Maryland Dopers: Are you a Southerner or not?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the ongoing thread Southern USA Dopers: Stand and be counted, please the issue of whether Maryland is a Southern state or not has come up several times, with varying opinions as to how it should be viewed.

Over the course of that thread’s life, in maintaining a file that summarizes by state the responses to that thread, I have added names of Dopers whose Location field indicates Maryland.

The current contents of that file’s Maryland entries:

===================================
Maryland
GingerOfTheNorth Charter Member Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 7,463 Location: Not so North (MD)
Emilio Lizardo Charter Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 564 Location: Hyattsville, MD
dbygawdcapn Charter Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 444 Location: Tall Timbers (MD)
Bytegeist Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 1,013 Location: Maryland, US
BiblioCat Charter Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 6,250 Location: Baltimore
norinew Charter Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 4,838 Location: Cumberland, MD
commasense Charter Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 2,229 Location: Columbia, MD
Miss Mapp Charter Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 1,123 Location: Rockville, MD
Weirddave Charter Member Join Date: Apr 1999 Posts: 7,965 Location: Baltimore. Md
Trunk Charter Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5,946 Location: Baltimore, Jack!
tarragon918 Charter Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 948 Location: MD suburb of Wash. DC
minlokwat Member Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 408 Location: Glen Burnie, MD
F. U. Shakespeare Charter Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 1,849 Location: Baltimore or less
mhendo Charter Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 8,997 Location: Baltimore, MD
mks57 Charter Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 1,354 Location: Seabrook, Maryland
you with the face Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,729 Location: Laurel, MD

====================

Based on the feedback in that thread, and in spite of my own mixed feelings on the issue, I’m inclined to remove the entire Maryland contingent from consideration as to whether Maryland Dopers are to be among the Southern USA Dopers.

Unless this thread gets some responses to the contrary, that’s what I’ll do.

If you live in Maryland and DO want to be counted as a Southern Doper, please provide a post to that effect in that other thread (in the link).

Thanks for any additional comments and feedback here.

Zeldar

2

I’m not a Southerner by any standards; I’m from Ohio originally (outside Cleveland) and my family is from downstate New York.

The Rockville/Gaithersburg area where I live and work doesn’t feel Southern to me, even in the way northern Virginia does. Other parts of Maryland, particularly southern MD like Charles and St. Mary’s county, may feel differently about it.

3

Thanks for the reply. I have removed your name from that list (and the file).

4

I suppose it depends on what defines “Southern-ness”. If I recall correctly; we wanted to secede from the Union, but due to our proximity of DC this power was removed. We are also south of the Mason-Dixon line. Living in Southern Maryland, there are very many “southern” aspects. Our farm has old slave quarters. Tobacco was the primary cash crop up until a few years ago. The Confederate flag is not uncommon to see. There is a degree of accent, though certainly not as pronounced as Alabama, Georgia, ect. As the DC suburbs expand, the infiltration of suburbanites has had an impact upon the character of Southern Maryland. FWIW I live in Calvert county.

5

While certainly Maryland is border state, I am a Marylander and I am a Southerner. I was raised in Frederick County, and have always had southern connections through my Mother’s family.

I would say most of Frederick County and all points West are Southern. Certainly the northern part of the county, such as Taneytown are very Northern in their ‘feel.’

6

Thanks to both SailBunny and Paul in Saudi. Even though your names are not at issue in relation to the “summary file” and its contents, it is very hepful to hear from those who feel it’s not altogether unthinkable that Maryland might be considered Southern.

I get the strong impression that Maryland has what might be an identity crisis, especially among residents who have come there from elsewhere, both Southerners and not.

I have relatives in Maryland. One is a Southerner by birth the other not so much.

I imagine this same issue applies to other states “on the edges.” And if you’re in one of those states it might be instructive to hear your views on the issue.

Being from the Deep South and living in the Mid-South, I have never had much reason to doubt my Southernness. I can imagine, though, the feeling of not having strong pulls in either direction. I’m that way about politics!

7

Where at in Frederick did you grow up? My father’s family are all from Frederick and have been since the 1700s.

I don’t really consider Maryland to be either northern or southern, though if pressed I would say more southern.

8

So, I don’t count, in your estimation. By being a Canadian living outside of Canada, I don’t count as a non-US doper. By being a Canadian living in Maryland, I am certainly NOT a Southerner. I’m sad now.

9

Since you posted in the thread in question I have yet to remove your name from the list. FWIW, I consider you Southern based on what you’ve had to say in both threads (and now this one.)

