Despite being born in Madison, WI, I'm "from" Rockford, IL, a city of around 150k about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. No, it's not a suburb of Chicago; it's got its own suburbs and a metro population of around 300k. It's smack dab in the middle (east to west) of Illinois and just south of the Wisconsin border. It's closer to Madison than Chicago and as such has as much Wisconsin in its culture as it does Illinois. I haven't lived there since 2004 but I also won't shut up about it on the internet.
Rockford is my Cincinnati chili in that, like Scott, I really only experience it a few times per year but loudly, only slightly ironically, and frequently defend it and sing its virtues online to anyone who will listen and many who won't.
Currently it's an odd mix of revitalization and continued struggles/crime/crumbling infrastructure/low educational attainment across a large swath of the population. Not dissimilar to a lot of similarly-sized places across the Midwest.
Fun fact: its airport is the 14th-busiest airport for cargo in the country!
Bonus fun fact: I went to 2nd and 3rd grade at a school built (partly) on the site of Beyer Stadium, home of the Rockford Peaches.
Extra bonus fun fact: I went to middle school with Michelle Williams, the singer and actress who first came to fame as part of Destiny's Child.
I am from New Jersey, and proudly identify as such, despite having spent almost all of my post-high school life inside the Beltway. New Jersey gets an undeserved bad rap, but it's fine, we don't like you either.
East and West Jersey were actually different things in colonial times and basically east jersey = Taylor ham and west jersey = pork roll (but they’d be wrong)
Having grown up just outside the beltway (I270 Exit 5 baby) and now residing in Central Jersey (it exists) I feel the need to fight you but I don't know why.
Amen! I'm from Central Jersey (yes, it exists) born and raised. I now live 8 miles from where I was born and you said it perfectly: we don't like you either. I'm from the Pork Roll part of the state even though (fun fact!) I've never had it.
This is true. I used to make fun of NJ, then I met my wife (who is is from central Jersey), and, honestly, the state sort of rocks. Farmland, beaches, pork roll, bagels, and pizza...sign me up!
I was born in Winchester, VA, but we moved to Lancaster County, PA when I was four, and I am terminally central Pennsylvanian. I currently live in the Harrisburg area.
Things you should know about Lancaster: Milton Hershey learned to make chocolate there, but the best chocolate in the county comes from Wilbur. Wilbur buds are like if Hershey kisses were AMAZING. Also, if you visit, please pass the buggies when it is safe to do so rather than following them around and creating a Lancaster County traffic jam, don’t photograph Amish people.
Things I am nostalgic for: Lancaster County has a population of about 500,000, and yet, there’s still good odds that if you go to an event, you’ll know someone there or a friend of a friend will be there. I had a former boss who called this phenomenon “Lancaster County Bingo” and it’s accurate. The sense of community is real. Also, all the schools are closed on the Monday after Thanksgiving in observance of the first day of (rifle) deer season. Still feels weird to me to work that day, and I’m not a hunter.
the first is actually the correct pronunciation from whence Andrew Carnegie came, I feel like I need to go to where people won't look at me funny for saying it that way.
That is one I learned when I went to Pitt and it stuck. I’m just happy both parts of PA use “needs done” so I don’t have to explain the omission of “to be” 😆
Born and raised in San Antonio, attended Auburn due mostly to a combination of engineering school quality, a Navy ROTC program (lasted exactly one academic year before deciding absolutely not to sign that piece of paper), winters suitable for human life, and a scholarship. Met my wife there (I also took advantage of shared geographic origin as an opening (she is from Houston)) and after I graduated I lived in metro Charlotte and then metro Detroit before joining her in Nashville where we've been for the last 6 years.
I'm still a San Antonio kid in a few ways: my favorite way to eat a bratwurst is wrapped in a flour tortilla, I am almost always desperate for a breakfast taco, I judge Mexican restaurants on their enchiladas (still looking), and I turn up my nose at bbq joints who really ought not to serve brisket if they're gonna serve *that garbage*
even not being a Texan, I feel this barbecue conundrum: brisket is the only thing I really want to pay for when it comes to BBQ places (I can do my own pulled pork and ribs just fine, anyone with a lick of skill can), but so few places can actually do brisket well.
I am absolutely *itching* to get my smoker built. Brisket I've done before and I'm fair to decent at but once that thing is running I'm going to smoke a porchetta.
We visited Mom for Thanksgiving and the HEBs in Midland have nicer charcoal grills and smokers than the Home Depot does here.
