I don’t know if you had a chance to check it out this past weekend, but the streets of Trenary were flush with visitors for their annual Outhouse Classic. There aren’t a lot of places that would celebrate such a …unique event, but we’ve come to expect things like that up here.
When you think about it there are actually a LOT of things that we could call uniquely Yooper. And that’s not even counting stereotypical items like outhouses or pasties or mosquitos the size of a space shuttle.
For instance, it’s a uniquely Yooper thing when you realize you’re among the chosen few who actually get to live near three Great Lakes. And it’s even better because they’re the only three Great Lakes that matter.
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing when you buy a new car, and then leave it in the garage for five months while you spend the winter driving your beater. Assuming, of course, it’s a year when we actually have a winter…
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing to have high schools with nicknames like Nimrods or Flivers or Hematites, and not even bat an eye.
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing to know what a chook is and how to use it.
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing to realize that if it wasn’t for people from the UP, New York City would not have its subway system nor its grandest building.
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing when a local restaurant finally starts offering its most popular sauce in stores, and sells out the first day on the shelves.
It’s a uniquely Yooper thing to use “sisu” as a verb. Of course, it’s a uniquely Yooper thing to disagree on whether it’s pronounced “sisu” or “seesu”… unlike that other Finnish word we use all the time– because it’s also a uniquely Yooper thing to know that it’s pronounced “sow-na”, and that anyone who says it any other way is wrong.
Sure, other places have one of two events or ways of speaking or lifestyle choices that they can claim to be their own, but I don’t know of many other locations that have the sheer breath, depth, or wacky insanity of the things that we can proudly say are uniquely Yooper.
I’m Jim Koski, and that’s another slice of “Life in the 906.”
