What do you think of as "the South?"

[Denise in Florida]

Who puts sugar in iced tea? :blink:

 

Gross.

 

Bill

 

:iagree::iagree: It took a few months for me to figure out to say "Unsweet", which is a stupid word. :lol:

[stripe]

I lived in KY for 6 months and found it *VERY* Southern.

 

Yeah. My elderly relatives from Ky still have a drawl after 60 years away.

 

Can we just simplify:

steamy weather + sweet tea = southerner

[Ibbygirl]

 

Very little makes one sick like the exploitation and lack of good stewardship to one's home.

 

:iagree::iagree: It burns inside of you. I couldn't even sleep last night because I was so riled up about the exchange in this thread and if you knew me and how laid back I really am you'd know that's saying something.

 

I love my state. It's so messed up, but for better or for worse it's my home. My roots are here, my family is here, my whole life has been lived here. I want to die here and probably will. Now if I could get people to quit calling it a he11 hole that would be progress. :D

[FeFe]

Yeah, your definition sounds right to me. :D

 

:iagree:

 

eta: Except TN and KY are absolutely southern to me.

Edited August 3, 2012 by FeFe

[8circles]

Now if I could get people to quit calling it a he11

hole that would be progress. :D

 

yikes! I don't know if I could take the heat year-round but I love FL. He11 hole it is not. I love the natural beauty there.

[lovemykids]

I lived in KY for 6 months and found it *VERY* Southern.

 

My IL's live in Delaware and it's definitely not Southern at all. It's very much Mid-Atlantic culturally- a lot of the things I think of as being stereotypically "Jersey" are big in DE as well.

 

Yes, but did you know that here in Northern Jersey we consider Southern Jersey residents as members of the south? So Delaware is southern. :lol::tongue_smilie:

[LizzyBee]

I haven't read the whole thread, but this is something dh and I have discussed. I grew up in western MD (as in, as far west as you can go in the state), while dh grew up in Baltimore. I considered MD part of the North and myself a northerner. Imagine my surprise when I found out that dh considers himself a southerner.

Edited August 3, 2012 by LizzyBee

[Sahamamama]

I am seriously baffled by your hostility towards me. I've stated twice that those are NOT my opinions. They are those of the people I live around.

 

:grouphug: I don't get it either. And I'm a Yankee. :D

[Sahamamama]

Unless you are from here and have witnessed the changes for yourself, I don't think you can really understand just how drastic they have been. It's one thing if people come down here and love it too and show respect for it and want to be a part of her care. I personally don't have issue with that. It's a free country and people can live where they want, BUT the wholesale exploitation, the meanness of the invading hoards and their constant complaining about our home that we love gets very old very fast.

 

:iagree:I can't tell you the number of New Jerseyans -- I'm a New Jersey native, mind you -- who have moved to either NC, SC or FL. They go down there for a bit, love the freedom from winter, love the lower taxes, and then they retire and move. Or pull the kids out of school, leaves jobs, sell their houses here, and move.

 

A year or two later, they come back for a visit. They complain the entire time at the church picnic/family reunion/graduation/wedding/funeral.

 

"Oh, it's so hot down there! And the SNAKES! And the humidity! And the spiders! And the heat! And the people are SO HOSTILE to Northerners!" :001_huh: (I wonder why?) On and on and on...

 

The thing that gets to me, being from NJ, is that I know they do this same unattractive, impolite, inconsiderate griping IN FLORIDA, with Floridians. What are Floridians or Carolinans supposed to think about snow birds from the North? Gah, it's no wonder you dislike us. I would too, if someone moved to my state (as if), ravaged its beauty (as if), took advantage of its low taxes (as if), :glare: and then COMPLAINED TO MY FACE about how horrible it is.

 

I would directly say, "Go away."

[Sahamamama]

Yes, but did you know that here in Northern Jersey we consider Southern Jersey residents as members of the south? So Delaware is southern. :lol::tongue_smilie:

 

True. We visit friends/family in DE and think, "Wow, they're Southerners." So true.

