I first moved from Atlanta to Chicago during Feb. some years ago- only a Southerner moves to Illinois during that frigidly cold month. I was told to dress warm for the wind chill, I had never heard the words " wind chill" before so I went out and bought a sweater. It was 15 below zero when I arrived!
The first party I went to I made three comments that made everyone in the room think my IQ had dropped 30 points. I asked where people went skinny dipping. I used the phrase "ya'll". Then to top it all off, I asked where people went shooting!
I grew up in Atlanta during one of the last romantisized periods of Confederates in the South, it wasn't until I left Georgia that I began to discover there was more going on in that war than the slavery issue.
I have spoken on growing up in the South during that period and what I discovered about Lincoln and that war. I also have a speech in the works on the 5 civilized tribes and General Stand Waite, the Cherokee who led Southern whites into battle!
I like drive-in movies, my name comes from my DJ'ing mashups in Chicago (a new form of dance music), and I study Military and Military Intel history.
Hi DJ! I've a few very good friends that live in MS and when they visited me here in a suburb of Chicago they experienced the same thing! Though they came in the summer/fall and didn't experience windchill they did question the meaning. We talked about gun rights and the such and it turns out they actually (both the men and women) shooting classes in HS and could not believe how paranoid people are about guns. All of them regularly would go hunting or shoot varmints. I don't recall them skinny-dipping or asking about it (ha) but I'm sure they have! My friend in Coffeeville, MS figures he is the only southerner in MS that has as vast of a collection of books on Lincoln and actually admits he admires him.
I've a friend that lives in Atlanta (transplanted northerner), Roswell I think, and when I am on a civil war battlefield trip I like to send here postcards of Sherman. I figure that gets some of the postman a rise!
I personally like the word ya'll and I think it should be used more often here north of the Mason-Dixon line.
__________________
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed,
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'
Mark Twain
How ironic, down here in Texas we just got us a Yankee in our office from Illinois, but he acts like a Texan. He likes Nascar, beer, he shoots, owns his own arsenal and has a belt buckle you could eat off of. Anyway, glad you joined us.
The fairs and festivals we have in Chicago summer and fall are incredible. We have Joss Stone playing free at Taste Of Chicago this year (she's a young white girl from England that has saved soul music), Johnny Winter and BB King coming to Blues Fest (all free), Summerdance- all summer with people dancing with the skyline as the backdrop. We have the Pitchfork Music Festival and Lollapalooza, the Hide Out Music Festival, the Naperville Music Festival look at how we party: http://chicago.metromix.com/events/article/chicago-festival-guide-2008/339943/content
We have loads of theatre, comedy, music spots.
The negatives are: winter. The Mayor has already said no matter what the Supreme Court rules on guns he will not allow any change, we have the highest sales tax in the nation, and what Lenny Burce said about Chicago is still true:
Pizzeria Uno pizza was the first to sell their food nationally by air! From Sinatra in they ordered, today you can still get the pizza frozen delivered to you. It is still great. We also have Mr, Beef on Orleans for the best Italian beef sandwich you'll ever have. Chinatown, Greektown, Taylor Street for Italian.
I love Marche on Randolph for French food, and have eaten there once every month for the last year. I also eat at Gioco for Italian regularly, Cafe Iberico for tapas, Ethiopian Diamond, Red Light for Asian fusion. Opera for Chinese fine dining.
For pizza there's also Lou Malnatti's, Gino's East (the best if with a family). At Franklin and Erie there's a unique hamburger place (they serve Kangaroo, ostrich and other exotic burgers), called Hop Haus.
The lounge at Shaw's has half price raw oysters from 4:30 to 6:30 daily.
Best entertainment deal is Thursday's at The Green Mill. From 9pm on, a 15 - 18 piece orchestra re-creates a 1030's big band era radio show. You want to get there by 8:30 for a seat. The bar is at Lawrence and Broadway (across the street from one of the best Ethiopian restaurants in town) and was owned by Al Capone. It has tunnels that go to the lake that were used to supply all the speak easies in the area during prohibition.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
A Rebel In Illinois! 
Linear Mode