The question "where are you from" always gives me pause because there's a short answer ("I call Raleigh home") or the longer but more accurate answer that explains a lot about who and what I am.
My dad is from North Carolina, my mom is from Sweden, and they met in the Ivory Coast in the 1980's as short-term missionaries. That become long-term and so I spent most of my childhood in the Ivory Coast and Niger until coming back to the US to start high school. I have dual citizenship and visit the extended families on both sides of the Atlantic regularly. I went to NC State and have spent most of my adult life in Raleigh. So I'm from... I don't know?
I'm in Raleigh! Let's grab a beer sometime, Jacob, I have GOT to hear what sort of accent you have given that background and I can't wait to be incredibly disappointed that you don't sound like ABBA but Southern.
Haha yeah you're gonna be disappointed - my accent is slightly southern with occasional hints of Irish and Australian since that's where most of my teachers were from when I lived in the Ivory Coast and Niger. Ping me at jacobncsu at gmail dot com if you want to find out for yourself!
Hah I live in North Raleigh now, actually! And yeah, at the very least Raleigh is my "hometown," which is something that growing up didn't exist for me or others who grew up in that community.
Another Raleigh Guy here. I internally struggle where I’m actually “from” when I talk to other locals because my family lived in Cary from ages 4-12, then we moved to Knightdale. So, my childhood memories are from Cary, but my middle/high school memories are from Knightdale. When I went to college at Wake Forest, I just told people I was from Raleigh.
My brothers and I were raised in Indianapolis, and while we have no other family from the state, I feel Hoosier in my bones. Part of it might be the timing of our upbringing: we got to Indy in the mid-80s, and by the time we all graduated from high school the Circle City was a veritable powerhouse in the sports and convention trades. It was someplace, now… but we had arrived just before the changes, which makes all three of us incredibly precious about old Indianapolis institutions. I’ll fight a stranger over Noble Roman’s pizza, Long’s Bakery, or which burger in town is best. (Workingman’s Friend). Also deepening this is that my dad is one of the last old broadcasters standing in town, with several generations of Central Indiana claiming him as “theirs”
That city is as important to my identity as my name. Even when the politics piss me off or th’Coats blow yet another season. I haven’t lived there in a long time, but I decorate for the 500, come back for the lighting of the Circle, and travel to see the pacers anywhere near me. As our collective uncle Kurt Vonnegut said:
"All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis."
god, I feel this. I *love* Steak n Shake. In high school (or any time I'd come back to Columbus in college), countless nights of driving around aimlessly with my friends ended with us sitting at S&S at midnight.
There's a steak n Shake right by Cedar Point, and that was always our stop on the way home. And I'm using the present tense because nothing about that is allowed to change.
I'm from southern Delaware, and though there's a lot I could write about the weird little microcosm of a state, I mostly implore everyone to try scrapple, if they can.
I was born in Cincinnati and spent the first 8 years of my life in the areas in and around Oakley before they became hipsterville (does that make me a double-hipster?), then we moved to Louisville, where I spent the rest of grade school (for the Louisvillians in the group, I was just inside the Watterson).
I went to high school in Knoxville, went to Auburn to get away from the orange, and ended up meeting my wife there, spent a year in the Maryland suburbs of DC and then moved to Huntsville, Alabama (where I still am [redacted] years later) to be closer to family.
Having spent give-or-take equal amounts of time in 4 places and now living in the same place for over a decade, "where are you from" is a very strange question because I have parts of all those places in me (and a very muddled accent to go with it) and they all feel like home for very different reasons.
I hail from the Rock. Little Rock, Le Petite Roche, never mind that I was actually born in Columbia, SC and my folks are both Gamecocks. I was there for only ~2 years and have no recollection of my time there. My three passions all have their genesis in LR - sports, music, and politics. I guess food would be a fourth.
Like most Arkansawyers, I spend an inordinate amount of time espousing the perceived virtues of all things Arkansas I do not, however, share their tendency to take every slight and insult as a personal attack that must be defended to the death online and in person; I understand that there is a lot of room for improvement, perhaps due to the 20 years I have spent in my adopted home of DC,
The good stuff, however, is very good. Little Rock far outkicks its coverage in terms of cuisine and restaurant service. Whether it be Cajun, BBQ, Mexican, Southern, New American, or anything in between, I am always floored by the execution of the menu and the quality of service I receive back home. This could merely be an indictment of the scene here in Washington, but I find the experience rarely meets expectations regarding food or service.
