Southern Illinois According to Bill Nunes

As you may remember from my 977.3 Illinois post, I had a great visit to the public library a few weeks ago with a student who was studying local history.

We have so enjoyed borrowing these four books by Bill Nunes, and I renewed them as many times as I could. We just love to pick them up and browse through! But now, sadly, it is time to return the set to the library. I highly recommend these books if you teach in Illinois. They are full of history, geography, biographies, fun facts, and folklore.

Here is one of my favorite just-for-fun passages. It is from the pink book, which is called Southern Illinois: Amazing Stories from the Past, on p.177.

In looking for a picture of the cover, I discovered that this book is on archive.org. If you have a (free) account, you can read it there. Enjoy!

"YOU MIGHT BE A SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN IF...

1. If you pronounce it Ill-a-noi instead of a Ella-noise

2. If you think Chicago should be a separate state

3. If your local Dairy Queen is closed December through March

4. If you have ever worn shorts and a parka at the same time

5. If your town has an equal number of churches and taverns

6. If you think people who live on the east coast and west coast are totally nuts

7. If vacation means going north or south on I-55 for the weekend

8. If you think that the Cub-Cardinals baseball rivaly is better than the Yankee-Red Sox feud

9. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once

10. If you know all five seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, pothole filling time, and Oh, my but it's HOT!

11. If your idea of creative landscaping is a deer statue next to a blue spruce

12. If you often switch from heat to AC and then back again in a single day

13. If you don't even bother going to the basement or storm celler when another pesky tornado warning is given

14. If you regard the St. Valentine's Day Massacre as just another squabble between local gangsters

15. If the best sports memories in your lifetime revolve around Cardinal World Series victories and the Rams winning the Super Bowl

16. If you think Ronald Reagan was our greatest president

17. If you wear Route 66 T-shirts to church

18. If you think people from other states speak with an accent, but not you

19. If you put a red bow on your car grille in December

20. If your ancestors rooted for the Confederacy to win the War of Northern Aggression

21. If you have mine subsidence and earthquake insurance on your homeowner's policy"

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