 

All of Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line, which is shaped like a backwards L on its side. Technically, Delaware and New Jersey are east (not north) of the MDL, but if you continued the northern section of the MDL and drew it across to the Atlantic, then nearly all of DE and part of southern NJ would be "below" the MDL! :D

 

I had a professor in grad school who was OFFENDED when I mentioned we were both from the Mid-Atlantic. He clarified: I was from the Mid-Atlantic (NJ). HE was from the South (MD), "a Southerner from below the MDL." :lol:

[lovemykids]

True. We visit friends/family in DE and think, "Wow, they're Southerners." So true.

 

All of Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line, which is shaped like a backwards L on its side. Technically, Delaware and New Jersey are east (not north) of the MDL, but if you continued the northern section of the MDL and drew it across to the Atlantic, then nearly all of DE and part of southern NJ would be "below" the MDL! :D

 

I had a professor in grad school who was OFFENDED when I mentioned we were both from the Mid-Atlantic. He clarified: I was from the Mid-Atlantic (NJ). HE was from the South (MD), "a Southerner from below the MDL." :lol:

 

(whistling) Look away! Look away! Look away, Dixie Land. :auto:

[Ellie]

*I* really think I only think of Texas and the "deep south" as south. If you live in GA or your state touches the Gulf of Mexico, you're south. I'll be generous and consider SC and part of arkasas just to be nice. But seriously, I think TN, KY, VA, WV, etc to be WAY pushing it!

Except for the part about Richmond being the capital of the Confederate States...

 

Happily, here you are being re-educated. :D

[Mrs Mungo]

So, I have this funny map that shows perceptions of various states that people in other states have. It is also pretty offensive, but is sort of equally offensive to everyone. Maybe y'all should just look it up, lol.

[Violet Crown]

So, I have this funny map that shows perceptions of various states that people in other states have. It is also pretty offensive, but is sort of equally offensive to everyone. Maybe y'all should just look it up, lol.

 

Oh post the link, we all want to see.

 

Here, you can have The Judgmental Map of Austin in exchange, which probably isn't funny to anyone outside Travis County. It's universally admitted to be true, though it really ought to be quite offensive. (I grew up in Who Cares; and, yeah.)

[UnsinkableKristen]

I guess I never really thought of Florida as being part of "The South", either. But that really is just a personal impression and not a fact.

 

It's obviously southern in terms of geography and as part of the confederacy, but when I think of Florida I don't think sweet tea, civil war, and front porch swings. I think of Mickey Mouse, margaritas, alligators, and marshes. And oranges. All good things, though. I think Florida is great, just it's own little place.

 

Like I said, it's not that it *isn't* part of The South, I just never really think of it that way. To be fair, I don't really think of Texas as The South, either. It's just.... Texas. It's a whole other country :D

 

I think some states are so diverse that it's hard to put a label on them that fits every nook and cranny. Probably most states are like that, though, it's just easier to see the diversity in your own home :).

[fhjmom]

I am I the only Texan or Southerner that is going :confused: about MD or NJ being considered part of The South. No offense, but if you ask a Southerner to identify a Yankee state, New Jersey is probably number two only to New York.

 

I have drove through New Jersey when I was in college and it was a beautiful state, but definitely not "Southern", IMHO.

 

Remember the commercial for picante sauce (Pace maybe?) where all the cowboys are sitting around the campfire and when they find out Cookie has given them picante made in New Jersey, they all respond increduously with "New Jersey?!?!" and then one says, "Get a rope!".

 

Found it! Pace Picante Commercial

[Mrs Mungo]

Oh post the link, we all want to see.

 

Here, you can have The Judgmental Map of Austin in exchange, which probably isn't funny to anyone outside Travis County. It's universally admitted to be true, though it really ought to be quite offensive. (I grew up in Who Cares; and, yeah.)

