So I was in the "upper midwest" this week and once again as I met people I had never met before and told them in the course of conversation I lived in Atlanta and/or was born and raised in south Louisiana the comments started. It's like it's a script... "You don't have an accent?", always said with a perplexed look. I realize that is what they say and I realize that most probably mean it as some sort of compliment but after about the 10,000th time what I hear is "It must be some sort of evolutionary charitable fluke that you can formulate an intelligible sentence." Likewise with other comments in an ever so subtle way it's apparent far too many invariable still believe all southerners are knuckle dragging racist inbred illiterates (no offense to knuckle draggin racist inbred illiterates intended by the way). It's also invariable, that after questioning many that hold such derrogatory stereotypical opinions, that they in fact have never set foot south of the Mason Dixon and many have never left their home state.
All I'll say to the whole affair is... "Bless their hearts."

"Bless their hearts."

One of my favorites! I wonder if they'll ever figure out what is mean by it?

My favorite stereo type is Sony.

+ 1. I was born in WVA.

Ernie

half a minute into a conversation, and it's plain as day that I am from the Deep South

Hard to feel sympathetic actually. It's not like Southerners don't do more or less the same for those "damn yankees"

Well bless your heart.

Ernie

John

I can't read most of that, you must type with an accent.

You must have interfaced your keyboard with your racist, inbred, callused, southern knuckles?




Is you that swamp gator feller from off'n the tee vee?

LMAO!!

Stereotypes are wrong. Texas really is better.

I drinks my coffee from one them new fangled stereo-fome cups....

But I never was much good for typing....


Stereotype, you fellers with yer big words.

Just cause I can't type in stereo (bofe hands and no peek'n) It aint mean I'm not a sasphyxticated man.

Why thanks. Right nice of you, Ernie.

The difference being this Southerner, and most I associate with, extend the courtesy of letting a person EARN the title of 'damn Yankee' before awarding it (granted, it may not take long for someone truly worthy of it). Seems the 'ignorant southern redneck' is a default assumption by many "not from 'round here" and worse yet "never been here".

You don't type with an accent.

Everyone knows that anyone living north of Indianapolis is a born azzhole, it's written in stone, someplace. That's the common belief here in Louisville, anyway.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. Witness Swamp people and Michael Waddell.

Just kidding of course. I was raised in Southern Maryland the folks from Pax River call us SMIBs Southern Maryland InBreds.

Shouldn't that be, "Bless their little ol' hearts."?

My wife's uncle was born and raised in Idaho. He worked for two years in Atlanta and came home with an accent that makes people think that he was from there.
That was over twenty years ago and he still talks funny.

Great Grandma used to say "well bless your little pea pickin heart"....

She was from a different era though.....she still called some folks "darkies"....

Nor, can they likely even tell you where it is.

Hell, south is south of I-10.

That's OK, all you Southerners think us Yoopers are Canadian just becuse we end our sentences with "Hey".

Why am I such a misfit?
I am not just a nitwit.
You can't fire me I quit,
since I don't fit in.
Why am I such a misfit?
I am not just a nitwit.
Just because my (whiskey)nose glows,
why don't I fit in?



All kidding aside, there are stereotypes everywhere. I've spent some time in the south and there are plenty of stereotypes y'all have for us northerner's too. And Heaven forbid if you mention that you live anywhere near FARGO! That damn movie!

Most folks, Southerners included, think it's much further south than it really is.

Ed

Geaux, it could be people making simple observations, too.
Accents are regional and often obvious. An accent being missing might spark an honest question.

People are getting way too thin-skinned and "pre-hurt" about a lot of stuff these days.

I'm a Missourian and hear a broad range of comments about the place I proudly call "home". People are jealous, as best I can figure.
I'll never forget a foul-tempered 6'7" buddy of mine who set an Illinoisian in his place one day when the moron asked me why I'd ever admit I was from Missouri. My buddy:" Because he #@$%ing CAN!!!"

P.S. My favorite North/South thing:
Northern girls say "you can" - Southern girls say "y'all can!"

P.S.S. You weren't raised by Yankies, were you????

None taken..........................this time.

Brent finds it hard to feel sympathetic because the southerners frequently prejudge northerners.

That may be true, but the mistreated DYs are treated the way they are treated primarily because of the way they act and not because of the way they speak.

