Midwestern Traditions

Club Trillion, recounting his trip to the Indy 500:

Having spent each of my 25 years living in the Midwest, I can tell you this much about people from flyover states: We don't care what people on the coasts think about the things we view as sacred. We know they'll never understand why we love small towns, college sports, country music, Larry the Cable Guy, and teenage pregnancy so much, so we don't even bother defending those things when we're laughed at for loving them. We like what we like. If you don't, that's perfectly fine because you aren't one of us. This "love it or leave it" attitude runs rampant in Middle America, and for so many Hoosiers it perfectly describes how we feel about the Indy 500. We know outsiders think the race is nothing but a bunch of hicks watching cars turn left, and we don't bother trying to change their minds. It makes no difference to us if they understand that for hundreds of thousands of us inside the IMS walls on race day, what happens on the track isn't nearly as important as what happens inside the track.

The whole thing is a fun read.