Broadly speaking—which is the only way to talk about this kind of thing, after all—Midwesterners are, true-to-reputation, kind and friendly, but they aren't particularly warm. Maybe in my narrow-minded, pre-Midwestern existence, I'd assumed that "friendly" and "warm" were the same thing, but it's a distinction I've found unnerving.
Midwesterners are wary of prying—they consider it impolite, even unfriendly—and they don't readily reveal personal information. Which means they exist comfortably at a certain remove that can take years—and I mean years—to breech.
As Gatsby accurately has it, a person from the Midwest never ceases to be so, no matter how many coastal affectations he or she might acquire. People in the South tend to be friendly but not always polite; people on the east coast are often just rude, and you have to make your peace with that. Midwesterners have their own complex social etiquette that is easy to identify; respond in the appropriate way and you'll get an hour of pleasant conversation about all manner of topics that never veers into politics, religion, or anything personal.*
No fooling: I had a conversation with a visitor to the program this year, originally from Michigan, who did PhD work in theology at a university in Chicago, and for the life of me, I could not tell you his religious affiliation. But he did share some recommendations about nice places to visit in the northern suburbs, and he was genuinely nice and polite.
*This is the trifecta of qualities I look for in small-talk and dinner conversation. Literature, music and art are all fine: it's possible to express aesthetic preferences in a manner less conversationally fraught than moral or religious convictions. And, following this policy, one will often find oneself surprised, as at the dinner this year where I discussed, with an older couple, Jay-Z's appearance on Charlie Rose. Conclusion: we all kind of like Jay-Z.
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