This may be an experiment in regional language, but I have to ask-- Where do you live?
I am from Indiana, which we have always called 'the midwest'. In this area when someone says the midwest it includes the following states; Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
I was at work and received a call from a gentleman in Iowa who claimed to be in the midwest. Around here, that would be called part of the plains states rather than the midwest.
People in Florida outside the panhandle would never think of calling themselves southerners, while Kentucky seems to be split as to part of the midwest or the south. Californians are obviously in the west but don't think of themselves as part of the western states unless you are splitting it east and west down the middle. It may be like asking where the tri-state area is, but here it is;
What do you call your region, and why?
I'm a relocated Pittsburgher living in Wisconsin. As far as I know, I live in the midwest. Sometimes I hear upper midwest.
I live in Arizona, and it's definitely the Southwest (or the "Desert Southwest" if a more specific name is needed).
My dividing line is based on a notebook I had for school as a child. The cover had a laminated wrap-around map of the United States, and I decided that the difference between East and West was the difference between the front and back covers of that notebook; the states that covered the spine of the notebook (the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the central portion of Texas) were neither.
It's interesting that you make a point of excluding Iowa. A survey was once done that asked people all over the country what states they considered to be part of the "Midwest". New Yorkers thought Ohio (which people on the west coast considered "Eastern") qualified, while the Californians thought Kansas and Missouri epitomized the Midwest (those on the eastern seaboard thought Missouri was Southern, Kansas Western). The only thing that everyone agreed on was that Iowa was in the Midwest. And that includes Iowans themselves.
I have always lived solidly in the Northeast: Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York. I did attend school for a while in New England: New Hampshire.
Phil said:
This may be an experiment in regional language, but I have to ask-- Where do you live?
I am from Indiana, which we have always called 'the midwest'. In this area when someone says the midwest it includes the following states; Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
I was at work and received a call from a gentleman in Iowa who claimed to be in the midwest. Around here, that would be called part of the plains states rather than the midwest.
People in Florida outside the panhandle would never think of calling themselves southerners, while Kentucky seems to be split as to part of the midwest or the south. Californians are obviously in the west but don't think of themselves as part of the western states unless you are splitting it east and west down the middle. It may be like asking where the tri-state area is, but here it is;
What do you call your region, and why?
I live in Eureka, California -- the "real" northern California. San Francisco, the place that has been designated by the world as "Northern California" is five hours south! At one time, somebody tried "upstate" for our area, but it didn't stick. The best way to describe it to folks is to say, "Just south of Oregon." Another unusual thing, I've learned since I've been here -- after growing up in Southern California where county lines were only lines on a map -- is that the communities in our area define ourselves by our county, Humboldt, more often than our city.