Comment by parpfish
6 months ago
As another born and raised Wisconsinite:
There’s the superficial “friendly and welcoming” that applies to everybody. You’ll wave at everyone you see and lend a hand if their car is stuck in a snowbank.
But there’s also a very insular clannishness where you will never get beyond a surface level unless you’re “one of them”.
However this is less of a “Wisconsin thing” and more of an “every northern rural area” thing
My Grandma from Norway had the exact same experience growing up on an island of 100 in the fjords where the 50 fisher folks didn’t talk to the 50 farmer folks on the other side of the hill.
People who complain about tribalism are typically under-informed about the human condition and haven’t traveled enough.
Maybe the fish people just smelled fishy all the time?