- You know several people who have hit a deer.
- You’ve never met any celebrities.
- You’ve seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were poplar.
- Down south to you means Kentucky.
- You have no problem spelling or pronouncing “Terre Haute”
- Your school classes were canceled because of cold.
- Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
- You know what the phrase “Knee-high by the Fourth of July” means.
- You’ve heard of Euchre, you know how to play Euchre, and you are the master of Euchre.
- You’ve seen a running car, with nobody in it, in the parking lot of the grocery store no matter what time of year it is.
- You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where’s my coat at? or “If you go to the mall I wanna go with”
- Detassling was your first job. Bailing hay, your second. Or you could stack hay, swim in the pond to clean off, and then have the strength to play a couple of games of hoops all in the same barn lot on the same day.
- You’ve ever had to switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day OR “Stoke the fire” and “fling open the windows” for the older version.
- You have heard things like “catty-wumpus”, “katty-corner” or “kitty-corner”.
- You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
- You carry jumper cables in your car regularly.
- You drink “pop”.
- You know what “cow tipping” is.
- You know that Bailin’ wire was the predecessor to Duct tape.
- You know that strangers are the only ones that come to your “front” door.
- Kids and dogs ride in the passenger seats of cars and the backs of pickups.
- You think nothing of it in spring and fall to be stuck behind a farm implement driving on the roads.
- High school basketball game draws a bigger crowd on the weekend nights than movie theaters.
- Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
- The local paper covers national and international headlines on 1 page, but requires 6 for local sports (5 of which are high school basketball).
- Can repeat the scores of the last 8 IU games, but unless the MVP is a Hoosier, you are not sure who he is.
- You can see at least 2 basketball hoops from your yard.
- You can name every one of Bob Knight’s “exploits” over the last few years.
- You shop at Marsh.
- Damon Bailey was your childhood hero.
- The biggest question of your youth was “IU or Purdue”.
- Indianapolis is the “big city”.
- “Getting caught by a train” or being “rail roaded” is a legitimate excuse for being late to school.
- The Wabash river is the “biggest body of water” near your house.
- You know several different definitions as to what a Hoosier really is.
- People at your high school chewed tobacco.
- Everyone knows who the town cop is, where he lives, & whether he is at home or on duty.
- To get to school you had to drive on a gravel road, a road with several right-angle turns in it, or if you were really lucky, over a covered bridge.
- People in your neighborhood, really, REALLY like Nascar.
- You actually know what the CART Vs IRL debate is about & have taken a side.
- To you, a racoon is simply a “coon”.
- The vehicle of choice in your area is not a car, but a pickup.
- You are a BIG John Mellencamp fan.
- You’ve been to the Covered Bridge Festival.
- You took backroads to get there, why sit n traffic?
- To you, a tenderloin is not an expensive cut of beef, but a big, salty, breaded piece of pork served on a bun with pickles.
- You aren’t confused when someone calls a green pepper a “mango”, and never curious enough to ask why.
- Sometimes, you call the toilet the “commode” or the “stool”.
- In the fall, one of your favorite pranks was corning cars.
- You know what corning is.
- Wal-mart is the most exciting place in your hometown.
- Technically, you don’t even live in a town.
- You know what FFA stands for.
- A typical party at your high school consisted of a bunch of people driving trucks into the woods or an empty field, lighting a bonfire, and staring at it while drinking a few beers.
- It is a 30 minute drive from your house to the grocery store.
- You have all the same teachers in high school that your parents had.
- You know what chip-and-seal is, and your high school was located on just such a road.
- You think that Notre Dame is a college near South Bend, and not a cathedral in France.
- You know people who own belt buckles with their initials on them.
These buckles are the size of a dinner plate. - You go the county fair every night of it’s week-long duration.
- You know what a coal bucket is and that it has 18 wheels.
- You drop your g’s when speakin’.
Well, Hammond, IN here, so Chicago was the big city.
But I’ve been to the covered bridge festival many times.
My grandmother called green peppers mangoes. Is there an answer to the question why?
(And I’ve never detasseled in my life!)
Hammond, huh? Cool! I’ve got inlaws in Valpo.
South Bend here, but a little unsure of what “corning” is.
My guess is throwing corn (either the whole ears or the kernels) at cars driving by.
Jeffery
I expect it’s putting an ear of corn up the tailpipe. The car’s tailpipe, that is.
There’s a whole lotta corn in Indiana.
P.S. I’m a California girl now, VestalBlue.
Ways to know if you are a Region Rat
(Northwest Indiana)
Oil tanks are more common than trees in your neighborhood.
You don’t know anything about farming…at least not legal farming.
When you need to run out to the store you go to Jewel.
You call the interstate the “Tollroad”.
You know what good pizza tastes like, and its not Papa John’s.
Running red lights is normal!
Midway’s not an island, its an airport.
You know the night sky is not black, its orange!
