We haved lived in several Midwest states. When we moved to St Louis MO, I soon learned that to call someone a "Hoosier" was a put-down....you know... not the brightest lightbulb ...so to speak.
Now back home, in Indiana, we like being called Hoosiers.
Also Y'all is alive and well in St Louis; but I decided we had to get my husband "outta there" when he started using "ain't". I had to remind him that he has an Engineering Degree from Purdue University and perhaps that made him sound uneducated. (OOOPs didn't mean to offend if that is a part of your speech... it simply is not used in Indiana).
My sister -who lives in Massachusettes- makes fun of those from Indiana (eventhough she was raised there too) who put r's in words like "warsh the dishes" instead of "wash the dishes". I say to her "we figure those in Boston aren't using the r's so we might as well.
