According to Wikipedia I am a Hoosier---"a Hoosier is an official demonym of a resident of Indiana". I have lived here in Indiana most of my life, more than 30 years BUT even so I have never called myself a HOOSIER! I don't hate Hoosiers in fact I like them and some of them I love very much---my husband, my children, my grandchildren and my husband's family BUT I have never considered myself as one of them---I am only stating a fact. If something happened and I found myself living alone---I would move back to Arizona. I will admit that I am only living here in Indiana because of my family and if they did not live here then I would not live here. It is just as simple as that!
ON MY BEING A HOOSIER:
When I was doing some research for a past final, I happened upon a blog stating---"...now that I have lived in (her new state) for almost 2 years, I MUST BE A (NATIVE)!...." At the time when I first read it I almost fell out of my chair laughing but now upon reflection I think it might be a really healthy way to go---and so I must be a Hoosier too. Why didn't someone tell me I was a Hoosier? I have been a Hoosier now for over 30 years ago? LOL!
What is it that makes a person a Hoosier? Does playing, shooting or loving basketball/hoops make a person a Hoosier? Some folks say that that is what makes a Hoosier a Hoosier! My son and my husband are both Hoosiers and are big fans of the sport BUT I AM NOT.I hear that Hoosiers are a silent alot! My family likes to be silent a lot and I am anything but silent. I know that I am definitely not a silent influence on my little granddaughters as they are now very noisy little Hoosiers! I do not get this "CORNHOLE-thing " and SSSHHHH! I always thought a "cornhole" was that private place where you stick your corncob when you have no paper in the OUTHOUSE! A "cornhole" might even be a mouth, if you prefer corn to cake and think you have a cornhole instead of a cakehole! Hoosiers I know and have been friends with for more than 30 years play this weird game, including my husband and son (though my son was actually born in MI but he has lived in Indiana since he was 2 months old)!
ON MY BEING A TAR HEEL:
My life as a Tar Heel only included my birth up through the first four years of my childhood, which were spent living with my maternal grandparents. Sometime before my fifth birthday my father moved our family to Bermuda and then to one new place after another thereafter and sometimes it seemed to be almost every two years ! I have lived from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico and almost every place in-between, south of the Mason-Dixon line!
What makes a person a Tarheel? It is pretty much the same as what makes a person a Hoosier---residency but most folks in the south will say it takes more than residency to make a person a Tarheel. Even though my mother was born and raised in NC, and still lives in NC---the fact that she married someone from Kansas makes all 3 of us kids who were born in NC definitely not Tarheels! The fact that I got rid of my accent and begin to live more like Yankees has clinched my being anything but a Tarheel and the fact that I married one makes my situation even worse yet! I love NC the state of my birth, I love Elizabeth City which is my hometown. My breath quickens and my heart speeds up whenever I arrive close to my hometown. I find I sit up straighter in my seat so I can take it all in and see the city, my city, and notice any changes to it since the last time I was there. I love the beaches nearby and love the smell of the salt and sea spray, the sound of the waves and surf, the swamp and the sounds of bull frogs and bobcats, the lush thick piney woods, the beautiful cypress trees and the heavy smell of them and the water they are in. I love everything about NC, from one long end of the state to the other and from top to bottom too. I am proud to be from NC and to be a Tarheel, even though they don't claim me there.
MY CONCLUSION:
I love both places and all they have to offer. I love the people here in Indiana---their kind generous natures and their big hearts, their genuine goodness, their thrift and their industriousness! I love the clannishness of the people of NC, and when they finally open their hearts really wide to those they claim as their own. I like the "Ma'am" and "Sir" said genuinely and sincerely even though after a short time I get extremely annoyed with this habit. I do not understand Hoosiers or Tarheels but I do so love them both very much! I come from a long line of Tarheels and even though I have not lived there most of my life, it is still home to me. Likewise, even though I was not born and raised here in Indiana, I have lived here for a really long time and I so have come to love and respect Hoosiers---I still love Tarheels very much too. I feel at home with either of them and more now than I ever have. So you tell me---am I a Hoosier or a Tarheel? Or can I be a Toosier or a Hoosheel?