The Razorbacks, obvy. I could write for days on this, but suffice it to say, my general demeanor and mood are affected by the play of those Hogs to an extent that would be embarrassing if not a state-wide affliction.
Growing up in the 90s, LR had a fantastic punk music scene centered on an excellent local pizza shop/brewery, Vino's. I saw my first show there back in 1991, an energetic little trio known as Green Day. Changed my life forever.
During this same time, our Governor was running for President. I was a huge fan of his as I had met him a time or two and felt the magnetic grip that he is known to have on people. On election day of 1992, the whole world focused on my city; Wolf Blitzer was reporting live from Little Rock! We went downtown to just take in the scene, and it was magical. It was that day that I knew I wanted to get involved, and that I would spend some time in DC. If he could go up there and be president, surely I could make the same move and do something!
I love my hometown, even when I am disappointed by its politics, its decision-making, or its inhabitants. I still get the same feeling EVERY TIME I make the final descent into LIT...I am home.
I've only spent a little time in LR (I did some work in SE Arkansas in a previous job, and flew through there a couple times), but I was really pleasantly surprised by the downtown. It's a nice town.
I think I'm one of the very few true west coasters in the comment section.
I was born in Las Vegas, but I've lived basically all my life in the Greater Seattle area. I really grew up in Carnation, a tiny town of 5000 people about an hour east of Seattle that every one knows, but nobody actually knows. It's where Carnation milk comes from (well, came from, they shut down the farm 25 years ago after being purchased by Nestle).
I have traveled a good portion of the world, but I always end up back here. I rep all the local sports teams, and will jump into an internet battle to defend the honor of our local fast food institutions Taco Time (No, it's not Mexican, it's not tex-mex, it's Taco Time), and Dick's Drive-Ins (Where you can occasionally find Bill Gates standing in line). Ironically, I have never actually lived inside the city limits, though I do work there. The cost of housing is REAL, y'all.
I am from and currently live in Delaware County, PA. A place that, inexplicably, you may have heard of. It is not Philadelphia to anyone with a physical Philadelphia mailing address but to literally anyone else, it is Philadelphia (in the bad ways and some of the good ways).
I suppose Delco is most famous for having its own dialect of the Philly accent (often called Hoagiemouth). It's very real. My wife, from Delco but not as accent afflicted, really eliminated one of the final choices for our daughter's name because of how it sounded coming from my family's wooder tongues.
I teach at Villanova and tons of our staff have Hoagiemouth and I love it. Something very refreshingly local about it in the otherwise very homogenized world of academia.
Does Ohio ever leave you, no matter how far you roam from it? There's something to ponder, and probably will be prompt for 2025.
Grew up in coal country in Eastern Ohio down the road from Steubenville (where I was born, but not raised). Both parents were educators and my eventual 7th grade science teacher was the star pitcher for a legion game that was on the radio while my mom was in labor. As someone commented earlier, there is something about growing up in a small town that affords kids the ability to explore multiple extracurriculars and still have time to be kids. I went to The Ohio State University and was in the marching band for three years (taking my then girlfriend's spot in the band). After graduation, I went to northwest Indiana for grad/law school (both programs do not exist, yet I still have the loans), then to DC area. First stop in Maryland and finally Virginia for the last 10 years.
When asked where I am from, I always respond Ohio, even though I haven't lived there in over 15 years but that's still where my heart is. My basement (man cave/office) is covered in Ohio State/Ohio items and sometimes I feel that these pieces are like the dirt that sailors took to remember where they were from as they set out on those long journeys into the unknown.
I grew up in a small town in southwestern Ohio called Hillsboro. If you have heard of it, it is most likely due to country singer Johnny Paycheck shooting another man at a bar, allegedly over how to make turtle soup. Baseball fans should know that Hugh Fullerton, the sportswriter who uncovered the Black Sox scandal, was also from here.
I also happily wave to people and cars as they go by. When my boys ask why, I tell them what my dad told me -- "just being friendly".
The town had a loose ring of backroads around it that was perfect for avoiding traffic during the day and excellent for listening to music with your friends at night.
And maybe it was a different time back then (80s-90s), but being from a small town and not having to specialize in one particular extracurricular gave students lots of varying opportunities -- a football team captain could also be in the showchoir. Kids played soccer and marched in the band. But I think the best part about attending at that time was that the school cafeteria was too small for all the students so in the middle of the day, grades 9-12 were permitted to go off-campus for lunch. Students would sprint 50 yards to their cars in an effort to get out of the parking lot and out to one of the fast food spots or walk uptown to eat at one of the diners. The school has been demolished now and the high school is now located on the edge of town, and is no longer walkable. I'd never move back, but I appreciate growing up there.
