Where does the south end/begin?

[danwxman]

There are areas of rural areas of central Maryland and south central Pennsylvania that are just as culturally southern as Alabama....I've seen more Confederate flags in some of the rural areas around here then I did when I was in Texas.

[satalac]

There are areas of rural areas of central Maryland and south central Pennsylvania that are just as culturally southern as Alabama....I've seen more Confederate flags in some of the rural areas around here then I did when I was in Texas.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

culturally, i think the south is ark, tn, and nc and everything below it. i've been to all those states above, and they definatly do not have a southern feel. ky feels more midwestern to me. and anything in pa is nowhere near being southern. hell, some people in the south feel that where i live (nashville, the home of country music) is too northern.

[danwxman]

culturally, i think the south is ark, tn, and nc and everything below it. i've been to all those states above, and they definatly do not have a southern feel. ky feels more midwestern to me. and anything in pa is nowhere near being southern. hell, some people in the south feel that where i live (nashville, the home of country music) is too northern.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not so sure. I wouldn't call it Midwestern...maybe Southern wannabees. But they have Southern accents and all.

[satalac]

I'm not so sure. I wouldn't call it Midwestern...maybe Southern wannabees. But they have Southern accents and all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think it's just all the corn and soy fields. their only saving grace is that they are in the southeastern conference.

[Claws]

Well, according to this map, I've never even left the South. I currently live in Dickson County, Tennessee, a largely rural (and consequently "hick") place. To me, most of Nashville seems Northern. This is probably a result of never actually experiencing what "Northern" is. However, in two weeks I will be traveling to New York City and the North for the first time. If this topic is still alive when I return, I will post my ideas of where the South begins and ends.

By the way, I'm new here, and I love urbanization, skyscrapers, and downtowns. My favorite skyscraper is the BellSouth ("Batman") building in Nashville, my favorite skyline overall is Chicago (although I've never been there), and my favorite city is Nashville.

[satalac]

Well, according to this map, I've never even left the South.  I currently live in Dickson County, Tennessee, a largely rural (and consequently "hick") place.  To me, most of Nashville seems Northern.  This is probably a result of never actually experiencing what "Northern" is.  However, in two weeks I will be traveling to New York City and the North for the first time.  If this topic is still alive when I return, I will post my ideas of where the South begins and ends.

By the way, I'm new here, and I love urbanization, skyscrapers, and downtowns.  My favorite skyscraper is the BellSouth ("Batman") building in Nashville, my favorite skyline overall is Chicago (although I've never been there), and my favorite city is Nashville.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah, going to new york will definatly make nashville look very southern. i went last year and i was glad to go back home. don't get me wrong, i love nyc, but i have to have room to breath. i could live there for about 6 months to a year, but nothing more than that.

[Spartan]

By the way, I'm new here, and I love urbanization, skyscrapers, and downtowns.  My favorite skyscraper is the BellSouth ("Batman") building in Nashville, my favorite skyline overall is Chicago (although I've never been there), and my favorite city is Nashville.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Welcome to Urban Planet, Claws!

[Jerseyman4]

I think the north-south line as far as Virginia goes:

Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Hampton Roads by simply drawing a line.. thats your north-south line in terms of accents/culture/driving/enviroment

[*Sweetkisses*]

Pennsylvania is not the south its the north...check the map sweets.

[PghUSA]

Pennsylvania is not the south its the north...check the map sweets.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

not too sure about that, would agree it is NOT the south but it isn't exactly the "north" thus the term mid-atlantic, Maryland and Delaware up until the last generation considered themselves southerners, pennsylvania has been called philly and pittsburgh with Alabama in the middle. West Virginia is demographically a southern state and borders Pa. on its south AND west. Pittsburgh for many decades was claimed by Virginia and had Virginian planters --- and slaves living in the area, paying taxes to Richmond! I have heard from others along the in-between states that Cincinnati and Indianapolis, West Virginia, southern Pa. is very southern in its ways.

Do agree that in the last 25 years metro DC and baltimore-philly corridor has aligned itself more and more with the NE, as well as the Pittsburgh/Cleveland corridor. Just an hour or so south of those two metrolines though is Richmond Virginia, and Morgantown West Virginia, two very NOT northern cities. So again where exactly is the line?

[roguenoir]

I'd say the US 50 corridor roughly marks the boundary between the North and South.

For California, CA-58 and I-40 should form the boundary between Northern and Southern CA..

Just curious, do you consider Southern California as a part of what you think of as "The South"?

