What does your New Yorker map of the US look like?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (214739)
Walnut Creek, California
December 1, 2023 8:51pm CST
I was just discussing US gas prices with our Wisconsin correspondent, @Just4Him. It occurred to me that we all have different "cognitive maps" of the US. I was born in Chicago (but it was not in 1951, and my daddy did NOT tell me I had better get a gun). But I have lived in many places in the US, including Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, and California. Plus I have always had relatives in New York, and have visited them fairly regularly.
My map of the US begins with Chicago, San Francisco, and NYC. Montana is Northwest of Chicago, and Northeast of California. Those are the places that are most important.
Austin Texas is important because I was Baptized there, but the rest of Texas is just Texas. I believe that Dallas is in Eastern Texas, that El Paso (where I have NOT fallen in love with a Mexican girl) is in Western Texas. But I could be wrong. I further believe that Lubbock is in Northern Texas, which looks a lot like Oklahoma to me, but again I could be wrong.
LA and SD are South of San Francisco, and the people are prettier there than they are here in the Bay Area. But more superficial. Or not.
Florida is to the lower right...the Southeast...and has lots of aloe plants growing. The Keys are pretty and the water in the Gulf is warm.
Arizona is kind of Western and down from everything, and is hot and dry. Except for Flagstaff, which tries to look like Montana.
Places like Louisiana and Mississippi are "somewhere in the South," and people there talk funny and actually eat ocra. They say things like "bless your heart" (beware) and "I finna go to the sto."
Montana is just East of Idaho (where they grow potatoes), has lovely mountains, cold Winters, and people who are mostly straight-shooters.
Iowa is the state where "the girls are pretty but don't know it." It is West of Chicago, and is full of corn, soy beans, and hogs. And (in my experience) kind people with common sense. But you have to drive 60 miles to get decent Chinese or Thai food.
Milwaukee and Green Bay Wisconsin are "up and to the left of us" in Chicago. I like Wisconsin because many of their cows are milk and cheese, so the get a pass (but not really).
That is my map of the United States. what does your map of the United States look like?
10 people like this
8 responses
@LadyDuck (467914)
• Switzerland
2 Dec
The map of the United States are the places we visited for me. I can place very well some states, but I would not bet on others that we never visited, of course I can say if they are in the middle, north or south. I would not make mistakes with the Italian regions and the European countries, I know exactly how to place them.
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@LadyDuck (467914)
• Switzerland
3 Dec
@TheHorse You are close, except Firenze that is in the central part of Italy, north of Rome, but not in the North. Sicily close to Morocco, that for sure. I know for sure that all the way west from north to south there are Washington State, Oregon, California. To the right of California, Nevada and south of Nevada Arizona, to the right of Arizona, going east I find New Mexico, Texas, on top of Texas Oklahoma and to the right of Texas Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and Florida south of Georgia.
I am pretty sure of all those because those are all states we have visited. UP north east New York.
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@TheHorse (214739)
• Walnut Creek, California
2 Dec
Heh. Umbria is the place I have visited the most in Italy. I think it's kind of in the middle of Italy. Perugia is a city there. Assisi is only abut 50 km from Perugia. Venice is up and to the right (Northeast). Rome is...somewhere. I think of it as to the South of Firenze and Perugia. Firenze is...somewhere. To the North of (at least part of) Italy is Switzerland. Sicily is in the Sea to the South. Heh. Am I close?
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@franxav (13750)
• India
2 Dec
Unites States is just a lovely map for me. You have given me something more tangible to know. For a person faraway in remote corner of India US is NASA, Hollywood, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and anything that media serves in our plate. Loved what you said about the pretty ones and the language in the South.
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@jstory07 (137985)
• Roseburg, Oregon
2 Dec
The first 15 years of my life was in Europe and Asia. We traveled one month out of every years to see different places. I even went to see the pyramids in Egypt and a safari in Africa. We went to Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland. We went to Japan and some islands that I do not remember the names of.
Than we came back to the states and trawled one month to different states.
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@wolfgirl569 (102639)
• Marion, Ohio
2 Dec
I was born and have lived in Ohio. Been to Kentucky a couple of times. One trip to Florida as a teenager.
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@TheHorse (214739)
• Walnut Creek, California
3 Dec
@wolfgirl569 I just remembered that my current baseball cap is from Kentucky.
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@just4him (317036)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
2 Dec
My map begins and ends in Wisconsin. I spent ten weeks in Maryland on the east coast while in Navy boot camp. I went to Pennsylvania for a day of boot leave and enjoyed a day in Lancaster where the people are friendly. It was then I crossed the Chesapeake River and saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first and only time. I traveled through West Virginia where the scenery is beyond beautiful, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois on my way home from boot camp. I lived in San Diego, California, on the west coast, where I found the people were not friendly to outsiders, anyone who didn't come from California. On vacation, known as leave in the military, we traveled through Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and home to San Diego. I found the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle flat and dry with very little life. New Mexico was beautiful with its mountain cliffs. Arizona was a mix of heat and cold. I was surprised to see snow around Flagstaff. As I traveled through many states, I didn't stay long enough to know the people of those states. I lived in Illinois for several years. The people are friendly but stay to themselves. Now, I'm back in Wisconsin, where I've been since 1990. It's a pretty state that doesn't get a lot of hazardous weather. No hurricanes, few tornadoes, but mostly snow and a few blizzards to make life interesting.
That's my map of the US.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (172041)
• United States
2 Dec
Florida is the Keys and Everglades to me, I've been to several states on the east coast. It's where there are a lot of people and a lot of traffic; and they get nor'easters there. I wouldn't want to live there. There's Ohio where I live. Pretty safe from most things except cold, ice and s**w. In the central US there are a bunch of states that I don't know and have never been to. Arizona is hot and dry. Flagstaff, as you said, is lovely and green and cool. The west coast is gorgeous, expensive in California and full of wildlife. I could go on and on. Have a great weekend.
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@TheHorse (214739)
• Walnut Creek, California
3 Dec
@LindaOHio I find Seattle to be a prettier city than San Francisco.
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@LindaOHio (172041)
• United States
3 Dec
@TheHorse It's gorgeous though when the fog is not there. So are WA and OR.
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@GardenGerty (159885)
• United States
2 Dec
I am in the center of the universe, here in Kansas. It has space, and believe it or not it is not entirely flat. I grew up near Oklahoma City, so to me much of Ok. is citified, till you get to my grandparents in the southeast of the state--then it is trees and red dirt and rose rocks.I lived outside of San Diego for a while, it is ocean, with inland being lush greenery if you are not downtown. Missouri is the Ozarks mostly to me, again, I tend towards the empty spaces, with trees. Same for Nebraska--home of Tree City USA and Arbor Day and my son in law. Minnesota is big cities for me, and friendly people. Multicultural experiences and my daughter and her family. Michigan, well, it is the UP. . . the mitten. Nothing else counts. Bob and his Finlander relatives live up there and there is mining and forestry.
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