I know southern Ohio all too well, although I spent most of my youth in a northwest Ohio farm town where my dad was the principal. I used to tell folks you knew you were watching smalltown football when half the cheerleaders dropped their poms and picked up a band instrument to march at halftime, and you knew you were watching a *really* smalltown game when the back up O-lineman replaced his pads with a tuba for halftime. (And, yes, I've seen both.)
Cincy native here: the only reason I know Hillsboro exists is because the US 50 exit on the east side of town on I-275 lists Hillsboro as a destination.
Yes -- good ol' route 50 runs right through the middle of town and from coast to coast--another Hillsboro claim to fame. It also appears on Cincinnati weather forecast maps from time to time. Eastgate mall was considered Cincinnati to us, but I eventually learned about the rest of it, attending UC for 5 years and marrying a westsider.
As beautiful as the dogwoods and mountain laurels here in my new home of North Carolina are, there’s nothing quite like springtime in Texas, with bright magenta redbuds dotting the still-dormant February landscape, vast carpets of jasmine-scented bluebonnets studded with traffic-cone-orange Indian paintbrushes adorning every highway, desert willows blooming with the spring rains into white and lilac and royal purple, and the firewheels, crepe myrtles, and lavender-colored flower spikes of Vitex shrubs herald the coming of summer. I love the rolling hills of the Piedmont with their grass that stays green all summer, but I miss the vast prairie and its panoply of wildflowers.
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon (and like, actually the city and not the suburbs, since everyone that grew up in Mollala tries to claim it as well). I left for school, first in Connecticut (bad), then Chicago (wonderful) and finally LA (fine enough) but throughout that eight year period, my friends constantly made fun of me for how much I talked about Oregon and Portland and how great they were. So, naturally, I moved home and after those friends have visited their universal response has been "I mean, I get it now." But of course, as Fox News will tell you, it's a depraved, Antifa-ridden shithole that's a hive of drug addicts, scum and villany. But only family can make fun of family, so fuck them, despite all the things I wish were different or better or less up-its-own-ass sometimes, I love it here and there's nothing better in the world than sitting outside and having a beer on a balmy 930 pm summer sunset in the Pacific Northwest.
Oh, and all of your favorite Simpsons characters are named after streets here. And yes, it's pronounced "Cooch" not "Couch."
My brother & his family live in Tigard (he works downtown) & our mother lives in Tualatin. I find even the suburbs very agreeable, there's something about Portland that appeals to me a great deal, not just the proper tree canopies.
Must be the rain appealing to your inner Scot; you are conditioned not to mind it as much and then the fact that summers are nice is just a pleasant bonus
we used to give my brother and his wife shit about how they were slowly migrating to British Columbia for that celtic weather sensation, but they did a u-turn from Seattle. I think the weather around where you are is pretty ideal precisely because you do get some sunshine and summer warmth as opposed to permanent gloom.
IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE, BABY
Despite being born in Madison, WI, I'm "from" Rockford, IL, a city of around 150k about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. No, it's not a suburb of Chicago; it's got its own suburbs and a metro population of around 300k. It's smack dab in the middle (east to west) of Illinois and just south of the Wisconsin border. It's closer to Madison than Chicago and as such has as much Wisconsin in its culture as it does Illinois. I haven't lived there since 2004 but I also won't shut up about it on the internet.
Rockford is my Cincinnati chili in that, like Scott, I really only experience it a few times per year but loudly, only slightly ironically, and frequently defend it and sing its virtues online to anyone who will listen and many who won't.
Currently it's an odd mix of revitalization and continued struggles/crime/crumbling infrastructure/low educational attainment across a large swath of the population. Not dissimilar to a lot of similarly-sized places across the Midwest.
Fun fact: its airport is the 14th-busiest airport for cargo in the country!
Bonus fun fact: I went to 2nd and 3rd grade at a school built (partly) on the site of Beyer Stadium, home of the Rockford Peaches.
Extra bonus fun fact: I went to middle school with Michelle Williams, the singer and actress who first came to fame as part of Destiny's Child.
I really should've phrased the question as "What's your Cincinnati chili?", and just in the sense you defined it (not just culinary)
coming back to this with what I should've said originally
[Ludacris voice] what's your cincy chili
Jucy Lucy obvs.
