On Being Southern

[triadcat]

I've met people around here who would argue that Tennessee isn't part of the south (let alone Kentucky).

[triadcat]

all I could think was that no one sounds that Southern and how she portrays whatever town she's from as being this backwater burg.

[triadcat]

Ok, but who are the other Mid-Atlantic States? Delaware would be the only other one I could think of that would qualify. Virginia is southern and Penn is northern. So Md and Del get a region all their own?

[davidals]

I don't watch American Idol...

[nowensone]

^ It shouldn't represent anything, but it does since in typical screwed up fashion this is the most watched show ever, and most by the upcoming generation that learns from popular TV, not school.

I agree that the girl is goofy.

But I think she really talks like that. Are you sure you are in NC? I have heard accents heavier than hers.....

[Pillsbury]

Y'all goin' to meet at the RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival in lil' ole Bell Buckle, TN?

[Pillsbury]

Uh....you must not get out into rural sections often.

I have heard accents more pronounced/heavier than hers. Go up into the NC/VA mountains and you will hear some major twang.

You will hear heavier southern accents all over the region; just go into the rural sections.

[suburban george3]

Okay, I'll give her a pass considering her town has less people than a senior citizens softball game. Plus, she's hot and it looks like she had a rough childhood.

[Pillsbury]

You underestimate the size of senior citizen softball games in Georgia.

Much bigger than I thought it was. Wikipedia lied to me and said she was from a town with like 800 people or something!!!

[Dale]

I'm maintain, to my dying day, that there are southerners who like to drink what they pronounce 'SWATE-TAY'.

I've heard them.

[lammius]

I'm maintain, to my dying day, that there are southerners who like to drink what they pronounce 'SWATE-TAY'.

I've heard them.

[Dale]

Amen to that! In the South, tea is a chemical compound, not a glass of brown liquid you add Splenda to.

[c4smok]

Growing up in Texas I have never heard people refer to themselves as Southern from Austin to Houston down to Corpus Christi and regions in-between even in the old German/Czech Towns. I never really traveled much into other areas of Texas. It was always Texan everywhere I went.

But I can't deny the influences of the Southern Culture. Its a very nice mix like in Houston with Southern, Cajun, Texan, Tejano(3+ gen), and Mexican(1&2 gen) influences. Plus there is something I have seen here in Houston unlike many other places I have been to, there seem to be a common to really reach out and help people when there are problems. No matter where you are at in society people really do care here.

[krazeeboi]

I was browsing this NY Times article about Southern history (particularly as it relates to race relations and politics), and it had a most interesting ending:

Although the scholarly books published in the last couple of years focus on widely different areas

[Spartan]

I think there is some truth to that. You can live here or out west or up north and still have access to the same basic material goods and way of life. Its basicly a matter of culture and climate preference for those that choose it. But the cultural heritage still makes the South as a region a unique place. I think you'd be foolish to try and deny that the uniqueness is no longer present. Otherwise this discussion would be very different.

I was born and raised in the South and I'm glad that I now live in a place where I don't have to specify "UNSWEETENED iced tea." The last time I went South I forgot to say unsweetened and got a glass full of a sugary mess.

[convulso]

i was driving and thinking about this just last night, after watching - for the first time, really watching - my 72 year-old mother make a certain type of gravy (and, in the process, realizing that so very little specific generational knowledge has been passed on to me...but that my upbringing has still permanently attuned me to much of the previous local generation's zeitgeist).

i think the US homogenizes culture better than anyone in the biz. so i understand the thinking that births a paragraph like that one ^. but, the more i see of little places in the south that are physically close to me but worlds apart in culture, the more i believe that all places that haven't urbanized in the last... - oh, let's say 60 years, since this is the south - are retaining more than they're losing. usually, it happens without people realizing how much they're preserving. you always see articles about forlorn rural villages that used to have great continuity but are now suffering from youth flight (cities, jobs, education), but it's amazing to spend time with an urban transplant who grew up in a place like holly springs, MS or hurtsboro, AL, and see how their past lives in them.

i don't think it's exclusively a southern issue (though i do believe identity of place is a huge factor in the native southerner's psyche) - i think it's an everywhere urban / rural issue (kinda like your old south / new south thread, i guess). there are some things that homogenous media culture can't synthesize, and some places that simply aren't embracing all things 'Now' - and i think it's true whether you're from boston or biloxi (alright! alliteration! annoying...)

this is one of those things i could attempt a whole essay on (thanks for continued thought provocation, K), but...

[krazeeboi]

^Don't mention it.

[Riverrat]

I think there is some truth to that. You can live here or out west or up north and still have access to the same basic material goods and way of life. Its basicly a matter of culture and climate preference for those that choose it. But the cultural heritage still makes the South as a region a unique place. I think you'd be foolish to try and deny that the uniqueness is no longer present. Otherwise this discussion would be very different.