 

US according to So Cal:

http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/user_photos/1249582/0b38bca410ca553b7111475a61e50876_original.jpg

 

The more offensive version, with some bad language:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/attachments/politics-other-controversies/20670d1212287930-readneck-map-us-its-funny-us-map-redneck.jpe

[Maverick_Mom]

:iagree::iagree: It took a few months for me to figure out to say "Unsweet", which is a stupid word. :lol:

 

Maybe someone can explain this to me (not what you said, but what I'm about to say ;)). I grew up in Alabama. Lived there for 11+ years. Was old enough to hear and understand what was said by others around me and to drink plenty of iced tea both at home, in restaurants, and at countless church dinners and family reunions. In all that time and in all those venues, I never ONCE heard the term "sweet tea" used. Never. Iced tea was "iced tea," and if you didn't want any sugar in it for some reason, it was "unsweetened tea." After I left Alabama in the late 70s I lived in various places up and down the East Coast, including suburban DC (NOT the South, IMHO) and central Florida (most definitely the South, IMHO ;)). Never heard of "sweet tea" during those years, either. It's only been in the past five years or so that I have become familiar with the term, from people using it online and from seeing it in restaurants (it seems to be a nationwide term now). I hear all these Southerners talking about "sweet tea" as if it's a Southern institution -- like honey 'n' butter on your biscuits ;) -- that's been around since the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter. How is it that in all my time in the South I never heard of it? :confused:

 

This is really bugging me, in case you can't tell. ;) Makes me wonder if the South I grew up in was some kind of alternate-universe South.

[Slartibartfast]

US according to So Cal:

http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/user_photos/1249582/0b38bca410ca553b7111475a61e50876_original.jpg

 

 

 

I am offended it said I am from "where Mexicans, rednecks and tornadoes combine" rather than CONSTANT TORNADOES.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Sis

[lovemykids]

So, I have this funny map that shows perceptions of various states that people in other states have. It is also pretty offensive, but is sort of equally offensive to everyone. Maybe y'all should just look it up, lol.

 

ROFL. Who cares as long as you are happy where you are…and if not, get outa there!!

Except for the part about Richmond being the capital of the Confederate States...

 

Happily, here you are being re-educated. :D

 

Oh, VA is most definitely the deep South….yep.

 

And sweet tea abounds in VA, just sayin’...

 

I am I the only Texan or Southerner that is going :confused: about MD or NJ being considered part of The South. No offense, but if you ask a Southerner to identify a Yankee state, New Jersey is probably number two only to New York.

 

I have drove through New Jersey when I was in college and it was a beautiful state, but definitely not "Southern", IMHO.

 

Remember the commercial for picante sauce (Pace maybe?) where all the cowboys are sitting around the campfire and when they find out Cookie has given them picante made in New Jersey, they all respond increduously with "New Jersey?!?!" and then one says, "Get a rope!".

 

Found it! Pace Picante Commercial

 

Love that one!

 

 

It is a joke that we have in here in Jersey…you’d have to live here. ;) In Southern Jersey they do things like.... talk to total strangers in the grocery store line, and bake cakes for neighbors they don’t really like…gasp! See? Southern. :lol:

Edited August 3, 2012 by lovemykids

[lovemykids]

I am offended it said I am from "where Mexicans, rednecks and tornadoes combine" rather than CONSTANT TORNADOES.