You know roads are just a place for trains to park across.
Only a true region rat can tell which town they are in at any given time.
You measure distance in minutes instead of miles.
You understand what “Lake-Effect” is.
You don’t pronounce the ‘s’ in Illinois and you get aggravated when people do.
School isn’t cancelled unless there is at least 20 feet of snow on the ground.
You know more about whats going on in Illinois than Indiana.
You don’t drink soda, you drink pop.
You don’t consider pigs as being a domestic pet.
Your favorite holiday movie is “A Christmas Story.”
You can see downtown Chicago from your neighborhood, yet it takes an hour to get there!
You think bridges were invented to cross railroad tracks, not rivers.
You like White Castle.
Your bumper is rusted from road salt.
Sometimes you forget that Indiana HAS a football team (Colts?)
You are skilled at lane changing and know that “All five lanes on I-80 were MEANT to be used!”
You know that beaches exist in places other than Florida and California.
You always keep at least $5 in change in your car for tolls.
You think all amusement parks are called “Great America”
You know that not all passenger trains are powered by steam.
Your neighborhood IS a proposed third airport.
You know better than to light a match within 5 miles of the Little Calumet River .
You’re not really a “Hoosier”
Even though you go to college three hours away, you still can’t help but watch WGN news on cable each night.
You have motion-sensor lights on your garage and house, but don’t lock the doors on either of them!
You leave your car running in the parking lot at the store.
You end sentences with unnecessary prepositions (“Where is my coat at?” or “I want to go with!”)
You forget we even have a county fair.
Who needs a county fair anyway when there is August Fest?
There is only one LAKE, everything else is a pond.
Everyone else at the gas station is from Illinois.
The “northern lights” are the flames from Amoco’s refinery.
You think anything south of US-30 is “Southern Indiana”
I appreciate the lists, folks. I’ve printed them out and put them in my briefcase. My girlfriend was born and raised in Ft. Wayne, and I’m sure she’ll enjoy them
Cher, once a Hoosier, always a Hoosier.
Monster, that’s priceless! LOL! Thanks!
Small world. My wife was born and raised in New Haven!
That was great, monster. I can almost smell that special refinery smell (and those alewives).
I actually have a split Indiana personality. I grew up in Hammond, but my Mom was from Dillsboro. Look it up.
For someone born in Indianapolis–and even though I’ve lived in Southern California for 48 years I still have an Indiana accent–I wouldn’t pass muster under this criterion, and this is why:
2. You’ve never met any celebrities. (I’ve met Mickey Rooney, Elvira, Soupy Sales, Chuck Norris, etc.)
4. Down south to you means Kentucky. (To me it means Baja California.)
5. You have no problem spelling or pronouncing “Terre Haute” (I used to. I tried to give it the French pronunciation. My Mom, also from Indiana, insists on correcting me.)
9. You’ve heard of Euchre, you know how to play Euchre, and you are the master of Euchre. (Everybody else in the family is; I’m not. In fact when I was a kid I thought it was spelled Uker.)
10. You’ve seen a running car, with nobody in it, in the parking lot of the grocery store no matter what time of year it is. (I saw this once when I was a security guard, in Downey, CA. Unfortunately, it was an attempted vehicle theft. I called the cops.)
14. You have heard things like “catty-wumpus.” (My Mom uses it.)
16. You carry jumper cables in your car regularly. (to help other drivers.) 
28. You can name every one of Bob Knight’s “exploits” over the last few years. (I’d like to name his mother “Lassie.”)
35. You know several different definitions as to what a Hoosier really is. (My relatives in Indianapolis detest this word.)
I moved from Indy when I was 14. But, I haven’t had all aspects of me completely Californianiszed…
2. You’ve never met any celebrities. True, prior to moving here. Except I did meet AJ Foyt.
**5. You have no problem spelling or pronouncing “Terre Haute” ** Check!
**6. Your school classes were canceled because of cold. ** Yes! Snow days ROCKED.
**8. You know what the phrase “Knee-high by the Fourth of July” means. ** Hey, I detassled the stuff.
**11. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where’s my coat at? or “If you go to the mall I wanna go with” ** I’ve been really working hard at ridding myself of this habit.
**12. Detassling was your first job. Bailing hay, your second. ** Close…I was a stable hand for my second job.
**14. You have heard things like “catty-wumpus”, “katty-corner” or “kitty-corner”. ** I still use some of these.
**17. You drink “pop”. ** Well, my parents do.
**18. You know what “cow tipping” is. ** Never did do it, though.
**23. High school basketball game draws a bigger crowd on the weekend nights than movie theaters. ** In my town, football was the thing. 1986 4A State Champs! Whoo hoo!
