The Region-
th uh ree-juh n
Noun.
- Northwest Indiana comprises of Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana.
- where the slums of south Chicago meet the cornfields in Indiana
- the greatest place on earth
According to my grandmother, the term Region Rat goes back to the 40s and 50s. Back then the Region consisted of Whiting, East Chicago, what is now north Hammond, and Gary. This region was full of Democrats, those who worked in the industries as blue-collar workers unlike the rest of Indiana. People from the Region were looked down on by the rest of state following Chicago time and Chicago sports.
When you look up successful alumni from the Region, the list goes on and on. Dean White, who was an American entrepreneur and recognized by Forbes, focused on providing jobs for the people in the Region through his hotel and real estate empire.
Ernie Strack and Nick Van Til, who opened their first Strack and Van Til grocery store in the 1960s. John Norman Hogg, the founder of Peerless Potato Chips, a potato chip company which lasted for almost 90 years out of Gary.
My aunt and uncle built their business in the Region. My uncle, Mirko Marich, is a first-generation American. His family migrated here from Serbia in 1948. My aunt, Kari Marich, received her pharmaceutical degree at Butler University in 1993 and her MBA from Indiana University Northwest in 1995. Their company Staff Source, which is a recruitment firm, has been awarded Best of the Region by Northwest Indiana Quarterly five times. They built their business from the ground up in the Region.
Two Crown Point natives, Artie and Annie Equihua, grew up in the Region. Annie went on to play basketball at Purdue in West Lafayette and was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Artie went to Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana to play football and baseball. They then came back to Northwest Indiana to work for the Crown Point School cooperation. In the summer of 2015, Artie and Annie opened their own Board and Brush, a creative studio located in Crown Point. It was a learning experience.
Artie built all of the studio tables and put together the whole workshop. Annie worked deliberately on getting permits, ordering supplies, and creating a plan to help manage the shop. When they first opened their business, they thought they would have about twenty people every week; now Board and Brush hosts on average five parties every weekend ranging from twenty-five – fifty people each night.
I have noticed that region rats have an unexplainable connection. When you find out someone is from the Region, the first conversation you have is “what part “and then “do you know (insert name here)”. Then you almost instantly become best friends. The bond between those from the Region is indescribable.
The Region is filled with hard-working individuals. Individuals who are eager to learn. Being from the Region means you let everyone from the “non-region” part of Indiana make fun of you because they truly don’t understand the heart and soul that lies here. Whether it was spending the last day of school on Wells beach, or enjoying a dinner at Portillo’s with my friends I am truly proud to say I am from the Region.
