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"I would have to say that anyone North or South, who broadly generalizes a whole group of people like Mr. Ingram does, is indeed dumb."

Agreed, this guy is wrong in so many places it's tough to pick out exactly where to even START to deflate his "theories".

"Boorish manners"?
Most RURAL Yankees (myself included) are direct and to the point. We do not hide behind a facade of pleasantry. The fact that we don't often make small talk upon meeting someone is actually out of respect for their privacy. Some southerners take this as being "cold" when it is the furthest from the truth. We do not poke our noses into others business and consequently if you want to get on the bad side of a rural Yankee really fast, just start asking inane personal questions while trying to pass it off as smalltalk. You'll likely get a blank stare and some deafening silence.

Don't confuse some loud city folks from up north with rural Yankees and you'll do just fine.

When I was growing up in NC, we called them dingbatters. Northerners who came down to our beaches and told us what to do. They were the main cause of the closing of Bogue Banks to the beach buggies of the sport fishermen in the 70's.

When I was a teenager, I remember riots in Boston over school desegregation, in the 70's. My county desegregated in 1965, when I was 6. I never saw any problem. But IRT Boston, I remember my Dad making the statement that the Yankees made us do it, when they didn't even see if it would work in their own backyard.

It's too bad some southerners are still fighting the civil war...

I didn't realize I was a 'yankee' until I moved here @ 8 years ago - from Wisconsin!

I've heard the statement 'you're pretty nice, for a Yankee' so many times...

Southerners (bless your hearts), please stop asking 'where you from?' when you meet people. It's rude and shouldn't really matter. (I doubt we met on the civil war battlefields...let it go!, let it go!)

I (nor my pappy or grand pappy) may have been born here, but I got here as fast as I could!!!

My family and I do love living in Baja Carolina (on the coast near Charleston), and have adapted to the slower pace as well as we could, so you might as well enjoy the company of these 'damn yankees', 'cause we ain't leaving!

First of all, I agree with this article. As a Red Sox fan I truly hate the Yankees!!!!

Seriously though, what would you consider a personal question? "How are you?", "Sure is a hot one, today?" "How's your Mamma?"

These are most of the question folks will ask a stranger or minor acquaintance here in Alabama. The most personal question one would ask a stranger is "Alabama or Auburn?", 'cause the answer could cause a fisticuffs. Generally speaking though, that question rarely gets asked as most folks wear their pride; ROLL TIDE or WAR EAGLE, somewhere on their person or vehicle.

I once had a man ask me some personal questions about my daughter when I had to go to the school board to pick up her records. The fellow wanted to know if she was having problems at school. I did just stare at him, not knowing what to say (I was going to tell him to "mind his own bidness" but the clerk took me aside and told me he was retarded. Don't think he represnted the true Southerner.).

Now I am US Military retired having spent a great deal of my adult life outside of my native New England so I guess I must be a Yankee, even though my kin didn't really arrive in the States until after 1865. I always say we would've come down father South but the captain of the ship must have been a Yankee!

There is one question that bothers me, though. Folks down this way will often ask, only after they've got to know you, what church you go to. I am a Catholic, and I hate to be asked this, 'cause there are some folks who consider my religion to be akin to the Great Beelzebub himself. Then again, I think the Pope John Paul II, Bless Him, changed a lot of fundamentalists opinions about my Church. Anyway, when folks asks about church mostly they're asking because they consider you a good fellow and are only showing concern. I don't think they'd ever ask someone they didn't like what church they go to.

"Don't confuse some loud city folks from up north with rural Yankees and you'll do just fine."

Exactly, where I live people really are nice and are always willing to help out when asked. People in these parts keep to themselves. The way I was brought up was to mind your own business. I lived in the same house for 15 years and never talked to one neighbor, they never introduced them self so I took it as being left alone, worked for me.

Most RURAL Yankees (myself included) are direct and to the point. We do not hide behind a facade of pleasantry. The fact that we don't often make small talk upon meeting someone is actually out of respect for their privacy. Some southerners take this as being "cold" when it is the furthest from the truth. We do not poke our noses into others business and consequently if you want to get on the bad side of a rural Yankee really fast, just start asking inane personal questions while trying to pass it off as smalltalk. You'll likely get a blank stare and some deafening silence...Don't confuse some loud city folks from up north with rural Yankees and you'll do just fine.

Boy you got that right... been a man of few words is not cold.. it thrifty... and being to the point is respect... if you respect some one you don't play the game of "blowing of smoke of each other Ass" as if your both stupid and don't know what's really going on