Amelia

1. If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in theMidWest. 2. If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Pellston, MI is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in the MidWest. 3. If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in the MidWest. 4. If you instinctively walk like a penguin for four months out of the year, you might live in the MidWest. 5. If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in the MidWest. 6. If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in the MidWest. 7. If you have worn shorts and a coat at the same time, you might live in the MidWest. 8. If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in the MidWest. 9. If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in the MidWest. Part 2 You know you're a true MidWesterner when . . . 1. "Vacation" means going up north on I-75 2. You measure distance in hours. 3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once. 4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C"in the same day. 5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching. 6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings). 7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked. 8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them. 9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit. 10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. 11. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. 12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent. 13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce. 14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age. 15. Down South to you means anything south of Detroit, Chicago, or DesMoines. 16. A brat is something you eat, and pronouned as br-ahh-t, and not what you would refer to your spoiled little sister as. 17. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole barn. 18. You go out to a fish fry every Friday. 19. You gotten a snowstorm on Easter. 20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car. 21. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly." 22. You drink pop and bake with soda. 23. Your doctor tells you to drink Vernors and you know it's not medicine. 24. You can actually drink Vernors without coughing. 25. You think owning a Honda is Un-American. 26. You know that UP is a place, not a direction. 27. You end sentenceswith a preposition ("If you're going to the store, I want to come with."), and never thought anything of it until you met someone from back east, who rudely pointed it out. 28. You own a Carhartt, or have worn your boyfriend's. 29. Your girlfriend asks you to take her offroading, instead of the movies, for a date.