All Worth Their Salt

"All Worth Their Salt: The People of NWI" is a collection of 100 interviews human interest columnist Jeff Manes has written about those hailing from Northwest Indiana. Manes feels Northwest Indiana is or should be the 51st state of the union where those living in nearby Chicago look down upon them as bumpkins and rubes while the remainder of the Hoosier State deems them as aliens and thugs. The folks Manes showcases are mill rats, sod busters, hash slingers, boilermakers, barbers, bricklayers, truckers, teachers, tree huggers, eccentrics and altruists. Sometimes their stories are hysterical and sometimes they are heartbreaking. Sometimes they are both hysterical and heartbreaking within the same interview. The people of Northwest Indiana are salt of the earth. Truly, ordinary people who do extraordinary things.