I have suggested several places and several times that somebody else ought to get a thread going for “Transplants” or “Aliens” or whatever term is most representative while being least offensive.

Hell, I would even qualify for that one since I was born in North Carolina, spent my first 18 years in Alabama, and have been the rest of my life (thus far) in Tennessee. Yes, I fit Southerner in each case, but I’m not a native of where I live now. My parents spent their entire lives in Alabama and are buried there, but I would be uncomfortable moving back there. I’ve even considered moving to Maine of all places. But I’ll probably continue to stay in Tennessee because I like it here.

Unless you plan to move back to Canada, or to take an even bolder step and move further south, GingerOfTheNorth, you have my blessings to continue being a Marylander and a Southerner – for whatever that will buy you.

10

I’m neither, but thanks anyway.

11

Ginger is amongst my favorite Dopers and is a kind lady. I would be pleased to count her as a Southerner.

Edward check your e-mail.

12

I’m a born-and-raised Marylander. I do think that Maryland has aspects of southerness culturally, but I have never thought of it as a southern state. Once you cross the border into Virginia, then you’re in the South.

13

Born In Pennsylvania, raised and have lived in Maryland for the past 43 years. I’m not southern. My best friend lives in South Carolina, Maryland people and Maryland attitudes are more northern than southern.

14

I was born in Baltimore and lived there until I was 46. Maryland has a built-in identity crisis regarding southernness, with a northern border defined by the Mason-Dixon line and much of its southern border defined by the Potomac. Add to that its slave-state but non-seceding Civil War status, and confusion ensues and lingers. A number of other Maryland dopers in this thread have alluded to the differences within the state. The western part, from Frederick west, is indistinguishable from the Appalachian south. Calvert, Charles and Saint Mary’s counties in the south are very much like tidewater Virginia. The Eastern Shore is similar. Baltimore is more cosmopolitan, and the accent may be from another planet, hon, but there was enough of a southern flavor there for H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) to have declared it a southern city in attitude, language and cuisine. For what it’s worth, I was taught as a child that I lived in a mid-Atlantic, not a southern, state.

15

A story of perspective.

I moved as a teenager from what would’ve been considered definitely “northern”, Pennsylvania, to what I considered definitely “southern”, southwest KY. Kentucky was officially, AFAIK, a border state in the US Civil war. Our area, however, from the monument to the fallen confederate soldiers to the courthouse’s defiantly south-facing front door, was a southern town.

When I moved there, I had to endure occasional talk as to my Yankee nature; most of it being good-natured ribbing.

I did have a friend that would get angry if ever it was mentioned that the south lost the civil war and would proclaim that the south would rise again!. I used to counter by asking “Rise again and do what?” Never got much of an answer to that.

Years later I moved to LA, that is to say, Lower Alabama. Can’t get much more south than this without getting wet. This was, without doubt, Dixie - the license plates even proclaimed it. At least, thought I, when asked where moved from, I can say “Kentucky” and no longer would I have to listen to jokes about me being a Yankee.

Nope - to the Alabamians, Kentucky was definitely “The North” and I never did lose my Yankee status. Being Southern is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

16

I was born in Pensacola, Florida and raised in St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland.
My father was a hillbilly from the hills of old Virginny.
My mother was a Yankee from Maine who my father’s kinfolk were deathly afraid of because they had always heard that Yankee women eat their young 'uns.
My grandmother on my father’s side ( back up in the hills ) had a still, an outhouse, an old stone well, and a string of hound dogs.
My grandfather played the fiddle and drank corn liquor and lived to be 100.
My great great great grandfather and two of his brothers all served in the Virginia infantry of the confederate army. They were all captured and spent the duration of the civil war at the P.O.W. camp at Point Lookout, Md. I used to live just outside the Point Lookout park for several years.
I loves me some grits and kale and turnip greens and okra and possum and cooter.

Yeah, I guess I’m Southern.

17

Damn straight. I was already counting you among the MD folks to keep in the summary file since you had posted in that other thread. Thanks for the additional bio information.

18

I consider myself a Southerner, but most people don’t take me seriously when I say that.

19

I think this sums it up quite nicely. I wasn’t born here, but have lived here most of my life. I don’t consider myself a Southerner, but I know a lot of people (and I mean a lot) who think Maryland is without a doubt a Southern state. These same people have Confederate flags on their cars (pickups, actually) and wear redneck and confederate-themed t-shirts.

20

What’s cooter?