Downstate Illinois

[Page Stephens]

In a note about mountain oysters Doug Wilson uses the term "downstate
Illinois".

Having grown up in Centralia, Illinois which is approximately 65 miles
directly east of St. Louis we used to consider ourselves to be from southern
Illinois. On the other hand I have heard my friends from Chicago refer to
anything south of Chicago as downstate, and I have known people who lived
south of Centralia suggest that Centralia is only marginally in southern
Illinois if at all.

Designations like these are interestingly relative because they depend on
the perspective of the person using them.

During elections when I was growing up in the 1950s television commentators
would first report the election results from Chicago which would normally
come in first and invariably they would come in with a high democratic bias
due to the Daly I machine but then they would add that we have to wait until
the results come in from downstate i.e.. anyplace except Chicago.

The same phenomenon occurs in New York where upstate, i.e.. not NYC is
currently in use. Then some people differentiate between western NY and
upstate NY but it appears to depend on where they live.

Page Stephens

> I never ate any but IIRC they were a not-too-rare menu
> item in downstate Illinois where I once resided.
>
> -- Doug Wilson