I thought it was interesting when I went to Lake Itasca Biology Station back in the mid 1970's and was very quickly labeled as backwards, stupid, and racist just because I spoke more slowly that some there. I even had some girl from NJ say to my face that she thought that everybody who spoke slowly was stupid. She also hated the South and southerners even though she had been no farther south than Maryland. I thought it was quite strange when she said she was planning on going to UNC at Chapel Hill for graduate work. I suppose she thought she would be doing the South a favor by allowing herself to come down here and gracing us with her superiority.

The main thing that bothers us down south is that many DYs want to come down here and change things to be just like the mess they escaped in the North.

I don't care where you were born or how you talk. Treat me right and I will treat you right. The sentiment is frequently not reciprocated.

I was once asked if I was from Maine...those that have met me will probably be more surprised than I was...

I really do my best to not stereotype folks. It is just wrong to judge someone by how they talk or where they live.

That said, I am not real comfortable around folks who live south of Vancouver, WA or east of I-5.

Actually, it's "Bless your little ol' pea pickin heart".

that is so funny, I could bust a gut. All the DY's I know just want to get back north.

Reinventing the South is just an exercise in futility but nothing I say will stop it.

Carry on.

10-4

Rooster7 comment about Fargo riminds me of a story my brother told me. He met a guy from Georgia one time that told him he knew all about people from Minnesota because he saw the movie Fargo. My brother responded that he knew about people from Georgia because he saw the mover Deliverance. The guy got mad when my brother asked him if he squeals like a pig.

I wish most of the ones down here would go back north. Complaining about almost everything seems to be a common hobby for many of them, and I suppose they would only have the cold winters as a source of complaints if they did move back north.

I found it interesting that some fellow from Maine complained about the folks from NY and NJ moving up into his area and trying to make it like NJ and NY. Perhaps it is not just a matter of latitude but rather just a particular geographic location that produces people nobody else likes.

We have a local gated community that is locally known as NJ-South. They want nothing to do with the locals and even went so far as to approach a local food market with a request that they close their doors one afternoon a week to everyone but residents of the community.

"I realize that is what they say and I realize that most probably mean it as some sort of compliment but after about the 10,000th time what I hear is "It must be some sort of evolutionary charitable fluke that you can formulate an intelligible sentence."

Sounds like a personal problem, unless they are actually saying it....

I think accents are cool; Randy White, an ex-Cowboy football star, doesn't sound like he's from Pennsylvania.

In this state, there are three distinct accents, that I can gather, and in some counties the "accents" are ethnic based. Its history and anthropology right before your eyes.

"Hey dere" and "ya'lls" are neat, and both can be used here. Some people like to hear them and it isn't because they think they're better and you're some kind of knuckle dragger, unless you wrote the script for Fargo....

Oddly I find it rare (unless in retaliation) that a "Yankee" throws the first insult on this board. It's common however to see the Yankee, or Damn Yankee insult hurled.

Been my practical experience as well, and since I live it - I'd say I'm pretty versed.

Bless your heart(s).

A hundred and forty-seven years, and some still aren't over it. *rolls eyes*

It all depends upon where you're from. I'm from central Mississippi and when I say "south" it basically means anyone from the tennessee line down to I-10 in mississippi, alabama, and parts of Georgia (excluding Atlanta). People from south of I-10 aren't really from the south, they're from the coast. If they're from Louisiana and south of I-10 they're really not from the south, they're coon asses, that's a totally different thing.

I remember when I was a kid in PA my dad's friends would refer
to Ohio residents who came to PA to hunt deer as "flatlanders"
Now Im amazed at the amount of PA residents who go to Ohio to
hunt deer in the last few years. I wonder what they call us in
Ohio?

Strange how the migration patterns the past 30 years are from north to south, not the other way around.

Who knew the tens of millions of residents of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas that were born in the North, were marched down here at gun point.

Fixed it.

Crow hunter, you summed it very well thank you...

"Complaining about almost everything seems to be a common hobby for many of them, and I suppose they would only have the cold winters as a source of complaints if they did move back north."

We didn't know how bad it was here until outsiders pointed it out. We found when we didn't change most would leave. Bless their hearts.