 

:lol:

[Kathryn]

Maybe someone can explain this to me (not what you said, but what I'm about to say ;)). I grew up in Alabama. Lived there for 11+ years. Was old enough to hear and understand what was said by others around me and to drink plenty of iced tea both at home, in restaurants, and at countless church dinners and family reunions. In all that time and in all those venues, I never ONCE heard the term "sweet tea" used. Never. Iced tea was "iced tea," and if you didn't want any sugar in it for some reason, it was "unsweetened tea." After I left Alabama in the late 70s I lived in various places up and down the East Coast, including suburban DC (NOT the South, IMHO) and central Florida (most definitely the South, IMHO ;)). Never heard of "sweet tea" during those years, either. It's only been in the past five years or so that I have become familiar with the term, from people using it online and from seeing it in restaurants (it seems to be a nationwide term now). I hear all these Southerners talking about "sweet tea" as if it's a Southern institution -- like honey 'n' butter on your biscuits ;) -- that's been around since the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter. How is it that in all my time in the South I never heard of it? :confused:

 

This is really bugging me, in case you can't tell. ;) Makes me wonder if the South I grew up in was some kind of alternate-universe South.

 

I agree with you. It was the same here. When I was growing up, if you ordered "tea" in a restaurant, you got sweetened tea. My grandparents, from New England, would order "tea without sugar" when visiting us (though mostly they ordered "hot tea"). Sometime in the last decade or so, with the influx into the South of people from other parts of the country and "sweet tea" making it's way out of the South, we've gotten to the point where you must order "sweet tea" or "unsweetened tea" and it still sounds weird to me.

[Mrs Mungo]

The worst place I have lived with regard to tea? Hawaii. Hardly any place even has brewed tea. It's mostly that tea from a soda machine junk. YUUUUCK!!!!!

[Denise in Florida]

I hear all these Southerners talking about "sweet tea" as if it's a Southern institution -- like honey 'n' butter on your biscuits ;) -- that's been around since the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter. How is it that in all my time in the South I never heard of it? :confused:

 

I moved to Florida in 1998 (North Florida therefore the 'South" :lol:) And yes they just call it 'tea' here. That led to my confusion because I am from the Southwest (Arizona) and when you ask for 'tea' it doesn't come pre-sweetened, you can add sugar if you want to. I dont want to...I prefer it to taste like 'tea' not 'sugar'. :tongue_smilie:

 

After several unfortunate meals where my drink came to the table masquerading as syrup, I asked the waitress how to request the not sugar variety. She said that was 'unsweet', which makes no sense, you don't unsweeten it you just take it the way it originally is. :001_huh:

 

Since then I have heard 'unsweet' tea more and more often and lately they have gone to calling the syrup stuff 'sweet' tea to differentiate.

 

We won't even get into the unfortunate consequences of trying to get chiles but not chili (con carne). ha :lol:

 

Obviously, I have not quite made peace with the differences in food styles.

[LucyStoner]

If in the state, you can find a confederate memorial (rather than a civil war memorial) or the state succeeded from the United States, then it is part of the south. The border states are a toss up/mix but most have a confederate memorial in some part of the state.

 

Florida was the third state to secede. Parts of the state were occupied by the Union. Their vast coastline allowed much needed foreign supplies into the Confederacy. No matter how many snow birds and retirees and Disney fans comingle there, the state is southern in my mind. Each southern state has something that makes it different from other southern states but those differences don't mean the state is not southern at all, right?

 

My mother's folks are all from Kentucky. It seems pretty south to me. When we lived there, I saw a confederate specific memorial (and civil war memorials.) And I may have been the only kid growing up in my NW state eating grits for breakfast and making biscuits from scratch without a recipe.

Edited August 4, 2012 by kijipt

[LucyStoner]

I think Kentucky is more southern than Virginia. They eat biscuits and pie and drink lots of sweet tea.

 

 

Well if eating pie and biscuits is the litmus test, the south extends into Canada. Who doesn't like pie?

[MSNative]

Well if eating pie and biscuits is the litmus test, the south extends into Canada. Who doesn't like pie?

 

Aw, people in NYC like a good biscuit or pie. Yankees aren't stupid. Here's the Southern litmus test: Do folks ask you about your kin or your people? If your kin have only been in that state for 1 or 2 generations and you try to call yourself a native fill-in-the-blank- state-ian, do people quote Southern scripture: "If a cat has kittens in the oven, do you call them biscuits?" ;) If so, you are in the real South.

