If you live north of Houston, you’re a Yankee.
If you live north of Dallas, you’re a damn Yankee.
Nowhere. It shall rise again.
I’ve seen the battleflag flying as far north as Carbondale, IL.
The South ends in Florida about Lake Okeechobee. South of that is something else, can’t routinely get grits or sweet tea.
...these days I’m just trying to figure out when and where America ended.
I have no clue. But I’m sure you can’t get good panzarotti there.
Does it snow there with any accumulation? Do the residents of said place own snow shovels? If the answer is “yes,” it isn’t the south.
I am proud to say that I, and my daughters, are G.R.I.T.S.
Visit the southern 2 tiers of counties in Iowa, and they speak with a heavy southern accent; no kidding! I didn’t believe it myself until I visited there. Even in rural Northern Missouri they speak with a heavy southern accent.
There used to be an old joke, if you removed the southern 2 tiers of counties from Iowa, and added them on to Missouri, you’d increase the IQ levels of both states!
Sorry Southern Iowa. I love ya!
there are really two souths
there is the South......Oklahoma to Lower Missouri to Louisville to Lexington and even part of West VA and then Old Dominion and parts of Maryland even and then all parts south with major Yankee pockets nowadays
then there is Dixie...a whole nother subject and from where I am so lucky to come from...
basically east Texas from Dallas east and into the southern half of Arkansas and Western TN and even fingers into old cotton land in western Ky and then south below the Tennessee river (Nashville where I live now is NOT Dixie) and into northern Alabama, most of Georgia except metro Atlanta and into South Carolina, and tidewater NC and VA and then back down into northern Florida and fingers dipping down as far as Clewiston and Lake Okeechobee and even Davie and then back up across to Louisiana to Beaumont TX....anyhwere you can smell decaying earth or moss on trees or red clay hills or coffee or black water then you are there
there is no other region in America with as much distinctive collective character...no matter where I go in the world when i hear a Dixie native speak I know it...immediately
Capitals of Dixie are Charleston, Savannah, Macon, Mobile, Montgomery, Tallahasse, New Orleans..yes, Aiken....Birmingham is sorta just South and not Dixie...whereas Franklin south of Nashville where I live now is defintely Dixie
Memphis, Richmond and Jackson Mississippi are Dixie but are now so gilded with gone to seed it’s just too sad to wax about them the same anymore.
North Carolina has been invaded...it’s hard to tell anymore...maybe Winston?
We view the south as opposed to Dixie as tolerable just less genuine or if you will...lapsed.
“though I’ve heard it said that Fort Worth is where the West begins while Dallas is where the East peters out. “
Bwahahahahahaha!
Seems to me I read about some scholarly type doing a study of “the South,” and as a rule of thumb he defined “the South” by the simple expedient of looking in the Yellow Pages of the local phone books. If a place had businesses with names that had the word “Dixie” in them (Dixie Diner, Dixie Cleaners, Dixie Auto Sales...), it was Southern. Supposedly it worked pretty well and the use of the word “Dixie” petered out right where you would have expected it to.
As it happens, I’m from Mt. Vernon, OH, home town of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the song “Dixie,” and I remember my Ninth Grade Biology teacher lived on Dixie Drive. There might be other uses of the word “Dixie” in that particular town to honor its claim to fame (I haven’t lived there in many a moon, so I haven’t kept up), but that would be an exception to the general principle that northern towns wouldn’t have much Dixie in them.
The South Ain’t A Place!!!
It’s A State Of Mind!!!...;0)
The south ends at the border of all the blue counties that consistently vote democrat.
You don’t get more southern than east Tennessee. Or at least thats the way it used to be. The Yankees have all moved in and bought it up.
IMHO, the south ends on the western side of Missouri and west of Dallas. That becomes the west. Kentucky and the Carolinas and the Virginias are for the most part southern. And it goes all the way to the east coast. Florida isn’t southern. I don’t think it ever has been. I figure the south begins where the accent begins and ends where people have never heard of “nanner puddin’”.
If they serve grits and sweet tea, it’s the south :-) If the entire area shuts down with a forecast of snow arriving, it’s the south!
Where I live in NC (south of Asheville) it has totally been invaded by northerners. Asheville cannot even be considered a southern city and I avoid it like the plague. Hubby wants to move out west to Montana or Wyoming after we retire in about 12 years to get away from the yankees (no disrespect to northern freepers) but I don’t know if I can handle the snow/cold.
The Mason Dixon Line is 100 miles north of wherever you grew up.
You know the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption, and that you don't "have" them, you "pitch" them.
You know how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc. make up "a mess."
You can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."
You know exactly how long "directly" is _ as in: "Going to town, be back directly."
You know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl on the middle of the table
You know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
You know instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. (If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin'!)
You grow up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.
You know and understand the difference between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and po' white trash.
You never assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
You know that "fixin'" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.
You know that the term "booger" can be a resident of the nose, a descriptive, as in "that ol' booger," a first name or something that jumps out at you in the dark and scares you senseless.
You make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "queues", we do "lines," and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!
You never refer to one person as "y'all."
You know grits come from corn and how to eat them.
You know tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that redeye gravy is also a breakfast food; and that fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.
You say things like, "Well, I caught myself lookin' .. ,"
You say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it _ we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.
You know that if you are with a couple of friends you could be with 2 or 10. The number doesn't matter.
You know you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say, "Bless her heart" and go your own way.
Texas and Virginia.
You know you are in the South, when a smart-ass damn yankee
tells how to do everything bass akwards.
Bullfrog