I’m Not From Around Here Myself

 

Reflections on living in Indiana

 

I’m from our east. Pennsylvania to be exact, though I was a pastor in New Jersey too.  I still consider myself “not from around here” since moving to Indiana. That’s odd I suppose: I’ve lived here almost 40 years.  As an “outsider” to Indiana I still notice strange things about the natives—“Hoosiers.”

 

Hoosiers. One of those strange things is the word “Hoosiers” itself. Nobody knows what it means or where it came from.  Some think it was a remark of settlers when they heard somebody knock at their cabin door… “Hooo’s ‘ere?”  Others think a fellow named Sam Hoosier hired Indiana men to work on the Louisville canal and they got called “Hoosier’s men” and later just Hoosiers. Wherever it came from it was widely used in Saint Louis and across the south to simply mean “white trash,” “hick” or “hillbilly.”  People in Indiana happily call themselves a word that means “hick” to others.  But, even more interesting nobody in Indiana even cares where the handle came from or what it means—they are quite content with the term “Hoosiers.”

 

Politics. That’s typical of Indiana folk. They don’t get real worked up much.  One moment they’ll elect a Democrat, then the next election they’ll toss the fellow out and replace him with a Republican. They don’t particular hate either party…nor like either one too. They just put out their next crop of corn or soy beans and wait. In general Hoosiers just expect to be left alone.

 

Global warming. Hoosiers don’t worry much. It’s hard to get them to believe there is an emergency about anything. They neither believe there really is global warming nor do they reject the idea—they are still considering the facts. They can be convinced, but it might take 50 years. Many Hoosiers are still considering the evidence on tobacco even, let alone climate change Indiana is among he top six states in prevalence of smokers—about a quarter of Hoosiers smoke and they’re not ready yet to ban smoking in public buildings.  Hoosiers are “still considering the evidence.”

 

Air Quality. Hoosiers are the same way about air quality—they are slow to get worked up. We make our electric out of coal mostly—we have 28 coal-burning plants, another ten gas-burning plants and even a few that burn oil to make electric. Each year Hoosiers contribute about 650,000 tons of sulfur dioxide to the sky above us. But Hoosiers don’t fret too much yet about that because almost all of it blows over to Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada. Hoosiers don’t have to breathe it ourselves. Some big-city guys had a big scheme to build two nuclear plants but they eventually gave up and the plants are abandoned and the companies went back to coal.  When Hoosiers are confronted by angry East-coasters about these emissions, Hoosiers simply nod understandingly and say, “We’re working on it.”

 

Religion. As for religion Indiana is pretty much like the rest of America. We’ve got almost a million Roman Catholics (and Notre Dame) but our largest Protestant group are the Methodists—Indiana has a little Methodist church at virtually every crossroads in the state. In Indiana the Methodists still have “revival meetings” and often consider themselves more conservative than the large Wesleyan churches. After the Methodists come the Baptists, then the Christian Church/Disciples then the Lutherans. But don’t get me wrong, Indiana is not Bible belt country: 16% of Hoosiers are secular. In the part of Indiana where I live 80% of the county’s residents didn’t attend any church at all last Sunday. Most everyone gets along pretty well—many Protestants even think Catholics can go to heaven.

 

Freedom.  Hoosiers like their personal freedom. They don’t like the government, the church or anyone else telling them what to do. Hoosiers have a strong strain of libertarianism in their blood. They see no need for restrictive laws that bind a person’s right to do what they think is best. Back on the east coast if I wanted to install a water heater I had to get a licensed plumber who often had to get a permit for it!  In Indiana people just buy their own and install it themselves. In fact, in much if Indiana people put whole additions onto their homes by themselves without getting a permit—I’ve done it twice. While other states have strict recycling requirements for used engine oil—many Hoosiers change their own oil and pour the old oil on the ground—“it’s keeps the dust down, you know.”

 

Taxes. I guess any state that paves roads and operates schools has to have some taxes, but if you like low property taxes consider moving to Indiana.  A few years ago Hoosiers did finally get worked up when their property taxes zoomed to “as high as a thousand dollars” for their homes. That didn’t last. Now our property taxes are often a few hundred dollars a year for homes like mine. Hoosiers barely even tax cigarettes, which is why people from neighboring states fill their trunk full at one of the many tobacco stores on our borders. Hoosiers pay about $1300 less per person in local and state taxes compared to other states. Sure, our educational system is not the best in the country (we rank 44th in number of adults who get a college degree)  but many Hoosiers figure if you want more than a basic reading-writing-arithmetic education you are free to pay for it yourself by sending your kids to a private school and paying for your own college degree.

 

Sports. Hoosiers like Basketball. “Hoosier Hysteria” for many years was focused on the state high school basketball playoffs. When most states had “class basketball” Hoosiers stuck with the unlevel playing field of letting every single school in the state—no matter how large or small—compete with every other school for the state finals. This, of course is what led to great storylines like that told in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.” Even a tiny school with an unknown coach could go all the way to state playoffs—and win.  When a bunch of socialist-type level-playing-field leaders got control of high school basketball they introduced class basketball in Indiana many Hoosiers abandoned their loyalty to high school basketball and began to follow Indiana’s new NFL team. Our new team had snuck out of Baltimore one night to move to Indiana to become the Indianapolis Colts.  However, Hoosier colts fans are generally subdued compared to other fans. When we win or lose Hoosiers seldom turn over cars or break windows. Hoosiers take it in stride. Hoosiers will even applaud great plays by their opponents and congratulate the teams who beat them. And even more astonishing Hoosiers will sometimes secretly cheer for the underdogs—who are frequently whoever is playing the Colts!

 

Which is why Hoosiers couldn’t lose the Super Bowl this year. A Colts win is a win for a humble rookie coach with a humble quarterback and a generally humble home team. A win by the New Orleans Saints is a win by the underdog team that is most like the state’s namesake movie—Hoosiers.

 

So what do you think?

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Keith Drury   February 9, 2010

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