Oh good, I nailed it by accident!
My great-great aunt played for the Rockford Peaches, which automatically makes me cool in a very specific subsection of the population.
Can confirm, this makes you incredibly cool.
As we all know, the place I am from sucks.
son of a bitch beat me to it
I am from New Jersey, and proudly identify as such, despite having spent almost all of my post-high school life inside the Beltway. New Jersey gets an undeserved bad rap, but it's fine, we don't like you either.
are you from the Taylor Ham part or the Pork Roll part
Taylor Ham
(I don't actually know what that means geography-wise but I know it's a thing)
East and West Jersey were actually different things in colonial times and basically east jersey = Taylor ham and west jersey = pork roll (but they’d be wrong)
I think Taylor Ham is closer to NYC?
Having grown up just outside the beltway (I270 Exit 5 baby) and now residing in Central Jersey (it exists) I feel the need to fight you but I don't know why.
Central jersey is great! Shout out to Red Bank
On The Banks of the Raritan.
Amen! I'm from Central Jersey (yes, it exists) born and raised. I now live 8 miles from where I was born and you said it perfectly: we don't like you either. I'm from the Pork Roll part of the state even though (fun fact!) I've never had it.
This is true. I used to make fun of NJ, then I met my wife (who is is from central Jersey), and, honestly, the state sort of rocks. Farmland, beaches, pork roll, bagels, and pizza...sign me up!
Yay Jersey!
I was born in Winchester, VA, but we moved to Lancaster County, PA when I was four, and I am terminally central Pennsylvanian. I currently live in the Harrisburg area.
Things you should know about Lancaster: Milton Hershey learned to make chocolate there, but the best chocolate in the county comes from Wilbur. Wilbur buds are like if Hershey kisses were AMAZING. Also, if you visit, please pass the buggies when it is safe to do so rather than following them around and creating a Lancaster County traffic jam, don’t photograph Amish people.
Things I am nostalgic for: Lancaster County has a population of about 500,000, and yet, there’s still good odds that if you go to an event, you’ll know someone there or a friend of a friend will be there. I had a former boss who called this phenomenon “Lancaster County Bingo” and it’s accurate. The sense of community is real. Also, all the schools are closed on the Monday after Thanksgiving in observance of the first day of (rifle) deer season. Still feels weird to me to work that day, and I’m not a hunter.
Hi from a York, PA girl, I was born but not actually bred there!
I am always delighted to hear that there are more 717 residents up in here!
ALSO, and perhaps most importantly: it’s Lank-is-ter, not Lan-cast-er
Current Harrisburg resident here, grew up in Western PA. In a similar vein, it's "Car-NEG-ie," not "CAR-neg-ie."
the first is actually the correct pronunciation from whence Andrew Carnegie came, I feel like I need to go to where people won't look at me funny for saying it that way.
That is one I learned when I went to Pitt and it stuck. I’m just happy both parts of PA use “needs done” so I don’t have to explain the omission of “to be” 😆
As is the town in SE Ohio. @Must be where they stole it from@
My friend was an engineer at a GE plant in upstate NY, and the factory was closed two days a year, Christmas Day, and the first day of deer season.
Shoutout Wilbur buds! Our aunt uncle and one cousin live in Lititz. That’s their holiday gift to us every year and is always a hit.
Now do you say "AYE-mish" or "AH-mish"?
Ah-mish. A-mish sounds like a stereotypical redneck saying it to me 😆
That is my Clinton County grandmother you're talking about there! Watch yourself!!😆
Born and raised in San Antonio, attended Auburn due mostly to a combination of engineering school quality, a Navy ROTC program (lasted exactly one academic year before deciding absolutely not to sign that piece of paper), winters suitable for human life, and a scholarship. Met my wife there (I also took advantage of shared geographic origin as an opening (she is from Houston)) and after I graduated I lived in metro Charlotte and then metro Detroit before joining her in Nashville where we've been for the last 6 years.
I'm still a San Antonio kid in a few ways: my favorite way to eat a bratwurst is wrapped in a flour tortilla, I am almost always desperate for a breakfast taco, I judge Mexican restaurants on their enchiladas (still looking), and I turn up my nose at bbq joints who really ought not to serve brisket if they're gonna serve *that garbage*
even not being a Texan, I feel this barbecue conundrum: brisket is the only thing I really want to pay for when it comes to BBQ places (I can do my own pulled pork and ribs just fine, anyone with a lick of skill can), but so few places can actually do brisket well.
