region rat

From region +‎ rat. Within Indiana, the northwest of the state is colloquially called the Region, originally short for the Calumet Region. The ‘rat’ appellation apparently derives from millrat as a pejorative term for steelworkers.

region rat (plural region rats)

1. (Indiana, informal) an inhabitant of northwest Indiana
   • 1975, James B. Lane, Steel Shavings, volume 31, page 2:

     Gingrich also fired, for no good reason, House Historian Raymond Smock, a former “Region Rat” who first introduced me to In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.

   • 2004 July 1, Illinois Information Service Press Summary, issue:

     “Ask any region rat,” said Langbehn, referring to denizens of northwest Indiana. “When the wind is off the lake, you can smell it all the way down to Crown Point. It’s like a sulfur compound, clearly a steel-mill smell.”

   • 2013, Paula Evans, Everybody Loves Amy, back cover:

     Paula Evans, author of The Isle of Iona, was born in Gary, Indiana, named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame (with apologies to Meredith Willson). She has accepted her fate as a lifelong Hoosier and Region Rat.

   • 2017, Jerry Davich, Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana, page 24:

     Tens of thousands of longtime residents here proudly wear the region rat reputation, and they will never see themselves as anything else, until death do them part.

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