[LizzyBee]

I am I the only Texan or Southerner that is going :confused: about MD or NJ being considered part of The South. No offense, but if you ask a Southerner to identify a Yankee state, New Jersey is probably number two only to New York.

 

 

Well, I can tell you my dh's reasons for including MD as a southern state:

1) It's south of the Mason-Dixon line.

2) MD would have seceded if Lincoln hadn't jailed the secessionist politicians in MD because he couldn't afford to let DC be surrounded by Confederate states.

3) The first fatalities of the Civil War were in Baltimore when a mob attacked a train carrying Union soldiers to the South. The western and northern parts of the state were more closely tied to the Union, but Baltimore, where dh is from, was not. Southern MD and the Eastern Shore had tobacco plantations and were more closely tied to the South as well.

 

I feel like MD is the state that neither side wants. Northerners say that MD is a southern state because it's south of the Mason Dixon line, but southerners don't claim us because we didn't secede and our culture isn't southern enough. :tongue_smilie:

 

If in the state, you can find a confederate memorial (rather than a civil war memorial) or the state succeeded from the United States, then it is part of the south. The border states are a toss up/mix but most have a confederate memorial in some part of the state.

 

 

http://www.mdva.state.md.us/MMMC/inventoryPopups/confedMonRockville.html

http://www.whilbr.org/WashingtonConfederateCemetery/index.aspx

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60811-d116827-Reviews-Confederate_Soldiers_and_Sailors_Monument-Baltimore_Maryland.html

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMBZY

 

Oh, this is an interesting article. It says,

"Most people think Maryland was a Northern state, but Maryland was under occupation. Maryland was part of the Union like Czechoslovakia was part of the Third Reich. We were under military occupation," Dunbar said.

 

http://ww2.somdnews.com/stories/07032009/entetop155725_32203.shtml

Edited August 4, 2012 by LizzyBee

[lionfamily1999]

Honey child, Virginia invented the South. It is why the capital of the Confederacy was Richmond. :D

:iagree:

Yeah. My elderly relatives from Ky still have a drawl after 60 years away.

 

Can we just simplify:

steamy weather + sweet tea = southerner

:lol:

Good parameters.

 

If in the state, you can find a confederate memorial (rather than a civil war memorial) or the state succeeded from the United States, then it is part of the south. The border states are a toss up/mix but most have a confederate memorial in some part of the state.

 

Florida was the third state to secede. Parts of the state were occupied by the Union. Their vast coastline allowed much needed foreign supplies into the Confederacy. No matter how many snow birds and retirees and Disney fans comingle there, the state is southern in my mind. Each southern state has something that makes it different from other southern states but those differences don't mean the state is not southern at all, right?

 

My mother's folks are all from Kentucky. It seems pretty south to me. When we lived there, I saw a confederate specific memorial (and civil war memorials.) And I may have been the only kid growing up in my NW state eating grits for breakfast and making biscuits from scratch without a recipe.

 

:iagree: Living near Jeff Davis highway, where the local high school is Washington and Lee, and able to take my kids at any given moment to see monuments to both Robert E. Lee and Jeff Davis... have to say VA is the south.

[Ibbygirl]

yikes! I don't know if I could take the heat year-round but I love FL. He11 hole it is not. I love the natural beauty there.

 

Thank you for your sentiments and to some other previous posters also who expressed similar ones. I do appreciate that. I've been trying to find a way all day to say what I want to say to you all and it's hard to articulate and I still don't know if I can really convey what I want to say and what I feel, (I'm not good at putting words together) but I'll try.

 

I want you all to know that I don't hate anyone and I try hard not to judge a person by their accent but rather by who they are as a person. If a person moves down here and is happy to be here and becomes a participant in the community and helps to care for it. I think that's great and I have no problems with that. My own family did the same when they came here to work in the cigar industry here.