I am absolutely *itching* to get my smoker built. Brisket I've done before and I'm fair to decent at but once that thing is running I'm going to smoke a porchetta.
We visited Mom for Thanksgiving and the HEBs in Midland have nicer charcoal grills and smokers than the Home Depot does here.
Oh and I gotta have tamales on Christmas Eve
Houstonian in Nashville here. Also judge restaurants on (cheese) enchiladas and also still looking.
The question "where are you from" always gives me pause because there's a short answer ("I call Raleigh home") or the longer but more accurate answer that explains a lot about who and what I am.
My dad is from North Carolina, my mom is from Sweden, and they met in the Ivory Coast in the 1980's as short-term missionaries. That become long-term and so I spent most of my childhood in the Ivory Coast and Niger until coming back to the US to start high school. I have dual citizenship and visit the extended families on both sides of the Atlantic regularly. I went to NC State and have spent most of my adult life in Raleigh. So I'm from... I don't know?
I'm in Raleigh! Let's grab a beer sometime, Jacob, I have GOT to hear what sort of accent you have given that background and I can't wait to be incredibly disappointed that you don't sound like ABBA but Southern.
Haha yeah you're gonna be disappointed - my accent is slightly southern with occasional hints of Irish and Australian since that's where most of my teachers were from when I lived in the Ivory Coast and Niger. Ping me at jacobncsu at gmail dot com if you want to find out for yourself!
I went to high school in (north) Raleigh but am not from there, and I'd say you're from Raleigh if you want to be
Hah I live in North Raleigh now, actually! And yeah, at the very least Raleigh is my "hometown," which is something that growing up didn't exist for me or others who grew up in that community.
Another Raleigh Guy here. I internally struggle where I’m actually “from” when I talk to other locals because my family lived in Cary from ages 4-12, then we moved to Knightdale. So, my childhood memories are from Cary, but my middle/high school memories are from Knightdale. When I went to college at Wake Forest, I just told people I was from Raleigh.
My brothers and I were raised in Indianapolis, and while we have no other family from the state, I feel Hoosier in my bones. Part of it might be the timing of our upbringing: we got to Indy in the mid-80s, and by the time we all graduated from high school the Circle City was a veritable powerhouse in the sports and convention trades. It was someplace, now… but we had arrived just before the changes, which makes all three of us incredibly precious about old Indianapolis institutions. I’ll fight a stranger over Noble Roman’s pizza, Long’s Bakery, or which burger in town is best. (Workingman’s Friend). Also deepening this is that my dad is one of the last old broadcasters standing in town, with several generations of Central Indiana claiming him as “theirs”
That city is as important to my identity as my name. Even when the politics piss me off or th’Coats blow yet another season. I haven’t lived there in a long time, but I decorate for the 500, come back for the lighting of the Circle, and travel to see the pacers anywhere near me. As our collective uncle Kurt Vonnegut said:
"All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis."
My Cincinnati chili was Steak n Shake until that beautiful institution was run into ruin.
god, I feel this. I *love* Steak n Shake. In high school (or any time I'd come back to Columbus in college), countless nights of driving around aimlessly with my friends ended with us sitting at S&S at midnight.
There's a steak n Shake right by Cedar Point, and that was always our stop on the way home. And I'm using the present tense because nothing about that is allowed to change.
Workingman's Friend is an absolute icon.
I used to love going to Noble Roman's and watching them make the pizzas.
I always joke I'm a terrible Hoosier because I only watch the first and last 5 laps of the 500.
But I still always tune in anyway, something deep in there that makes me do it
I'm from southern Delaware, and though there's a lot I could write about the weird little microcosm of a state, I mostly implore everyone to try scrapple, if they can.
lower, slower Delaware!
My head canon is that people with the oval "LSD" bumper sticker enjoy psychedelics in addition to the first state.
Oh, man, this is a complicated one for me.
I was born in Cincinnati and spent the first 8 years of my life in the areas in and around Oakley before they became hipsterville (does that make me a double-hipster?), then we moved to Louisville, where I spent the rest of grade school (for the Louisvillians in the group, I was just inside the Watterson).
I went to high school in Knoxville, went to Auburn to get away from the orange, and ended up meeting my wife there, spent a year in the Maryland suburbs of DC and then moved to Huntsville, Alabama (where I still am [redacted] years later) to be closer to family.