Blasphemy! Thats the one thing I hate about traveling in the north. You ask for tea and if its not crappy canned nestea, its some kind of disgusting liquid that requires a minimum of 8 sugar packets to fix (less if you use sweet-n-low ). Fresh brewed iced tea should be sweet and refreshing.

[Spartan]

You have a good point. I know people who just prefer the bitter flavor of regular tea (hot or iced), coffee, etc. No problems there. I've cut out all cokes for the personal health benefits of it. But its just psychologically satisfying to have a cold glass of sweet tea. However, it is well known that sweet tea is a part of the Southern culture, and when I go to Atlanta (the "capital of the South" so they say) and they don't have sweet tea in a restaurant, it really boggles my mind. I came across this once in Charlotte too. These incedents may be examples of the Southern culture becoming diluted or homogenized with the rest of the nation.

Sweet tea isn't for everyone, but it should always be an option.

[jaxpalmer]

i never got the sweet tea thing... sweet tea isn't even that great.. why should it ALWAYS be an option, i don't think restaraunts in big southern cities not having sweet tea available is a sign of southen culture becoming diluted.

[krazeeboi]

And where are you located again? Exactly.

I'm just teasing you.

[monsoon]

...These incedents may be examples of the Southern culture becoming diluted or homogenized with the rest of the nation.

Sweet tea isn't for everyone, but it should always be an option.

[nashvol85]

I was browsing this NY Times article about Southern history (particularly as it relates to race relations and politics), and it had a most interesting ending:

What do you guys think about this? I think we might have touched on this a bit in this thread.

[ParkPlace]

With all of the talk about sweet tea and Virginia, I thought I'd chime in. This map shows the results of a survey of over 300 McDonalds in Virginia as to the availability of sweet tea in their premises. I think it works very well for showing the difference between North and South in Virginia. I like to put the approximate boundary at Fredericksburg, which is gradually becoming an outer suburb of D.C. It is also a useful historical landmark as the Union generally controlled the area north of the Rappahanock River.

[ERJ170]

I am not going to lie. I just found this article today. And I got to say ya'll crack me UP! This is too funny! Born east coast NC southern, I can say I am a huge fan of the south. As most point out, NC has very distinctive accents. Going to UNC, I got to hear them all. Eastern NC accent, the Triangle accent, the Piedmont accent, the Charlotte accent, the foothills accent, and the mountain accent. And they can be very distinctive.

As far as the south goes, I have to say that borders no longer define the south. The North has encroached into parts of the south. Northern Virginia (past Fredericksburg, forget it) is NOT the south. At all.

Mid to South Floriday (Orlando/Tampa and below, forget it).

Texas (been there, or at least to Austin, forget it).

Kentucky, West Virginia, Western TN, Oklahoma, Arkansas.. nah.. not really southern either..

Deep South? Oh, that's anything below Atlanta, above Orlando, and east of Baton Rouge.

Southern drawl. perfect. I don't know how many times I have gotten compliments or smiles from people once they have heard my accent. It seems to bring peace to the conversation. I even had some very hard @ss people from New York and California here my accent and actually smile (whereas, when they were dealing with native NYers or CAers in the line in front of me, were scouling and being very bitter).

I move to MD 4 years ago and realized that I have started transitioning when I went to Charleston and a random older lady just walked by and said Hi and I just stared.. I knew I was messed up in the head then. I must move back to get back to my roots.

But there are just some words that lets you know that you are southern.

It's Red (pronounced Reeeeed as in dead)

It's Appalachain (pronou nced App-a-latch-in)

It's oil (not oy-al)

Tea is sweet and any other way is blasphemy.

Cheerwine is like real wine and not Merlot.

You put peanuts in your pepsi cola.

BBQ is vinegar and tangy, not saucy (that's probably just an Eastern NC thing)

You can sit out on the porch and wave at cars passing by, even if you don't know them.

There have been a lot of transplants into the South, and a lot of "boomerang"ers (those that moved away years ago, and are now moving back). But regardless of if you lived in the South for 60 years or 4, the South has a way of caressing and nurturing everyone. It seems to take over transplants and bring them into the fold. You may not have been born there, but you become part of the culture. Now, a transplant can NOT.. and I repeat, can NOT evolve completely into a Southerner. You have to be born Southern and taught Southern during your very early years.. but they can get assimilated.

Point: I had friends move from NYC. With the strong accent and everything. Within a year, they had slowed down about 25 miles per hour (if you know what I mean). But year 3, they actually like sweet tea and knew what a pig pickin was AND ya'll would slip in once in a while. So it can be very accommodating.

But, as a true Southerner living in what is backwards, jacked up, messed up and confused Maryland, being a Southern (and black, oh yes) is one of the best parts of being me.

And that's all I got to say.. but ya'll really crack me up reading your posts.. Dang skippy!