that line is … well, “South”, for want of a better word, or “Texas”, for the Texas-exceptionalists. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/66 "2007-04-25T22:37:56Z")
Oddly enough, I think the two most Southern feeling parts of Texas are the Piney Woods/East Texas and the Hill Country areas. Hill Country is pretty much the center part of the state. The Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley areas, south of the above mentioned areas, never felt completely Southern to me. Yeah, it is Southern, but there’s a major Hispanic element there which flavors a lot of things. And a true swamp baby (my birth right), from any Southern state’s Gulf Coast area, is difficult to catagorize at all, because we’re so mixed up from near a dozen or so influences. I’m not just another pretty foot. So, from outside the state, you can pretty much label it whatever you want. From inside the state, many Texans have their own labels. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/67 "2007-04-25T23:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=saoirse] George McGovern … has never been to a foam rave. [/QUOTE] Cite? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/68 "2007-04-25T23:12:13Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB] I’d go back to small town South Dakota in a heartbeat if my ex would only vaporize. [/QUOTE] We have a [Winner!](http://www.winnersd.org/) And oooh, there’s a drive-in! ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/69 "2007-04-25T23:14:52Z")
Pssst, looks like we fooled 'em **Qadgop** , they’re all talking about Texas now… ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/70 "2007-04-25T23:39:10Z")
[QUOTE=August West] Pssst, looks like we fooled 'em **Qadgop** , they’re all talking about Texas now… [/QUOTE] But, the OP lives in Texas, not the Midwest, correct? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/71 "2007-04-25T23:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] But, the OP lives in Texas, not the Midwest, correct? 😕 [/QUOTE] Thank Og it’s working, **Augie**! ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/72 "2007-04-25T23:49:17Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] Thank Og it’s working, **Augie**! [/QUOTE] It isn’t a hijack if the conversation is gently steered to the person’s true source of ire. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/73 "2007-04-26T01:48:36Z")
I’ve often said Houston is the melding point between cajun, mexican and the southwestern cultures. Now, as for the OP. How did you end up in the Texas panhandle? I’m sure the issues you have with the area didn’t happen since you’ve been there. No, it was like that when you arrived :dubious: Did someone hold a gun to your head (this is Texas after all) and force you to relocate and are still holding you hostage? Life is too short. Find yourself a highly congested metro area and get the hell out of Dodge, errr Amarillo… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/74 "2007-04-26T10:07:40Z")
The OP speaks of “the Midwest” as a single entity. Yet “the Midwest” is larger than Europe. Would you speak of Europe as a single culture? This is clear from all the discussion about if the OP is even in what most people consider the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/75 "2007-04-26T12:00:42Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] The OP speaks of “the Midwest” as a single entity. Yet “the Midwest” is larger than Europe. Would you speak of Europe as a single culture? [/QUOTE] No – but the Midwest is far more homogeneous in culture than many small countries in Europe (e.g., Belgium, Switzerland). It’s not just a matter of area: Australia is larger in area than the Midwest, but it’s more homogeneous culturally than the Midwest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599.md?page=3)