In town the other day, I was behind a pickup at a stop
light. The pickup had a Nebraska
license plate and one of those oval place abbreviation stickers. Instead of NEB, it said UP. Come to
think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen a NEB
oval sticker. Not because there are no beautiful places in Nebraska. There are many. Maybe because
people from the middle of the country either want to have to explain that or
don’t want to hear comments like ‘I spent a week in Nebraska
one afternoon.” Pass-through tourism generates quite a bit of revenue for towns
along the main routes, but destination tourisms is at best a niche market in
the plains. Some people I knew in Kansas
liked the idea that I-70 just squirted people through and we did not have to
cater to tourist whims. And we gloated about the little secret we knew about
great places to go.
The driver of that truck at the stop light was no Yooper
wannabe. On the back window was another sticker declaring “Yoosta be a Yooper.”
I think it was said wistfully not as something he was able to overcome.
I’m sure he has to explain to others back in Nebraska a.) why he’d have a
sticker that says ‘up’ (some kind of new age positivism message?) and b.) what the
heck is a yooper?
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