# Fellow Southerners: Let's Talk **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 27, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145 "2009-11-27T17:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/121 "2009-12-04T03:05:25Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > White Castle- or Krystals around here (I don’t think it’s the same chain but same basic food) was the bomb when I was a kid. We got square meals all the time at home so fast food was a treat. They’re not the same chain, and you’ll find that people are more loyal to one over the other. My husband, who was born and raised here in Mississippi, swears Krystal is the best. But I, as a White Castle lover, know better. 😃 The closest White Castle to here is Nashville: and I have to stop every time we go through. > [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Try going further north. I’m in culture shock anywhere north of Cincinnati. It’s just NOT the same atmosphere as here. People don’t say hello! People don’t talk to you about anything, anywhere [see my recent post in the bathroom thread]. I have lived in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and I find them both to be much the same as Kentucky. Sadly, I did not have the same friendly experiences in Kentucky: it’s strange to have people look at you funny when you say hi out of the blue. ---
**Author:** ![opossum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2bfe46/32.png) [@opossum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opossum)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/122 "2009-12-04T06:36:21Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I can’t seem to get plain iced black tea outside of the south. I don’t even want sugar in it, just plain black tea. Everywhere else it seems to be flavored. They sell it at Starbucks, if you’re willing to pay $13 a gallon. ---
**Author:** ![MercyMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MercyMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MercyMe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/123 "2009-12-04T07:39:27Z")
The True South- ALA-GA-TN-MS- SC -VA-Southern KY. **Florida has never been considered part of "The South"** Sorry Arkasawneeyans-We’ve never really considered you as “Southerners”…even if you do talk funny…in fact, we think you way over do it. Ohio? Southern? Haha Don’t even get me started about that. Indiana wants to be, but aint. Parents: Both parents and grandparents…Southern- Great Grandmother listed on The Trail of Tears/Cherokee. Family: The nutty ones? We bring’em out and show’em off for company. Music: Some Blues, mostly country. Artist/Writers: Lewis Grizzard… I still miss him… and…There’ll never be another Jerry Clower… Relatives: Great Uncle- Confederate/Corporal- Lots of war info on him. \*It takes FOREVER to get a headstone for these folks. Food: Anything and everything Southern… Fried Okra is a gift from God. It HAS to be fried with corn meal people… **listentome** … corn meal…NOT FLOUR… Sugar in “cornbread” ain’t cornbread… It’s crunchy cake…beeeecchhh. Ought to be illegal to call it cornbread. BACON GREASE: “It’s a GOOD THING”… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/124 "2009-12-04T08:31:44Z")
I will admit that in interest of expedience I sometimes cook instant grits. Living alone it’s just not worth boiling and simmering them for one person. However, I look upon instant grits something like Arabs look upon translations of the Quran: a commentary, but not the real thing. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/125 "2009-12-04T16:53:43Z")
Does anyone like yellow grits? I can’t swear there’s any actual taste difference, but that’s what my grandmother always made, and I buy them when I can find them. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/126 "2009-12-04T17:40:08Z")
I like yellow grits, but they seldom show up on the shelves here in YuppieLand. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/127 "2009-12-10T07:33:44Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Sacrilege…well, I might be able to overlook the grits part, but biscuits & gravy :eek: LOL. The one time I made biscuits and gravy for my Yankee ex, he took one look at it and said, “I’m not eating that. It looks like semen.” The discussion of the Confederate and Union soldiers from TN reminds me of my great-great-great-grandfather, a Confederate soldier from Franklin co. TN (a county so secessionist it threatened to secede from Tennessee and join Alabama if Tennessee didn’t secede from the Union; bizarrely, nearby Winston co. AL was so pro-Union \*it \*threatened to secede from Alabama!). He went AWOL in 1864, I think, and came home to find his town had been run over by the Union army and his uncle and his brother had been murdered by bushwhackers (pro-Union vigilantes). His son, my great-great-grandfather, related an incident that took place soon after his father returned home when he was only six or seven years old. He was helping his father chop some wood, and by accident his father chopped his finger off. All that and his mother died aged only twenty-five; this must’ve been an unbelievably traumatic time for this family. I accomplish the rare feat of being descended from seven Confederate soldiers who not only never rose to a rank higher than private, but all survived the war! One, Benjamin Franklin Henderson, survived until 1926. One died in 1918 and another in 1919, possible victims of the Spanish Flu epidemic, but hey, they were both old so who can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/128 "2009-12-10T16:28:49Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Just so happens that last Saturday, on my way to Meridian, MS from Jackson, MS, I passed a pasture full of cows which also had an oil pump in it, pumping away. If you ever pass that way again, please take some pictures of that and send them to me. I can have sooo much fun with them! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/129 "2009-12-10T16:34:41Z")
> [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](#): > > “Bless your heart” basically means _I think you’re kind of retarded but I’m humouring you_. [Here ya go!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2ztPeDKIA) ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/130 "2009-12-10T16:55:53Z")
> [@MercyMe](#): > > The True South- ALA-GA-TN-MS- SC -VA-Southern KY. > **Florida has never been considered part of “The South”** > . Weird definition. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone claim that SC & VA are part of the south, but not NC. ---
**Author:** ![LilGypsyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilGypsyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilGypsyGirl)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/131 "2009-12-10T17:11:48Z")
So please excuse my ignorance…and if this has already been addressed, I apologize, I just didn’t feel like reading through the entire thread (yes, I’m lazy).😃 Anyway, I noticed there was a distinct cut-off when talking about which states constitute the “South.” Especially when discussing Florida. Coming from NYC, and only being in Florida for about three years, I kinda was under the impression that I had moved to “the South.” If the cut off is at the Panhandle, what about the rest of the state? Not the South? Too many Northern transplants to even count as the South? How do you guys make the distinction? Just curious, LGG ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/132 "2009-12-12T02:25:22Z")
> [@MercyMe](#): > > The True South- ALA-GA-TN-MS- SC -VA-Southern KY. > **Florida has never been considered part of “The South”** Try telling that to the crackers, swamp rats, and \*\*\*\*-kickers who live there. Of course it’s part of the South. Hell, I was born there, and lived there many years of my adult life, and have family and friends all over the state. And you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone with a longer Southern pedigree than mine. Just because a dog has fleas doesn’t mean it’s not a dog. ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/133 "2009-12-12T02:33:12Z")
> [@LilGypsyGirl](#): > > So please excuse my ignorance…and if this has already been addressed, I apologize, I just didn’t feel like reading through the entire thread (yes, I’m lazy).😃 > > Anyway, I noticed there was a distinct cut-off when talking about which states constitute the “South.” Especially when discussing Florida. Coming from NYC, and only being in Florida for about three years, I kinda was under the impression that I had moved to “the South.” > > If the cut off is at the Panhandle, what about the rest of the state? Not the South? Too many Northern transplants to even count as the South? How do you guys make the distinction? > > Just curious, > LGG No, the cutoff is not at the Panhandle. That’s become the mythology of many Southerners from other states who don’t know what they’re talking about. Just try taking a drive around the backroads of the north and south central regions and tell me how many snowbirds you run into. Or for that matter, the less prestigous areas of the coasts. And the area of the panhandle where I was born, which used to be nothing but crackers and military, now has resorts on it. Here’s the secret to figuring out Florida. When enough of y’all have moved into an area so that you don’t feel unwelcome anymore, it’s no longer part of the traditional South. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/134 "2009-12-12T02:36:02Z")
> [@TheFatKid](#): > > Just because a dog has fleas doesn’t mean it’s not a dog. I’m not sure what it means, but I think y’all better smile when you say that…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/135 "2009-12-12T02:37:41Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > [Here ya go!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2ztPeDKIA) What’s really cool about that clip is that at :25-:30 you hear a fellow actually laugh in a Southern accent. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/136 "2009-12-12T02:39:57Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I’m not sure what it means, but I think y’all better smile when you say that…🙂 I don’t have a mouse in my pocket, btw. But anyway, what I mean is, just because the state is infested with Yankees around the edges doesn’t mean that it’s not a Southern state. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145/137 "2009-12-12T02:43:53Z")
> [@TheFatKid](#): > > I don’t have a mouse in my pocket, btw. Say what? This is getting worse and worse. Are you Floridians the guys who wore those funny uniforms in the Civil War, or was that Louisiana? Oh, my Aunt by marriage Claire is a Yankee infesting Florida. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-southerners-lets-talk/519145.md?page=6)