I personally would include a lot more of Missouri, Kentucky and maybe even the southern bits of Illinois and Indiana. I consider myself to be in "The South" when Waffle House starts popping up as often as McDonald's.
Waffle House is not an indication of the South.
I don't know why, but if I ever die on a hill, this will probably be it. lol
My college friends have a tradition of ending the evening at Waffle House when we get together. When we all met up in Denver for a friend's wedding, we found the one WH in Denver.
I don't think sweet tea at McDonalds is a definitive.
I would include the Southern half of Missouri (Kansas City and St. Louis are definitely Midwest) and Kentucky excepting what is considered part of the Cincinatti metro.
I think excluding the southern half or 2/3 of Florida is appropriate.
We have several Waffle Houses in KC, but we are definitely the Midwest.
Louisville has sweet tea. I have to buy one every fucking day for my boss.
But...as much as people here in Louisville like to think they live in the South, they don't. Louisville is nothing like the South and it grates on my nerves that people here in this city think otherwise. Hell, part of the metro area is in Indiana, and Indiana is not part of the South. /gavel
I don't know.. Some of our best friends are from Evansville, IN and they're pretty southern .
I hate that all of KY gets swept up in the negative connotation that seems to go along with living in this state. Tax rate, people. The tax rate is sooooo much better than Ohio! I can't even get some of my friends to entertain the idea of looking at houses over here because it's "Kentucky," and I can personally guarantee that parts of eastern and northern Cincinnati are far more redneck.
I don't know why, but if I ever die on a hill, this will probably be it. lol
My college friends have a tradition of ending the evening at Waffle House when we get together. When we all met up in Denver for a friend's wedding, we found the one WH in Denver.
Ok, I take that back - WH must be on an expansion path! In my experience, Waffle House starts popping up around the same time I start hearing "y'all", "fixin' to" and "might could" and pop starts to become "Coke". From this Northerner's perspective, I'm then in The South.
I think that where restaurants sell sweet tea is a good indicator of the south. You just need to use one that doesn't sell it everywhere. Or look at small diners. If you're in a diner and they don't offer sweet tea you're not in the south.
Somehow sweet tea came up here a few months ago, and I said that I didn't think you could get it up here and someone pointed out that our McDs have them.
I think parts of Virginia are definitely culturally southern. Not all of it, certainly, but large parts of it.
But the Mason-Dixon line definitely, definitely is not the north/south border.
I don't know why, but if I ever die on a hill, this will probably be it. lol
My college friends have a tradition of ending the evening at Waffle House when we get together. When we all met up in Denver for a friend's wedding, we found the one WH in Denver.
Ah, the Wa-Ho. DH and I like to celebrate holidays at Waffle House. T'Day, Xmas, Valentine's... It's silly and kitschy, and we love it! We also tip REALLY well for dining on a holiday.
FWIW, I would never consider TX or FL as part of the South. Texas is the West or just Texas, might as well be it's own country, and FL is definitely southern in parts, but it is not the old south, KWIM?
I thought McDonald's sells sweet tea everywhere. they have it here in Chicago.
Well that just throws off the entire analysis.
Is this a new thing? The blog post is a couple of years old.
I know they started selling it in NW Indiana (on the tip of Lake Michigan) before 2011, because my step sister used to get like 2 or 3 a day and I thought it was disgusting.
We didn't move to Chicago until SO graduated in May of 2010, but shortly thereafter I remember his coworker/our good friend telling us how the lady at McDonald's gives him free sweet tea because of his cute southern accent (he's originally from SC).
I really think he told us this in 2010, but it may have been 2011. Either way sweet tea's been around here for a while!
Louisville has sweet tea. I have to buy one every fucking day for my boss.
But...as much as people here in Louisville like to think they live in the South, they don't. Louisville is nothing like the South and it grates on my nerves that people here in this city think otherwise. Hell, part of the metro area is in Indiana, and Indiana is not part of the South. /gavel
I dunno. When you live right by a 70-foot tall monument to the Confederate dead, you're probably in the South.