I love the South and am an educated redneck ( 1 Bachelor of Science and 2 Masters of Education degrees). Hell yes I have an accent and DYs do also. In the South, you can say anything about anybody so long as it's prefaced by "Bless his heart". As in Bless his heart, that ole boy is dumb as a marble. I ain't never heard of anybody retiring and moving up North. Some of the smartest people I know never had much formal education. I knew a man who was a foreman building building 3 different sizes of towboats. Had a 6th grade education and all the blueprints in his head. Could make anything of metal and put many an educated engineer to shame with his knowledge. Talking fast means ZIP!

The ones that you really wouldn't know one or the other where they're from just chose to upgrade weather (and generally cost of living)wise. The DY's are just doing 'charitable' work by their mere presence and/or can't afford a GPS.

It is.

Let's not discuss problems without offering solutions.

You southern [bleep] can start spreading the word that there are in fact summer months in states like IL and MI and WI. And it does in fact get hot.

We will in turn, spread the word that you don't all have accents.


Travis

I think we ought to have a Campfire Cage Match.

Jayco and I would like to be skins.



Travis

Good idea. I lived in the northern Chicago burbs for a while. I forgot how many people died in Chicago that first summer due to no air conditioning.

I've lived a few places and for me, the heat in the midwest is about as miserable as heat can get. But I never did fully understand everybody dropping like flies every year around Chicago.


Travis

They took a good opportunity to get out of there.

Weak genes in that part of the country.

"Bless their hearts" is equivalent to the military slogan "with all due respect sir..."

The only people dumb enough to believe yankees don't get it, are people from the south.


Travis

A side note to the issue of southern accents are the places in the south without accents.....Orlando or perhaps Charlotte. Of course that's because its all displaced Yankees living there!

On a quail hunting trip to the sandhill country of SC, the proprietor proudly pointed out that I was now the in the "real south"!

I have always enjoyed my visits to the south. The hospitality and kindness of the people can only be matched by the incredible food.

BrentD types like one of them damed yankees. You know, like one of them there yankees who is all stopped up. :-)

And, would be astonished at how short it is.

In Texas, people south of I-10 are likely from Mexico.

Well I have learned a lot. I have lived south of I-10 and I now live north of I-90. I have enjoyed the people and food when in the South. Never realized I was causing locals stress. I will do my best to never go back so filth like my northern self will not stress you again.

I will see if I can disown those relatives on my mothers side who died fighting for you all.

Try Shreveport, LA on for size. I've lived in Scottsdale, AZ, Fresno, CA, and West TX to name a few. Shreveport is the hottest freaking place in America as far as I'm concerned. Brutal heat and humidity.

Scott, I don't think it's as much a north/south thing as someone moving to or visiting some place and expecting everyone to conform to them. One post was about folks in Maine dealing with it from other people coming up the Maine and wanting to change things to suit the new arrivals.

Jeez guys, lighten up, we were just funning with you. Nobody's going to shoot at you down here, we quit that stuff a long time ago. We like yankees now, you guys don't complain when we serve you cheap beer and we can make a couple of hours sport out of getting you to say the word "creek".

You mean crik?

I suspect you weren't.

Me, myself and I just finished discussing this. We determined your opinion is wrong.

Let the cage match begin.


Travis

Dallas has to have the worst year round weather of any place.

I've had this discussion with others as well as myself. It comes down to personal preferences and priorities.

I apply the concept of number of decent outdoor days per year, but even that is subjective.

I've lived in New Orleans and now in the midwest. For weather (and food!), I'll take NOLA, but thse days with advancing age I handle heat better than cold. Midwestern weather just plain sucks, and it's hard on your house too. It's the extremes. Since 2008 it's cost me about $18,000 in uncovered damage to my modest house.

Best all-around climate I've lived in is southern Colorado. Wind is the only downside, but it beats tornados.

Paul

that'll be enough out of you, McKenzie...eh?

6 months of muggy summer here does get old after a while. Heat would be fine, but the humidity just amplifies things. I've been to many outdoor events at night where temperatures were down in the 80's but your clothes are soaked in half an hour. It can be uncomfortable but last summer was downright dangerous.....

I caught a game in Shreveport in '86 and lost 12 lbs. July 4th, afternoon game. Luckily I gained 10 of it back by the next day.