THE HOOSIER CHRONICLES
When i was growing up the word 'hoosier' confused me. "What is a hoosier," i would ask. Nobody in Illinois could really answer this question, it was a tricky one. After all, what exactly is an "Illini?" You see, the word 'hoosier' then had no meaning other than it was associated with Indiana University basketball team, and a good movie starring Gene Hackman, which i've never seen. [sorry for the dangling modifier] Anyways, this confusion continued all the way through college. A breakthrough occured within the first week of life as a resident in Missouri. I believe the first person who used the term 'hoosier' in my presence was Kyle Reed - only he wasn't referring to anything in Indiana.

"Hoosier?! What does that mean?"

"You know...I don't know...it just means, hoosier."

Back to square one. Soon after that, I was able to contextualize the situation. I discoverd that in Missouri, people refer to something (or someone) as hoosier the same way that in Illinois people refered to something as 'hick, or redneck.' (although redneck is probably too strong a word).

When you move to Indiana, people from other states will ask you, "so, are you a hoosier now?" I assume they are people who don't understand the word, and probably only know it's connection to the state of Indiana - particularly the basketball team.

So, to further inform those of you confused by the term 'hoosier,' I took some pictures on the road from MO to IN just to show some things that would be considered 'hoosier.' These things, in their very essence are hoosier, or as Julie would say hoos-wa [hoozh-wah]. For more information on the word hoosier, click here.