Ah, the Wa-Ho. DH and I like to celebrate holidays at Waffle House. T'Day, Xmas, Valentine's... It's silly and kitschy, and we love it! We also tip REALLY well for dining on a holiday.
FWIW, I would never consider TX or FL as part of the South. Texas is the West or just Texas, might as well be it's own country, and FL is definitely southern in parts, but it is not the old south, KWIM?
While I agree that TX is in the southwest, the FL panhandle definitely is part of the south.
I like the "where McDonald's sells sweet tea" map of the South.
The Coke/Soda/Pop map is a good one, but I guess in VA (and not just the DC part) it's soda? Edit and what's up with NC & rural VA? What do they use there? Cola? Cocola? Coca-cola? RC ?
The Harvard Dialect Survey Maps can be good, but migration has made most Southern-isms show up in California, New York, etc. I think the best one is the map for "what is it called when teenagers cover the front of your house with toilet paper, usually on Halloween", which is "rolling" where I grew up but every I've met outside the South calls "TPing" or "wtf why would anyone do that what sort of jackasses do they have in the South?".
Louisville has sweet tea. I have to buy one every fucking day for my boss.
But...as much as people here in Louisville like to think they live in the South, they don't. Louisville is nothing like the South and it grates on my nerves that people here in this city think otherwise. Hell, part of the metro area is in Indiana, and Indiana is not part of the South. /gavel
I don't know.. Some of our best friends are from Evansville, IN and they're pretty southern .
I hate that all of KY gets swept up in the negative connotation that seems to go along with living in this state. Tax rate, people. The tax rate is sooooo much better than Ohio! I can't even get some of my friends to entertain the idea of looking at houses over here because it's "Kentucky," and I can personally guarantee that parts of eastern and northern Cincinnati are far more redneck.
lol, I used to spend a lot of time in Evansville when I was younger. Not southern, but some special people for sure.
I think some people tend to think all of Kentucky is like the far eastern part of the state. We have shoes and teeth. I think there were more rednecks in Indiana where I grew up.
My college friends have a tradition of ending the evening at Waffle House when we get together. When we all met up in Denver for a friend's wedding, we found the one WH in Denver.
Ah, the Wa-Ho. DH and I like to celebrate holidays at Waffle House. T'Day, Xmas, Valentine's... It's silly and kitschy, and we love it! We also tip REALLY well for dining on a holiday.
FWIW, I would never consider TX or FL as part of the South. Texas is the West or just Texas, might as well be it's own country, and FL is definitely southern in parts, but it is not the old south, KWIM?
Have you ever been to rural north Florida? Them's swamp people. LOL
The Harvard Dialect Survey Maps can be good, but migration has made most Southern-isms show up in California, New York, etc. I think the best one is the map for "what is it called when teenagers cover the front of your house with toilet paper, usually on Halloween", which is "rolling" where I grew up but every I've met outside the South calls "TPing" or "wtf why would anyone do that what sort of jackasses do they have in the South?".
I grew up in NJ. TPing is the clear answer. But also, you don't do that on Halloween -- you do it on Mischief Night (October 30). I think that may be a NJ thing? My husband is from Long Island and he had never heard of Mischief Night. But it is a good system -- you have time to do all the mischief without cutting into your trick-or-treating time.
I don't know.. Some of our best friends are from Evansville, IN and they're pretty southern .
I hate that all of KY gets swept up in the negative connotation that seems to go along with living in this state. Tax rate, people. The tax rate is sooooo much better than Ohio! I can't even get some of my friends to entertain the idea of looking at houses over here because it's "Kentucky," and I can personally guarantee that parts of eastern and northern Cincinnati are far more redneck.
lol, I used to spend a lot of time in Evansville when I was younger. Not southern, but some special people for sure.
