# "Norther Florida is Southern, Southern Florida is Northern"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780 "2008-06-30T15:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/21 "2008-07-01T01:23:59Z")
Before WWII, the Panhandle and Northern Florida had your typical Southern culture (even plantations and slavery, antebellum). Everything south of St. Augustine was rather sparsely inhabited and not a very healthy climate. Electrification and air conditioning made it more liveable, and Central and Southern Florida were massively swamped with Yankees – not just retirees, but families seeking economic opportunities and better quality-of-life. There are still plenty of Cracker families in Central and Southern Florida – my late mother’s, for instance – but the Southern drawl sounds just a bit exotic here by now. Come to think of it, it even sounds rather exotic in Atlanta. By my grandparents’ standards, Bill Clinton and Al Gore sound like Yankees. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/22 "2008-07-01T02:50:10Z")
Before someone gets upset about BG’s use of the term “Cracker”, let me 'splain that in Florida (at least when I was growing up there) the term is not necessarily pejorative. I remember in elementary school when they taught us the “I’m a Florida Cracker” song. > **[Florida cracker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_cracker)** > > Florida crackers were colonial-era British, American pioneer settlers in what is now the U.S. state of Florida; the term is also applied to their descendants, to the present day, and their subculture among white Southerners. The first crackers arrived in 1763 after Spain traded Florida to Great Britain following the latter's victory over France in the Seven Years' War, though much of traditional Florida cracker folk culture dates to the 19th century. > The term cracker was in use during the Elizab... ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/23 "2008-07-01T03:15:37Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Well, let’s talk about Miami, which in 1920 had about 30,000 people living there. [/QUOTE] [Florida Land Boom of the 1920s.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_land_boom_of_the_1920s) Even then, Miami was a draw for New Yorkers. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/24 "2008-07-01T03:23:46Z")
As I have said several times on the SDMB, this is the best study of the cultural and economic regions of North America: > **[The Nine Nations of North America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Nations_of_North_America)** > > The Nine Nations of North America is a 1981 book by Joel Garreau, in which the author suggests that North America can be divided into nine nations, which have distinctive economic and cultural features. He also argues that conventional national and state borders are largely artificial and irrelevant, and that his "nations" provide a more accurate way of understanding the true nature of North American society. The work has been called "a classic text on the current regionalization of North America... Northern Florida is part of Dixie, while southern Florida is part of The Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/25 "2008-07-01T03:50:27Z")
Basically the “true South” stops about 10 miles north of Gainesville, and picks up again just south of Kissimmee, all the way down to the south side of Lake Okeechobee. There are a few Southern pockets here and there in the “I-4 corridor”, but anything within a throw of I-4 is generally “Northern”, at least in my experience (lived here 30 years, been all over north/south-central Florida). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/26 "2008-07-01T05:19:45Z")
[QUOTE=Bob55] Basically the “true South” stops about 10 miles north of Gainesville, and picks up again just south of Kissimmee, all the way down to the south side of Lake Okeechobee. [/QUOTE] Gainesville isn’t Southern? That would come as a surprise to Gainesville native [Tom Petty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Petty), I think. [According to Tom](http://www.lyricsdepot.com/tom-petty/southern-accents.html): _There’s a southern accent, where I come from The young’uns call it country The yankees call it dumb I got my own way of talkin’ But everything is done, with a southern accent Where I come from_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/27 "2008-07-01T09:23:59Z")
If you stay out of University of Florida and the student ghetto surrounding it, Gainesville _is_ southern. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/28 "2008-07-01T13:30:55Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Well, let’s talk about Miami, which in 1920 had about 30,000 people living there. [/QUOTE] Let’s talk about what the word “most” means. 😃 > [@](#): > > If you stay out of University of Florida and the student ghetto surrounding it, Gainesville is southern. IME, everything west of I-75 in Gainesville is southern - everything east of 75 is UF. ---
**Author:** ![MonaLizaT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@MonaLizaT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonaLizaT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/29 "2008-07-01T22:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] The “Southern” part of north Florida must be mainly the panhandle. Jacksonville doesn’t feel very southern to me at all. Tallahasse also didn’t feel all that southern (maybe because of all the college kids). [/QUOTE] The panhandle is known as the “Redneck Riviera” for good reason. Jacksonville/northeast Florida is really just south Georgia. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/30 "2008-07-01T22:37:06Z")
Depends… I worked and did errands in parts of Gainesville east of I-75 that were definitely southern. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/31 "2008-07-01T22:58:32Z")
Look! I made a [map](http://www.flickr.com/photos/miketurk/2239810074/sizes/o/) for another thread like this one. I’m open to contributions, but I’ve been all over this (damned?) state, and that’s what I’ve experienced. ---
**Author:** ![Foolonthehill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Foolonthehill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foolonthehill)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/32 "2008-07-02T03:46:22Z")
An excellent book on this subject is Frog Smith’s A Cracker History of Florida . Outside of Florida this may be a difficult book to find ---
**Author:** ![Westrogothia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@Westrogothia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Westrogothia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/33 "2008-07-02T06:26:18Z")
just go into a ihop/dennys/other, if the waitress calls you darlin’ your in the south… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/34 "2008-07-02T10:46:16Z")
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer] Look! I made a [map](http://www.flickr.com/photos/miketurk/2239810074/sizes/o/) for another thread like this one. I’m open to contributions, but I’ve been all over this (damned?) state, and that’s what I’ve experienced. [/QUOTE] That is impressive, Bambi! ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/35 "2008-07-02T11:26:04Z")
Every time I’m in Miami or any of the surrounding old-people colonies, I feel like I’m in Noow Yawwk or Noow Joysey. A bunch of pushy old bastards driving gigantic land-yacht Lincolns and Cadillacs everywhere, wearing white golfing pants and huge eyeglasses. They drive horribly, and shout at each other all the time. I guess at night in Miami there’s sort of a night life, but it’s not the kind that I really go in for - there’s something very tawdry about it, like it seems somehow artificial and insincere. I definitely wouldn’t describe the atmosphere as Southern. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780/36 "2008-07-02T14:01:15Z")
[QUOTE=Amp] I just started talking to a girl from south Georgia. She has only been living here, Tampa, for about 4 months and she tells me the culture shock is huge for her. I moved here from Cleveland in 2000 and didn’t really experience much to any culture shock at all. [/QUOTE] Yes, but her culture shock may be from the diference between country or small-town living and city living. I experienced “culture shock” when I moved to Atlanta, but it wan’t because the city isn’t Southern. It’s just because it’s a _city_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norther-florida-is-southern-southern-florida-is-northern/454780.md?page=1)