**29. You shop at Marsh. ** Yay! Or…O’Malia’s, or Krogers…
**31. The biggest question of your youth was “IU or Purdue”. ** I’d always planned on IU, or IUPUI…
**34. The Wabash river is the “biggest body of water” near your house. ** Actually, it was the White River.
**39. People in your neighborhood, really, REALLY like Nascar. ** They didn’t seem to care all that much. But Indy cars…well, there were Indy 500 parties all over the place every May…
**43. You are a BIG John Mellencamp fan. ** But of course.
**47. You aren’t confused when someone calls a green pepper a “mango”, and never curious enough to ask why. ** OHHHH! That’s what it is! When I went to Ohio a couple of months ago, my aunt asked if I wanted mangos on the pizza. Both Brian and I were vexed.
**48. Sometimes, you call the toilet the “commode” or the “stool”. ** Commode, yes.
**50. You know what corning is. ** Yes, but my car-worshipping father convinced me it was an EVIL thing to do.
**51. Wal-mart is the most exciting place in your hometown. ** Close…it was Target.
**53. You know what FFA stands for. ** Future Farmers of America, man.
**58. You think that Notre Dame is a college near South Bend, and not a cathedral in France. ** Wasn’t until after I’d moved to Cali that I learned this.
**62. You drop your g’s when speakin’. ** Yeah, I do. I also drop the verb forms of “be,” apparently, as the Llama has so frequently pointed out. As in: “The fish need feedin’,” as opposed to “The fish need to be fed.”
Ah, yes. Still got some of that hick soul’s heart throbbing away within. 
You know you’re from Iowa when…
- You measure distance in minutes
- Weather is 90% of your conversation
- Down south to you means Missouri
- Snow tires came standard on your car
- You have no concept of public transportation
- The top 5% of your graduation high school class went to Iowa State – everyone else attended the U of I
- You know more than one person who has hit a deer
- You have no problem spelling “Des Moines”
- You know the answer to the question, “Is this Heaven?”
- Your school classes have been canceled because of cold
- You know what the numbers I-80, 280, 380 mean
- You have boiled fish in lye for Christmas
- You know what “uff-da” means and how to use it properly
- You know what “Amish Country” is
- You’ve licked frozen metal
- The only reason you go to Wisconsin or Missouri is to get fireworks
- You wear shorts when it’s 50 degrees out in March, but bundle up and complain in August when it goes below 60 degrees
- You have gone Trick-or-Treating in two feet of snow
- You carry jumper cables in your car
- You drink “POP”
- In a conversation you heard someone say “Yah sure you betcha” or “No, I never” or “Not once ever even” and you didn’t laugh
- You know exactly where “Field of Dreams” was filmed
- People from other states love to hear you say “Iowa” and other words with “Os” in them
- You know what “Hawks” and “Clones” are
- When someone says they are going out for dinner or supper, you know which meal they are talking about
Oh VEEEEBEEEE,
I’d just like to say Huh?
So why don’t you stop by and explain it to me?
And don’t forget the oil, I think better after a good massage.
What, you people think Indiana and Iowa are the only places in the world with farms? Although I’ve never had a snow day and I’m not exactly certain how to pronounce Terre Haute, I know what most of those farming terms are, and I’m from California. I found the “You know what FFA stands for” one amusing - my high school had the national champion FFA team.
I was raised in Southern Indiana. Seymour, Columbus, North Vernon.
I got at least 58 of the 62 and I only missed some because I’ve been in California for so long…
Where are you from?
Please, please tell me the meaning of “Hoosier”…I’ve often wondered. (Multiple explanations are acceptable)
Mango: Also common in the Cincinatti(sp.?) area.
My grandma always said it and it always cracked me up.
I’m proud to say that I can pronounce Terre Haute and Valparaiso(sp?).
Cow tipping is popular down here, too.
Do you grow anything other than corn? Do you use it properly? If so, do you call it moonshine, corn whiskey, white lightnin’ or what?
Yes, I’ve chewed tobacco and dipped snuff. Met a few ladies who engaged in the practice, too.
Curd. What’s the deal with that? Sure, we eat cheese, even fried. But we don’t call it “curd.” Was Little Miss Muffet from up there?
Peace,
TN*hippie
Yes, but can you pronounce “Versailles?” My husband nearly busted a gut when my cousin called one time and said “are you gonna come visit us in Vir-SALES?”
This is really a great thread. I know it was meant as a joke but I found myself getting a little misty, lol. (Elkhart here, home of Shawn Kemp and neighbor to South Bend ;))
indiana joke “name the 3 spices in a hoosiers spice cabinet?” “salt, pepper, and ketchup!”
you also know you are from indiana when:
— you go to the popcorn festival every year.
— you can give anybody perfect directions to Amish Country.
— you can design a halloween costume to fit over a snow suit.
—when you have 10 favorite recipes for venison.
—you owe more for your snowblower than you owe for your car.
—when you have more miles on your snowblower than your car.
–when the local paper covers national and international headlined on two pages but requires 6 pages for the sports section.