What does 'UP' stand for? Upper Peninsula??
You got it right! Well done.
You’re a Yooper?!
Who's a what?
You know. Alley-YOOP-oop, (doop doop ... doop doop)
You’re a Yooper?! I had a good work friend whose father was from Rockland and actually moved back while in his 70s after his wife passed away. I can’t imagine *moving* back to the UP after experiencing the tropical climes of DC, even for pasties, but that’s what he did
I was, for four years. Now I'm a Michigan's northwest coast year-rounder, which is very similar, though winters are shorter.
Both regions have really surprising attractions that get under one's skin. In both places, there are disproportionately high numbers of residents who are visual artists, writers and photographers ... because it's so beautiful, summer and winter. I've documented more sunshiny days over the winters in both places, compared to downstate Michigan. Snow is treated matter-of-factly by everyone; both civic employees and civic-minded citizens (& retirees) pitch in to snow-plow the roads and driveways, snow-blow sidewalks, etc. My former mother-in-law relocated to the U.P. and could hardly be persuaded ever to leave it ... which is typical. After a few years there, I figured out that Yoopers talk up how much snow they get and how crazy it is to live there ... it's a way to discourage overpopulation in their beloved homeland!
Also, both regions were originally heavily settled by Scandinavian immigrants. It figures. I recently was astonished to learn that by DNA I'm 23% Scandinavian, so maybe that explains it....