I think some people tend to think all of Kentucky is like the far eastern part of the state. We have shoes and teeth. I think there were more rednecks in Indiana where I grew up.
WTF does having shoes and teeth have to do with it?
Being southern =/= being redneck. There are southerners that are rednecks. There are midwesterners that are rednecks.
I like the "where McDonald's sells sweet tea" map of the South.
The Coke/Soda/Pop map is a good one, but I guess in VA (and not just the DC part) it's soda? Edit and what's up with NC & rural VA? What do they use there? Cola? Cocola? Coca-cola? RC ?
I had no idea that "pop" was so widespread. People in ATL used to look at me like I was an alien when I said it, so I quit. I can't bring myself to refer to Sprite as "coke," though, so I'm a "soda" girl now.
We went to a B&B in NC a few weeks ago, and the owner showed us where we could get pop in the kitchen. I immediately knew she was a kindred spirit.
Ah, the Wa-Ho. DH and I like to celebrate holidays at Waffle House. T'Day, Xmas, Valentine's... It's silly and kitschy, and we love it! We also tip REALLY well for dining on a holiday.
FWIW, I would never consider TX or FL as part of the South. Texas is the West or just Texas, might as well be it's own country, and FL is definitely southern in parts, but it is not the old south, KWIM?
Have you ever been to rural north Florida? Them's swamp people. LOL
The region between Tampa and New Orleans is called the "Redneck Riviera" for a reason .
I've always heard that the South stops somewhere around Orlando.
Congressional Quarterly defines the South as the Confederacy, plus Kentucky and Oklahoma, though this mostly has to do with the voting patterns of their elected officials up until desegregation.
Ah, the Wa-Ho. DH and I like to celebrate holidays at Waffle House. T'Day, Xmas, Valentine's... It's silly and kitschy, and we love it! We also tip REALLY well for dining on a holiday.
FWIW, I would never consider TX or FL as part of the South. Texas is the West or just Texas, might as well be it's own country, and FL is definitely southern in parts, but it is not the old south, KWIM?
Have you ever been to rural north Florida? Them's swamp people. LOL
see? SOUTHERN. IN. PARTS.
we stopped in Ocala one time to hit up the bathroom at Wal-Mart. Sweet baby jesus. That was southern.
We have sweet tea in MD McDonalds. And despite being south of the mason dixon line, I don't consider MD the south. The south starts around Fredericksburg, VA (ie does not contain NoVA).
I grew up in Western Maryland and would agree with this assessment. We had a bunch of idiots than ran around with Confederate flags, but they were more racists than southern.
However, I have since moved to the midwest and everyone I talk to here thinks Maryland is part of the south.
Louisville has sweet tea. I have to buy one every fucking day for my boss.
But...as much as people here in Louisville like to think they live in the South, they don't. Louisville is nothing like the South and it grates on my nerves that people here in this city think otherwise. Hell, part of the metro area is in Indiana, and Indiana is not part of the South. /gavel
I dunno. When you live right by a 70-foot tall monument to the Confederate dead, you're probably in the South.
Nah. That wasn't erected by the city and a large number of people don't support it.
We also have a 30 foot gold statue of David and I promise Louisville is not in Italy.
lol, I used to spend a lot of time in Evansville when I was younger. Not southern, but some special people for sure.
I think some people tend to think all of Kentucky is like the far eastern part of the state. We have shoes and teeth. I think there were more rednecks in Indiana where I grew up.
WTF does having shoes and teeth have to do with it?
Being southern =/= being redneck. There are southerners that are rednecks. There are midwesterners that are rednecks.
For academic purposes, H generally uses the former Confederate States as the definition of the south: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Even though they share many cultural similarities, West Virginia and Kentucky don't make the cut.
But whatever. Sweet tea is awesome.
Yup, this is how my Southern Politics professor defined it. The 11 states of the old Confederacy. Once in a while he would discuss stats from Kentucky or even parts of Maryland, but he only considered the 11 states Harpy named as the South for his purposes.