 

I've never felt like I wasn't a part of this state because Florida's Spanish history goes back even further than it's American one and it has always been a part of what makes Florida Florida. When my family came here from Spain (in the late 1800's) and Cuba (in 1906) to the latin community in Ybor City (Tampa) they became active participants in the community.

 

My great grandfather built homes for low income families with his own two hands. My grandfather was a city councilman in Ybor City for two terms and he did a lot of good and made it a better place to live. They cared about the community and did their part to make it better.

 

My great grandfather was integral to the creation of unions for the cigar workers even though they were lynching people who were pushing for the unions. He didn't back down because he knew it was right to protect the workers from exploitation.

 

When people can come here and care for it and treat it with respect and as their home, I have no problem with that at all. I will welcome you with open arms. It's the other types that I/we as Floridians have problems with. The exploiters, the complainers, the ones who don't care, who hate it here, who think we are backwards, ignorant and dumb and tell us to our faces, who trash our state because they have no love or respect for it. THESE are the types that we have problems with.

 

I am not against northerners or anyone else for that matter. You are all my brothers and sisters as fellow Americans. On 9/11 I cried for New York as if they were my own family because they were, as my fellow countrymen.

 

I don't want to put out the impression that I am against you all as a whole. I really try to take people as they come and not prejudge them by the sound of the accent that comes out of their mouth. I will give them the benefit of the doubt until they do or say something to show me otherwise. :D

 

Ugh, I feel like I'm rambling and not making any sense, but I just wanted to say that if it came across that I hate anyone, I don't. I do resent some people, but only the ones who deserve it I assure you. :D

 

Hopefully this ramble makes some sort of sense. :p

[Excelsior! Academy]

I almost hate to ask, but I have always thought OK was part of the south. It's not? Please, gently, enlighten me. I've lived here my whole life so this is not a snarky question.

[Ibbygirl]

Florida was the third state to secede. Parts of the state were occupied by the Union.

 

Many parts of it still are. :D

 

 

(sorry. I just couldn't resist. I was just there tempting me!):leaving: :auto: hehehehehe

[ereks mom]

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, north Florida

[Carrie75]

Anywhere that has those quickie, buffet lunch places, with okra, greens, and fried chicken.

[laundrycrisis]

When I lived in OK, I thought of The South as the "deep south" states only. Now that I live in Chicagoland, anything south of I-80 is The South. :D

[MamaT]

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, north Florida

 

I would add Kentucky and Louisianna, and call this list good. I'm not sure about Virginia . . . .

 

I grew up, got married, and had all my kids in North Florida. It is definitely The South. I like being Southern, and wouldn't have it any other way.

[Mrs Mungo]

I almost hate to ask, but I have always thought OK was part of the south. It's not? Please, gently, enlighten me. I've lived here my whole life so this is not a snarky question.

 

It is the Southwest. I am from Oklahoma too. :) No sweet tea. We don't really care about the Civil War. It wasn't until after I moved to VA that I had heard it called The War of Northern Aggression by anyone but the Beverly Hillbillies. So, no, it is not the true south, IMO.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Mrs Mungo

[ereks mom]

I like being Southern, and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

:iagree:

[KungFuPanda]

I haven't read the whole thread, but this is something dh and I have discussed. I grew up in western MD (as in, as far west as you can go in the state), while dh grew up in Baltimore. I considered MD part of the North and myself a northerner. Imagine my surprise when I found out that dh considers himself a southerner.[

 

Aw, people in NYC like a good biscuit or pie. Yankees aren't stupid. Here's the Southern litmus test: Do folks ask you about your kin or your people? If your kin have only been in that state for 1 or 2 generations and you try to call yourself a native fill-in-the-blank- state-ian, do people quote Southern scripture: "If a cat has kittens in the oven, do you call them biscuits?" ;) If so, you are in the real South.

