and I live in CENTRAL Illinois, a fact lost on many Chicago area residents who consider any place south of Chicago as "down state".
I got my first taste of what Chicago is all about in the early 70s when I got my first parking ticket from there. They mailed it to me.
Problem was I had never been to Chicago in my life.
Then I read about it in the paper. Chicago was mailing tickets at random throughout the state in hopes that some of us rubes would just pay them.
They did it again in the early 80s.
FYI - I *am* a downstater by birth - spent the first 25 years of my life there. (See your FReepmail.) All my college friends at U of I were from the Chicago area and had NO idea about the geography or demographics of downstate. I once took a bunch of my singer friends on a roadtrip back to my home town of Pontiac for a singing engagement, doing the "blacktop" thing. They were terrified I was lost :-). And I yanked their chains a lot too - "Hey, we're going to turn right at the rock coming up here...".
PS I forgot to mention that I still vote like a downstater (raised in rockrib GOP county! :-) EVERY chance I possibly get. :-)