# I thought Arkansas WAS in the South **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 28, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091 "2008-03-28T19:47:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/1 "2008-03-28T19:47:13Z")
So I walked into this women’s meeting the other night and said, “Hi y’all” and this person who I can’t stand said, “That sounded like me!” This is because she is from the Holy State of Texas. (but lives in Ohio) I said, “I _am_ from Arkansas.” “Oh, is that the South now?” [Well, isn’t it? I always thought it was. I always thought that my relatives, with there very southern accents, were actually living in the South.) Oh, I guess only she knows what it is like to be from the South. Even though I have lived in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas again, in that order. [leaving out Maryland, which happened in between Alabama and Texas, and of course Ohio where I live now.] Yes, I’ve actually lived in Texas!! But she is the only person that can say she’s from the South and have any validity. This is because the entire meeting always revolves around her. Once she was sitting next to my mother-in-law at one of these meetings. She spent much time talking about her EX-mother-in-law (named Jane) who she had just moved to a nursing home or something. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law had just BURIED her oldest child, her daughter, named Jane. Seriously, four days before had been Jane’s funeral. But we couldn’t get this woman to stop talking about her small tiny little existence. I can’t stand her. When her husband did something very mean to her at Christmas-time (he went to see his mother–alone) I thought, “Well, he just probably needed to get the hell away from her and her mouth for a few shorts days of bliss.” Her story is always better, her experience is always more-so, than everyone else’s. I usually just stare at her and wait for her mouth to stop moving. It happens but rarely. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/2 "2008-03-28T21:06:44Z")
I was under the impression that Texans generally don’t identify as Southern, but as Texan. Because, you see, Texas is the only place on Earth worth living. Or something like that. Regardless, Arkansas is definitely the South. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/3 "2008-03-28T21:20:30Z")
Yes, Arkansas is in the South. Texas is not. Texas is Mexico Light. The next time she goes on and on and on, just smile and say in your sickly-sweetest voice “well, bless your heart.” She should get the picture – if not, she sure ain’t Southern 😃 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/4 "2008-03-28T21:30:08Z")
I was born and raised there, and I for once think I can speak for my fellow Arkies when I say she’s a complete dumbass. The only possible hairsplitting contention anyone could make in that direction is the fact that Ozarks folks are culturally very similar to Appalachian folks, and they are somewhat less tied into the Southern (as in Deep South) culture. But I doubt many of them would tell you they’re not Southern. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/5 "2008-03-28T22:17:05Z")
Do you have an insanely hot southern accent? That really doesn’t have much to do with anything, but I do love a southern accent on a woman. I went to Georgia and I was in heaven. Well, the weather sucked balls, (I’m from So Cal), but I could listen to any waitress talk all day. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/6 "2008-03-28T23:17:35Z")
It shits like her that made me such a willing participant in the [Colorado Texas Tomato Wars](http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/41273/4fe/a/) lo so many years ago. [news clip from 1987](http://www.vailtrail.com/article/20071014/COVERSTORY/71012001) [and here - see second-to-last paragraph](http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070915/ASPENWEEKLY/109160073) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/7 "2008-03-29T01:31:21Z")
Texas is in the South when it suits it to be in the South and in the Southwest when it suits it to be in the Southwest. (Although when I was growing up there and a young adult, no one ever considered it Southwest. That’s a recent development.) Spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house in Arkansas. Definitely the South. Was even in the Confederacy! ---
**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:** [March 29, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/8 "2008-03-29T01:50:58Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Definitely the South. Was even in the Confederacy! [/QUOTE] My New York cousin by marriage was surprised that I wore shoes and had a job working on computers. She asked when we left the family at a restaurant to smoke at the bar, “This _is_ the South?” I replied, “Well, we lost the War.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/9 "2008-03-29T01:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] I was born and raised there, and I for once think I can speak for my fellow Arkies when I say she’s a complete dumbass. The only possible hairsplitting contention anyone could make in that direction is the fact that Ozarks folks are culturally very similar to Appalachian folks, and they are somewhat less tied into the Southern (as in Deep South) culture. But I doubt many of them would tell you they’re not Southern. [/QUOTE] I agree 100%. Also in my humble opinion the women in the southern Illinois/western Kentucky area have a very sexy accent. The southern Missouri accent is very different to my ears anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/10 "2008-03-29T02:06:44Z")
I didn’t think saying _y’all_ was somehow supposed to be confined only to “Southerners” either. Sorry you work with such a wanker. Maybe she’s from East Texas. I’ve never been there, but it sounds like they identify as more “Southern” over there. Coincidentally, that part of the state tends to be a racist backwater that I’d never care to visit. ---
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/11 "2008-03-30T00:53:03Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] Do you have an insanely hot southern accent? [/QUOTE] Sadly, no. I occasionally say “y’all” to my family’s embarrassment. And I eat grits. ---
**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:** [March 30, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/12 "2008-03-30T01:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=Lillith Fair] And I eat grits. [/QUOTE] Man, _I_ don’t even do that. 🙂 One of Mrs. Plant’s dog buddies is from Virginia, with the tidewater accent. I hung out with them just to her her speak. ---
**Author:** ![LadyMack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@LadyMack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadyMack)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/13 "2008-03-30T01:21:32Z")
[QUOTE=Litoris] Yes, Arkansas is in the South. Texas is not. Texas is Mexico Light. The next time she goes on and on and on, just smile and say in your sickly-sweetest voice “well, bless your heart.” She should get the picture – if not, she sure ain’t Southern 😃 [/QUOTE] Agreed. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/14 "2008-03-30T06:44:33Z")
The next time she goes on about Texas, just say, “Oh; Baja Oklahoma, right?” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-arkansas-was-in-the-south/443091/15 "2008-03-30T11:08:45Z")
From my point of view, you’re all in the north. It’s all relative.