[PghUSA]

roguenoir,

great point there, technically US 50 should split it south and north, though demographically it isn't that simple, heck the south ENDS in Jacksonville or so, everything south of that is just the North with sunshine. I think thats why the term "southwest" is used and "southeast" really isn't, might be unfair there but the "south" IMHO ends around Houston or Austin, everything west of that is the southwest of Clint Eastwood movies.

I remember from history class where true old southerners went out to southern Nevada, the Arizona territories etc. to settle them for the south, though demographically the terrain changed them to westerners . . . but then I watched "RAISING ARIZONA" that has to be one of the funniest movies ever in my mind it could as well be set in Alabama with the people and the characters. Country music, Shotgun totting shopkeepers, laid back ways, I think thats so cool, but it did remind me of the deep south. I think though those days are gone, partly due to Vegases influence and partly to the wave of immigration as well as the big city mindset taking over much of zona and socal since the 1970s and 1980s. Maybe when LA was known to be as simple as "double Dubuque" known for the Mississippi river town back in the 40s and 50s it probably had a few southern influences to it.

[sean]

I remember one of my Geography professors mentioning a map that was made that attempted to delineate the South by showing restaurants that served grits. Pretty cool surrogate event to mark the South.

[bobliocatt]

^The grit and sweet tea thing is pretty useless, because even restaurants in Detorit serve grits and you can get sweet tea at just about any black soul food restaurant in the country.

[goodbye]

I'm torn! My Mom was from St. Louis, and my Dad from Pittsburgh. I was born in Greenville, SC. What am I!?

[Spartan]

If you claim Greenville as your hometown, then I'd say your a Southerner. There are alot of Southerners with Yankee blood.

[PghUSA]

I'm torn!

[*Sweetkisses*]

if anything pennsylvania (well part of it) could be in the midwest

[JivecitySTL]

I'm torn!

[PghUSA]

Sweetkisses, I tried telling the people on this board that Pittsburgh should be catagorized as "Ohio Valley" along with Cincy, Cleveland, etc. They did for awhile but just like the real world uncertainty as to wether the Burgh is more Cleveland/Detroit or Scranton/Philly we are back in the Pa/East Coast section. It's evolving though, the floods of the Ohio Valley that Wheeling and Cincy and Indiana are facing affected Pittsburgh also, not the rest of the NE Atlantic coast. It's like when Andy Rooney was going to explain the "mid east conflict" on 60 minutes and took out a map of the lower Great Lakes/Ohio Valley and started lecturing about Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland not being "eastcoast but not being midwest" or something to that effect.

[JivecitySTL]

Cleveland & the rest of Ohio is Midwestern, always has been.

I don't understand how anyone could call Pennsylvania or any city within it Midwestern. It is a Mid-Atlantic/East Coast state through and through. A lot of states have regions that fall into a gray area with regards to the feel or look of certain cities, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Pennsylvania is in no way a Midwest state. Period!

[monsoon]

I have to agree with Penn. not being part of the Midwest.

[Claws]

On my trip to NYC, I really only noticed I was in the Northeast somewhere around Maryland or Pennsylvania. My impression, though, was that DC was pretty much the end of the South and the beginning of the North. It's also a really interesting city.

By the way, I can now say "I heart New York" with conviction.

[Louisvilleslugger]

culturally, i think the south is ark, tn, and nc and everything below it. i've been to all those states above, and they definatly do not have a southern feel. ky feels more midwestern to me. and anything in pa is nowhere near being southern. hell, some people in the south feel that where i live (nashville, the home of country music) is too northern.

No actually Kentucky is just as Southern as Tennessee (and is a Southern state), and it makes absolutely no since to say it isn't. I mean how is Derby midwestern GET OUT OF HERE WITH THAT. Like I've stated in my earlier post alot of yall draw the line at the deep South boarder when yall need o go a few states north to the Mason DIxon line. Even Southern Ind. and Ill. has more of a Southern characteristics than midwestern.

Last time I checked oppressed blacks from the "DEEP SOUTH" didn't flood to Kentucky to escape discrimination they went to the MIDWEST in places like Chicago and Cleaveland, not Louisville.

And me having lived in the deep South (ATL for 4 years) and been all over the South can't see any cultural difference in Kentucky than in the rest of the Southern states.

[Louisvilleslugger]

This map is perfect.

This map is the South culturally. This map is probably the best because it shows how the Southern culture is expands past the Southern states boarders into midwestern states like Missouri and Indiana.