The three places I have ever felt even slightly at home in the US – and I’ve been to around forty states – is the Pacific Northwest, Wisconsin, and New England. I truly do not find one single likable thing about the South. Not the climate, not the culture, not the nothing. I like it cold and grumpy, thanks.
That’s an interesting take because Baltimore and FL were both the South at one time, but neither as much now. FL is obviously a much bigger place though. The FL north/panhandle are still the South. But southern FL is not the South culturally now any more than Baltimore is IME, maybe less so.
Also continuing to kibbitz, the person who said Southeast and Northeast US have more in common with each other than the West had an unusual experience I think, and/or is perhaps a foreigner. Having lived in East and West, not South but close relatives have lived in ‘real’ South and Baltimore, that’s off base in general IME. When I lived in CA nobody could tell from my speech, or particularly seemed to care, I wasn’t from there but from the NE. In the South people can tell I’m a Yankee and they often do care. Not necessarily in a hostile way, but it seems important to many of them and in a way I often find annoying. The real South, places not totally overrun by outsiders, is much more different than NE compared to difference NE to West (or NY v LA, I’m from the former, lived in LA for awhile). Not that LA is exactly like NY, but less of an adjustment by far for a NY’er than say Nashville where a sibling lived for many years and I often visited.
But no experience myself permanently moving to the (real) South, I never would. 
Huh… I had always assumed we have wimp winters around here.
And you’re right- there’s a huge difference in how you need to dress for being out for a long time in 40 degree weather vs. how you dress in intermittent exposure to 20 degree weather.
MD is definitely not the south. The sweet tea line goes through the middle of Virginia.
My family “moved south” from Chicago to Atlanta in 1970 or so, not too long after my mother died. We prospered, had some rough times, prospered again, and never looked back. Even now with all the kids grown, the furthest north my siblings ever decamped was Knoxville, TN.
As Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor mentioned, I moved to the Huntsville, Alabama area for job reasons in 1997. Before that I had lived in Ohio, Indiana, and St. Louis all my life. Was a little leery about the move (grew up in the era of George Wallace and Bull Conner), but bought a house here and probably will be here the rest of my life.
Huntsville isn’t really a Southern city, you see; between the US Army (Redstone Arsenal) and NASA (Marshall Space Flight Center), there has been a lot of educated folks moving here for jobs associated with the above or industries associated with the US Army/Space. So my youth soccer teams are Black, White, Hispanic, Indian (subcontinent), Japanese and there are a few Arabs scattered around. Very unlike much of the state.
Don’t like the rampart corruption of the government (apparently SOP for decades here) and it’;s still in the 90’s F in mid-September which isn’t that much fun, but I’m satisfied.
I grew up mostly in the Upper Midwest (Iowa/Illinois), and moved to the Raleigh NC area in my twenties. I liked it - mild weather and inexpensive. I eventually moved back north to take a job, but I’d consider retiring in the Southeast. Maybe around Charlotte or Atlanta.
I wasn’t going to post because it seems I never miss an opportunity to slag on The Confederacy, but this was exactly how I knew I’d landed in Hell. Army moved me to Hinesville, GA with a whole bunch of buddies, one guy from LA and another from someplace in GA even more rural and backward than Hinesville (I get chills just thinking about it). Through me, both of these guys came to rethink their ideas about Yankees being uptight and prissy–I was pretty laid back and easy going in general. Until they were riding with me in what passed for town: “Jesus F*ing Christ what shade of green are you waiting for!!! GO already!” Sometimes two cars could get through the same green light, but you’d be a fool to bet on it. I honestly don’t know why they go through all the bother of stringing traffic lights when a goddamned stop sign would have the same effect. And just letting the car move forward while idling got me tailgating so badly I still had to brake. If it didn’t happen every day, all the time, I’d have sworn the entire state was in cahoots to mess with just me. And not just traffic, the checkout lines at the grocery were no better, same with restaurant service. I can understand a culture that for whatever reason doesn’t feel the need to rush, but FFS I can’t figure out how can anybody move that slowly without making a considerable effort to be slower than everyone else around them. Is this a bragging right? Where the slowest person in town gets props by making everyone else look like they’re in a hurry?
People who call it “Southern Hospitality” just don’t know what “Passive Aggressive” is.
I grew up on the Jersey shore and moved to Atlanta for law school (Emory) and stayed. I love Atlanta. I love the food (though miss the pizza up in Jersey), the people, the culture (Atlanta is very different than… oh, even 10 miles outside of city limits), even the weather. I really can’t imagine moving anywhere else at this point.
Not just you. It is indeed completely mythical.
Charlotte, which is probably majority NOT “real” southerners by now, but it’s like every Northerner picked that one thing to assimilate to. Sure, leave the good pizza back in New York and please, drive like there couldn’t possibly be anyone else in a hurry anywhere else in the state.
And to be nice, I didn’t hate the weather. The summer didn’t bother me much and the winter was a refreshing change from having been in the Northeast my entire life.
I did find it weird that there weren’t a lot of ice cream stands around. Sure, you’d see a DQ or something from time to time, but I can think of a dozen local shops super easily around me now and we’re practically permafrost 6 months of the year.
My sister moved to Macon in around 82 or so and settled in Charlotte a bit later and she is still considered a Northerner.
Also, I’ve had some darn good pizza at Wolfman’s.
I had this experience in India. Freaking 45 C outside in Gujarat state, and the body shop office was maintained at 16 C.
I think that pretty much sums up my mindset. There are a handful of exceptions, but that’s only for tourism purposes and only between the months of November and April.
I’ve noticed that people here love to southsplain everything to you. Because I am from the north, I can’t possibly understand what sweet tea is, or fire ants, or the precise and only true and correct way to prepare any food that is southern in origin, or that everyone says “parking deck” instead of “parking garage”.
The one that annoys me is that for some reason you’re expected to say excuse me if you come within twelve feet of a person coming from the opposite direction. Where I’m from, you only apologize if you actually bump into someone.
Also, that southern hospitality thing really is shallow and fake.
The winters here are fantastic, though. So is the barbecue.
Not a fan, then?
Around about 1987, my wife and I decided to move to Florida. We couldn’t afford to buy a house in the Boston area, so figured we’d be able to down there. Come to find out, the only place I could find work paid about 25% of what I had been making up north. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was when I was told, if you’re the first one here in the morning, make sure to shoo the snakes away from the front door.
I’ll be one that pushes back on the whole “Southern Hospitality doesn’t really exist” crowd. I have found it to be real and genuine. You don’t get as many people smiling or saying hello to you randomly on the street up North as you do down here. For introverts it may be Hellish to have a cashier try to engage you in conversation, but I find it pretty nice myself.
Several good places in Charlotte that have good “real pizza” like what one could find in the NYC metro area. I’m a pizza snob and I’ve found them to be not only authentic, but “right on the money”.
Due Amiche, Da Vinci’s, Amalfi, Ciro’s, Brooklyn South, and Luigi’s.
Heck, even ‘Fuel Pizza’ is pretty good, for a quasi-chain.
There might be good pizza now but there was a dearth of it when I was there. I forgot about Ciro’s though. That place is amazing and might be the best Italian-American food I’ve had.