In the photo above, @JordanSB is wearing a shirt decorated with graphics about a television show set in the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana (and enjoying cotton candy with @SP31 ) at Connect Live in 2019.
Me? I have never been to Indiana.
100% of my experience with the state comes from the television show Parks and Recreation. Even though this representation of the state is completely fictional, I think this show features themes which strongly represent what we in the United States call “midwestern” hospitality and “small-town living” - things many parts of Indiana would be stereotyped as having. The qualities of midwestern hospitality and small-town living shine through a lot in the series, and I enjoyed the immersion in the culture, even if it was only a representation.
Midwestern hospitality is defined as a sincere kindness coupled with politeness. People are interested in the lives and well-being of others, even if they are only meeting casually and may not interact again.
You might experience this by a stranger (a grocery clerk, stranger in queue with you, person in the adjacent seat at a concert) asking “How are you?” and when given an answer - “great,” “ok,” or “getting by” - they follow up with another question asking for more details, and listen to your answer with genuine interest. I spent most of my adult life living in a town with a good amount of midwestern hospitality, and now that I live in a bigger city famous for the “Seattle Freeze” I frequently surprise others (or even make them uncomfortable) when I ask followup questions after an initial “How are you?”
Small-town living is the unique experience of having little-to-no anonymity as you go about your daily life. This would be experienced by seeing the same people from the coffee shop in the morning at the grocery store in the evening. It might be running into the same people on a hike that you saw at work that week, and who you will also see as a community concert later in the day. It also means a limited amount of privacy and a long memory for a social reputation. Kids who acted up in high school might work for a boss a decade later who references a story about the high school misbehavior - because their child was in the same school at the same time, and they remember it. It could also mean someone being a “local legend” for their music or their artwork, but only being known in that specific town.
I am curious to hear from other Local Guides if their parts of the world have similar unique terms, or if the regional naming of this type of social interaction is unique to the United States.
This post is part of the #StateChallenge organized by myself and @Denise_Barlock. If you want to find out more, check out this post. You can also find other submissions by searching the #StateChallenge hashtag. Join the #StateChallenge | Indiana here.