 

Well, I can tell you my dh's reasons for including MD as a southern state:

1) It's south of the Mason-Dixon line.

2) MD would have seceded if Lincoln hadn't jailed the secessionist politicians in MD because he couldn't afford to let DC be surrounded by Confederate states.

3) The first fatalities of the Civil War were in Baltimore when a mob attacked a train carrying Union soldiers to the South. The western and northern parts of the state were more closely tied to the Union, but Baltimore, where dh is from, was not. Southern MD and the Eastern Shore had tobacco plantations and were more closely tied to the South as well.

 

I feel like MD is the state that neither side wants. Northerners say that MD is a southern state because it's south of the Mason Dixon line, but southerners don't claim us because we didn't secede and our culture isn't southern enough. :tongue_smilie:

/url]

 

I live in MD now, and it feels very northern to me . . .even the rural parts. It's nothing like living near Savannah. I always thought of WV as more of the North-South stepchild that nobody wanted. And honestly, I don't see how NJ made it into he conversation. It's a world away from anything remotely southern and was my first dose of true Northern culture shock.

 

Now I'm wondering . . .the whole kin-biscuits-sweet tea test . . .is it only useful in sorting out rural from non-rural?

 

ETA: I <3 boiled peanuts! (My kids call them 'bald' peanuts because that's how they hear it. They think they're gross :-)

Edited August 4, 2012 by KungFuPanda

[lovemykids]

Yes, but did you know that here in Northern Jersey we consider Southern Jersey residents as members of the south? So Delaware is southern. :lol::tongue_smilie:

 

True. We visit friends/family in DE and think, "Wow, they're Southerners." So true.

 

.

I had a professor in grad school who was OFFENDED when I mentioned we were both from the Mid-Atlantic. He clarified: I was from the Mid-Atlantic (NJ). HE was from the South (MD), "a Southerner from below the MDL." :lol:

 

ROFL. Who cares as long as you are happy where you are…and if not, get outa there!!

 

 

Oh, VA is most definitely the deep South….yep.

 

And sweet tea abounds in VA, just sayin’...

 

 

 

Love that one!

 

 

It is a joke that we have in here in Jersey…you’d have to live here. ;) In Southern Jersey they do things like.... talk to total strangers in the grocery store line, and bake cakes for neighbors they don’t really like…gasp! See? Southern. :lol:

 

As for NJ- I was being tongue in cheek…didn’t anybody get that?? :lol::lol: For the record, I like the north and the south, having lived in both. But I have spent considerably more time in the south, despite being born in the north. I viewed this thread as light hearted and comical.

 

Anywhere that has those quickie, buffet lunch places, with okra, greens, and fried chicken.

:iagree:

Now this is spot on...

[Jpoy85]

I would say Lower KY and down is southern. Specifically towards London/Corbin

[Kathryn]

 

ETA: I <3 boiled peanuts! (My kids call them 'bald' peanuts because that's how they hear it. They think they're gross :-)

 

:lol: my husband says "bald" peanuts. He's from Charleston, which is pronounced by a Charlestonian kind of like "Chah-ston." it's like a Boston accent with a Southern drawl, but boy do they get upset when that's pointed out!

[Ellie]

Who puts sugar in iced tea? :blink:

 

Gross.

 

Bill

Why does the temperature of the tea make a difference? We put sugar in hot tea, so of course we put it in iced tea.

 

The bigger question is whether you put milk in hot tea or lemon. :D

[Crimson Wife]

Now I'm wondering . . .the whole kin-biscuits-sweet tea test . . .is it only useful in sorting out rural from non-rural?

 

Not unless you consider Louisville, KY (pop. 253,000) "rural" ;)

 

Also, there's the "Mahk" test. When we briefly lived near Louisville, I temped as an office manager for a company there. One of my duties was answering the phones. I took a message from a gentleman who gave his name as "Mahk". Having grown up near Boston, I wrote down "Call Mark". Later that day my boss came to question me and we figured out that the person who had called was MIKE. :blushing:

[ChristyB in TN]

I would say Lower KY and down is southern. Specifically towards London/Corbin

 

Oh, yes. I agree completely.

