Friday, October 20, 2006

There's a Facebook group called "You Know You're From Wisconsin If..." and most of the things in the list also apply to Minnesota and probably the midwest as a whole. Or maybe it seems that way to me because my dad and sister are Wisconsin natives. Included are the following:

You carry jumper cables in your car
You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit (I'd add "and you can cite how the '90s Halloween Blizzard affected your life.")
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
You know all four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.
You measure distance in minutes.
Your school classes were cancelled because of cold.
Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
You hear someone use the word "uffda" and you don't immediately break into uncontrollable laughter.
You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" are.
A brat is something you eat.
At every wedding you have been to you have had to dance the hoky poky and the chicken dance.
Sunday afternoons are sacred for the Packer game.
You have experienced snow storms in May.
You have had school closed due to wind chills and frostbite warnings.
You or someone you know was a "Dairy Princess" at a county fair.
The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer. (It's the porch at my house. We really miss that extra space during the summer.)

I would add that Jell-O qualifies as a salad without question or even a giggle. Roof and woof rhyme. "Bag" sounds like "Mag" in "Magazine." You shop in the cities, plural. Which city it is is not important. Add "Twin" if you're speaking formally or just say "St. Paul" if it's a local. Use "Minneapolis" if addressing an out-of-stater. Chances are all your relatives want to visit the Mall of America and they've been there more often than you have, anyway. If you aren't part Scandinavian, you're part German. But you are not 100 percent anything -- and if you are, people think you are trying to show off. And your three-season porch is only useable two days a year -- it's always way too hot or way too cold.

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