Having spent give-or-take equal amounts of time in 4 places and now living in the same place for over a decade, "where are you from" is a very strange question because I have parts of all those places in me (and a very muddled accent to go with it) and they all feel like home for very different reasons.
I hail from the Rock. Little Rock, Le Petite Roche, never mind that I was actually born in Columbia, SC and my folks are both Gamecocks. I was there for only ~2 years and have no recollection of my time there. My three passions all have their genesis in LR - sports, music, and politics. I guess food would be a fourth.
Like most Arkansawyers, I spend an inordinate amount of time espousing the perceived virtues of all things Arkansas I do not, however, share their tendency to take every slight and insult as a personal attack that must be defended to the death online and in person; I understand that there is a lot of room for improvement, perhaps due to the 20 years I have spent in my adopted home of DC,
The good stuff, however, is very good. Little Rock far outkicks its coverage in terms of cuisine and restaurant service. Whether it be Cajun, BBQ, Mexican, Southern, New American, or anything in between, I am always floored by the execution of the menu and the quality of service I receive back home. This could merely be an indictment of the scene here in Washington, but I find the experience rarely meets expectations regarding food or service.
The Razorbacks, obvy. I could write for days on this, but suffice it to say, my general demeanor and mood are affected by the play of those Hogs to an extent that would be embarrassing if not a state-wide affliction.
Growing up in the 90s, LR had a fantastic punk music scene centered on an excellent local pizza shop/brewery, Vino's. I saw my first show there back in 1991, an energetic little trio known as Green Day. Changed my life forever.
During this same time, our Governor was running for President. I was a huge fan of his as I had met him a time or two and felt the magnetic grip that he is known to have on people. On election day of 1992, the whole world focused on my city; Wolf Blitzer was reporting live from Little Rock! We went downtown to just take in the scene, and it was magical. It was that day that I knew I wanted to get involved, and that I would spend some time in DC. If he could go up there and be president, surely I could make the same move and do something!
I love my hometown, even when I am disappointed by its politics, its decision-making, or its inhabitants. I still get the same feeling EVERY TIME I make the final descent into LIT...I am home.
I've only spent a little time in LR (I did some work in SE Arkansas in a previous job, and flew through there a couple times), but I was really pleasantly surprised by the downtown. It's a nice town.
I think I'm one of the very few true west coasters in the comment section.
I was born in Las Vegas, but I've lived basically all my life in the Greater Seattle area. I really grew up in Carnation, a tiny town of 5000 people about an hour east of Seattle that every one knows, but nobody actually knows. It's where Carnation milk comes from (well, came from, they shut down the farm 25 years ago after being purchased by Nestle).
I have traveled a good portion of the world, but I always end up back here. I rep all the local sports teams, and will jump into an internet battle to defend the honor of our local fast food institutions Taco Time (No, it's not Mexican, it's not tex-mex, it's Taco Time), and Dick's Drive-Ins (Where you can occasionally find Bill Gates standing in line). Ironically, I have never actually lived inside the city limits, though I do work there. The cost of housing is REAL, y'all.
I am from and currently live in Delaware County, PA. A place that, inexplicably, you may have heard of. It is not Philadelphia to anyone with a physical Philadelphia mailing address but to literally anyone else, it is Philadelphia (in the bad ways and some of the good ways).
I suppose Delco is most famous for having its own dialect of the Philly accent (often called Hoagiemouth). It's very real. My wife, from Delco but not as accent afflicted, really eliminated one of the final choices for our daughter's name because of how it sounded coming from my family's wooder tongues.
I teach at Villanova and tons of our staff have Hoagiemouth and I love it. Something very refreshingly local about it in the otherwise very homogenized world of academia.
Shoutout to Delco, home of people who are somehow even more Philadelphian than actual Philadelphians.
Does Ohio ever leave you, no matter how far you roam from it? There's something to ponder, and probably will be prompt for 2025.
Grew up in coal country in Eastern Ohio down the road from Steubenville (where I was born, but not raised). Both parents were educators and my eventual 7th grade science teacher was the star pitcher for a legion game that was on the radio while my mom was in labor. As someone commented earlier, there is something about growing up in a small town that affords kids the ability to explore multiple extracurriculars and still have time to be kids. I went to The Ohio State University and was in the marching band for three years (taking my then girlfriend's spot in the band). After graduation, I went to northwest Indiana for grad/law school (both programs do not exist, yet I still have the loans), then to DC area. First stop in Maryland and finally Virginia for the last 10 years.