[Lady Florida.]

I agree with you. It was the same here. When I was growing up, if you ordered "tea" in a restaurant, you got sweetened tea. My grandparents, from New England, would order "tea without sugar" when visiting us (though mostly they ordered "hot tea"). Sometime in the last decade or so, with the influx into the South of people from other parts of the country and "sweet tea" making it's way out of the South, we've gotten to the point where you must order "sweet tea" or "unsweetened tea" and it still sounds weird to me.

 

I'm originally from Jersey (north Jersey btw) and when we first came to Florida we learned the hard way how to order tea. If you just ordered tea, you got iced tea, something that wasn't that popular where we came from, except as a summer drink. If we wanted hot tea we had to order hot tea. After 42 years here, it all seems normal to me.

 

Well, I can tell you my dh's reasons for including MD as a southern state:

1) It's south of the Mason-Dixon line.

2) MD would have seceded if Lincoln hadn't jailed the secessionist politicians in MD because he couldn't afford to let DC be surrounded by Confederate states.

3) The first fatalities of the Civil War were in Baltimore when a mob attacked a train carrying Union soldiers to the South. The western and northern parts of the state were more closely tied to the Union, but Baltimore, where dh is from, was not. Southern MD and the Eastern Shore had tobacco plantations and were more closely tied to the South as well.

 

 

I stated in my original response that I considered Maryland to be in the south, but I think I was the only one.

 

 

Why does the temperature of the tea make a difference? We put sugar in hot tea, so of course we put it in iced tea.

 

 

Exactly!

[Slartibartfast]

I almost hate to ask, but I have always thought OK was part of the south. It's not? Please, gently, enlighten me. I've lived here my whole life so this is not a snarky question.

 

It is the Southwest. I am from Oklahoma too. :) No sweet tea. We don't really care about the Civil War. It wasn't until after I moved to VA that I had heard it called The War of Northern Aggression by anyone but the Beverly Hillbillies. So, no, it is not the true south, IMO.

 

I agree with Mrs Mungo, we weren't a state during the Civil War. It was neutral territory. There were some "battles" there but not severe. It certainly doesn't have the multi-generational feelings regarding the Civil War that some areas do.

 

I agree it is in the Southwest. If you look at the ecosystems and animal life it fits better in the Southwest or with the plains states. It is pretty much where the plains and Southwest meet.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Sis

[Blossom'sGirl]

Anywhere where the word "Yankee" is regularly used to describe a person and not a ball team is, to me, a southern state. I live in NY and I have never heard anyone use that to describe someone till my dad married a woman from LA.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Blossom'sGirl

[KarenNC]

I never would have considered MO, where Ulysses S. Grant's home is a National Historic Site and William Tecumseh Sherman is buried, to be Southern....

 

A friend, who grew up in NC and moved to St. Louis, told me once that, just after they moved to St. Louis, she kept seeing things named "Grant...." It took a while before she figured out that they were named after U. S. Grant. Her response on realizing it was, "Oh my God, they're PROUD of it!!!!!!!" She had figured that everyone had to live somewhere, but to be PROUD????? ;)

 

I have to admit I thought NC's place as a Southern state was pretty secure as well (not to mention VA's, home of Robert E. Lee and the capitol of the Confederacy).:001_smile: I'd love to hear reasons why not from those folks who don't include NC.

[ereks mom]

Also, there's the "Mahk" test. When we briefly lived near Louisville, I temped as an office manager for a company there. One of my duties was answering the phones. I took a message from a gentleman who gave his name as "Mahk". Having grown up near Boston, I wrote down "Call Mark". Later that day my boss came to question me and we figured out that the person who had called was MIKE. :blushing:

 

:lol: