While the vast majority of Miami-Dade County is either New Yorkers, Europeans, or Latinos, there is a significant enclave of hicks in the furthest southern area around Homestead.
I agree with MikeTurk and aeropl’s assessment. I would like to say that Flying_Monk saw a different Florida than the one I’m familiar with and I’ve lived here off and on since 1966. I’ve never seen a neighborhood where every house was surrounded by barbed wire–in fact, I’ve never seen a house surrounded by barbed wire. Just to establish my bonafides, I’ve lived in both North Fort Myers and East Fort Myers. And, my friends and I used to regularly visit LaBelle back in the 60s and 70s. I suspect that some old timers down here will know what that means.
I think Gainesville can still be considered as part of the South. Sure, the university students are very diverse and non-southern, but the townpeople and the feel of the town outside of pubs, clubs, and college is very different.
Besides, if you’re basing Southerness by showing Confederate flags, I’ve seen enough in Gainesville, both in the town area and in the university. And they also speak Southernese, or at least some English accent that is not Yankee nor Spanish-influenced.
MIke Turk has it on the nose. I am that rare species- a native Floridian (a Cracker from DeLand) and it has always amazed me how the further North you go, the more “southern” the people get. A lot of people I have known from N. Fl even have Southern drawls.
As many have already pointed out, Florida is a very mixed state, culturally speaking. The northern half is indeed the more predominately “Southern” in character, although even there you’ll find variations from town to town.
I grew up in the Panhandle, in the area south of Alabama–we sometimes called it “L.A.” for “Lower Alabama.” I lived on the coast, where the cultural dynamic often shifted with the seasons (it seemed that the farther inland you went away from the coast, the more consistently Southern the climate became). The winter always brought in large numbers of retired Canadian “snowbirds,” and the summer brought in people from all over. The basic culture was Southern, but these visitors would alter the feeling quite a bit when they were around. Often they’d stay and take up root there, further diversifying the culture (which was always welcome to me, as I tired easily of redneck mentalities).
It’s funny that I was born there and have spent most of my adult years in the general area of north Florida, but I have never acquired anything approximating a southern accent. The general underlying culture being “Southern,” most locals spoke with a more or less Southern dialect. But I never did. People always assumed I originated from a non-Southern state, and would make wild guesses about where I was from–I’ve heard everything from the Midwest, Canada, “up North,” and even England (which i find both flattering and extremely amusing, since there’s nothing remotely English in my accent).
I moved to Florida from St. Louis in 1981 to attend college (Eckerd College, fyi MikeTurk), and married a native of Tampa. Before I moved down here, I imagined Florida as essentially one big beach with DisneyWorld in the middle. It was a big surprise to discover that the majority of Floridians don’t live anywhere near a beach, that Florida is a dairy state and had cowboys before Texas did, and that outside of major metro areas Confederate flags outnumber American ones. As has been mentioned repeatedly, Florida is a weird state.
MikeTurk also forgot to mention that he lives in the part of the state that is considered “God’s waiting room.” Pinellas County is Retiree Central. The college I attended was in St. Petersburg, and whenever I rode the bus I sat next to some lady who had a granddaughter my age - and showed me the pictures!
Right now I live in Plant City, which is particularly schizo - it’s mostly populated by stereotypical “Southerners”, except for an area called Walden Lake, which has multimillion$ homes and a Polo club!
BINGO! We have a winnah.
Indeed. Our median age is 43, with 22.5% of our population 65 and over. It seems like more in the winter because our population roughly doubles then due to the influx of the snowbirds. Traffic in the summer is bad because of the confused rental car families; it’s worse in the winter because of the confused seasonal residents.
And this thread seems to have brought the Floridians out of the woodwork.
Hi to my immediate neighbors: Bunnylady, LouisB, and bittersweet!
Mike Turk hit what I was going for in the second paragraph of his first post. Walloon, you are right and I was rambling.
Florida is God’s waiting room for northeners.
(part of the original 13 colonies)
No, but Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas … all became states well before Florida - 20 years or better.
Why is Florida such a popular retirement spot?
I have no idea why people move here. I really don’t.
I was born in a tiny town just off Lake Eustis (bonus points if you know where the heck Bassville Park is–most of the county doesn’t) and over the last ten years I’ve seen people (mostly retirees who overestimate their economic importance) completely destroy the area. The paradise they’re trying to find is long gone. We’re running out of water, sinkholes and wildfires are popping up all over the place, and the resentment of the natives is getting seriously nasty. The neverending expansion of Hwy 441 has gutted Tavares and Leesburg into something hideous, and there’s no telling what’s going on further down the road.
I used to love Florida. I just wish people would stay the hell away from here. They’re tearing apart my homeland.
And yes, my yard is surrounded by barbed wire. 
I’ve seen plenty of houses on large lots where horses/steers/milch cows/etc. are kept, usually behind the house itself. The portion of the lot containing the animals sometimes is fenced with barbed wire or other fencing material. I’ve yet to actually see a house that is completely enclosed by barbed wire. Given that this thread is in the GQ forum, I didn’t respond to Flying_Monk’s other comments in the way I wanted to.
Agree with Mike Turk - as a native Floridian (from Tampa) there are parts of Florida that are decidedly what most people would think of as “southern” . The panhandle is referred to as “lower Alabama” or the “Redneck Riviera”. The accents are are thick and the general lifestyle is more back woods (sorry to all you Talahasee grads - it’s just a generalization)
Miami is Cuba annex…if you are anglo and not some wealthy South Beach part time resident, you are by FAR the minority. Aside from that Orlando and the entire west coast from St Petersburg to Naples is inhabited by retirees from Michigan, New York and Ontario. Away from the coasts, in the more agricultural areas, there is a large Mexican population, and you also have to add in the dogs and cats from Asia, the Carribean, and South America. Florida - a true melting pot.
I have a trace southern accent but I speak pretty fair Spanish as well and I can cook up a mean Boliche!
I live in Orlando, and it really is an amazing place in some of the juxtapositions. Most of the people I know and most of my nieghbors are transplants from up north. But I’m 15 minutes from an honest-to-god deep-demolition derby, where every Friday night it’s redneck central: mullets, press-on-nails and Coors as far as the eye can see.
I live in Orlando, and it really is an amazing place in some of the juxtapositions. Most of the people I know and most of my nieghbors are transplants from up north. But I’m 15 minutes from an honest-to-god deep-south demolition derby, where every Friday night it’s redneck central: mullets, press-on-nails and Coors as far as the eye can see.
“My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned 60 and that’s the law.”
– Jerry Seinfeld
By “The South” I’m sure you mean “The Deep South” i.e. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Carolinas.
Some of the state is like that- the panhandle and the center of the state from top to bottom almost.
The coasts are another case entirely because of the heavy influx of retirees and tourists from northern states that has urbanized those cities and towns, making them much more like the cities up north.