When asked where I am from, I always respond Ohio, even though I haven't lived there in over 15 years but that's still where my heart is. My basement (man cave/office) is covered in Ohio State/Ohio items and sometimes I feel that these pieces are like the dirt that sailors took to remember where they were from as they set out on those long journeys into the unknown.
I grew up in a small town in southwestern Ohio called Hillsboro. If you have heard of it, it is most likely due to country singer Johnny Paycheck shooting another man at a bar, allegedly over how to make turtle soup. Baseball fans should know that Hugh Fullerton, the sportswriter who uncovered the Black Sox scandal, was also from here.
I also happily wave to people and cars as they go by. When my boys ask why, I tell them what my dad told me -- "just being friendly".
The town had a loose ring of backroads around it that was perfect for avoiding traffic during the day and excellent for listening to music with your friends at night.
And maybe it was a different time back then (80s-90s), but being from a small town and not having to specialize in one particular extracurricular gave students lots of varying opportunities -- a football team captain could also be in the showchoir. Kids played soccer and marched in the band. But I think the best part about attending at that time was that the school cafeteria was too small for all the students so in the middle of the day, grades 9-12 were permitted to go off-campus for lunch. Students would sprint 50 yards to their cars in an effort to get out of the parking lot and out to one of the fast food spots or walk uptown to eat at one of the diners. The school has been demolished now and the high school is now located on the edge of town, and is no longer walkable. I'd never move back, but I appreciate growing up there.
I know southern Ohio all too well, although I spent most of my youth in a northwest Ohio farm town where my dad was the principal. I used to tell folks you knew you were watching smalltown football when half the cheerleaders dropped their poms and picked up a band instrument to march at halftime, and you knew you were watching a *really* smalltown game when the back up O-lineman replaced his pads with a tuba for halftime. (And, yes, I've seen both.)
Ha--that's exactly where I grew up in Michigan!
(sorry hit enter too fast). In a town with the football/tuba player.
Cincy native here: the only reason I know Hillsboro exists is because the US 50 exit on the east side of town on I-275 lists Hillsboro as a destination.
Yes -- good ol' route 50 runs right through the middle of town and from coast to coast--another Hillsboro claim to fame. It also appears on Cincinnati weather forecast maps from time to time. Eastgate mall was considered Cincinnati to us, but I eventually learned about the rest of it, attending UC for 5 years and marrying a westsider.
As beautiful as the dogwoods and mountain laurels here in my new home of North Carolina are, there’s nothing quite like springtime in Texas, with bright magenta redbuds dotting the still-dormant February landscape, vast carpets of jasmine-scented bluebonnets studded with traffic-cone-orange Indian paintbrushes adorning every highway, desert willows blooming with the spring rains into white and lilac and royal purple, and the firewheels, crepe myrtles, and lavender-colored flower spikes of Vitex shrubs herald the coming of summer. I love the rolling hills of the Piedmont with their grass that stays green all summer, but I miss the vast prairie and its panoply of wildflowers.
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon (and like, actually the city and not the suburbs, since everyone that grew up in Mollala tries to claim it as well). I left for school, first in Connecticut (bad), then Chicago (wonderful) and finally LA (fine enough) but throughout that eight year period, my friends constantly made fun of me for how much I talked about Oregon and Portland and how great they were. So, naturally, I moved home and after those friends have visited their universal response has been "I mean, I get it now." But of course, as Fox News will tell you, it's a depraved, Antifa-ridden shithole that's a hive of drug addicts, scum and villany. But only family can make fun of family, so fuck them, despite all the things I wish were different or better or less up-its-own-ass sometimes, I love it here and there's nothing better in the world than sitting outside and having a beer on a balmy 930 pm summer sunset in the Pacific Northwest.
Oh, and all of your favorite Simpsons characters are named after streets here. And yes, it's pronounced "Cooch" not "Couch."
My brother & his family live in Tigard (he works downtown) & our mother lives in Tualatin. I find even the suburbs very agreeable, there's something about Portland that appeals to me a great deal, not just the proper tree canopies.
Must be the rain appealing to your inner Scot; you are conditioned not to mind it as much and then the fact that summers are nice is just a pleasant bonus
we used to give my brother and his wife shit about how they were slowly migrating to British Columbia for that celtic weather sensation, but they did a u-turn from Seattle. I think the weather around where you are is pretty ideal precisely because you do get some sunshine and summer warmth as opposed to permanent gloom.