Upper South opinions of Deep South

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by 585WNY

I’m a yankee but am intimately familiar with Georgia and Virginia. I’ve found the Upper South to be more sympathetic to the Deep South than vice versa.

Native Georgians I’ve met don’t even consider Virginia to be the South.

Native Virginians consider themselves to be apart of a common region with GA and the rest of the Deep South.

Lot of native Georgians don’t consider Atlanta the south.

[Heel82]

Originally Posted by Spade

Very believable. I keep telling my friends and family in the South about VA is Southern as well and they still think it’s Northeastern.

The unwritten rule is anything 50 miles north of you is the North. My mema swore South Hill Virginia was the north, my Southside Virginia uncle thought Fredericksburg was north, a Georgia neighbor thought Raleigh was too close to the North for her comfort, etc. We can be terribly parochial and policing of what defines the South in ways really alien to most other regions. The common definition is we ourselves feel wholly Southern, and the north starts some place over yonder.

One of the hallmarks for Southerness is family roots and traditions. If you move to NC and only see your 10-mile radius around Cary, you might feel comfortable saying it’s not Southern. But I grew up with my grandad taking me to fishing holes and country stores, and listening to my dad talk about all the dirt race tracks he was dragged to long before NASCAR was a thing, and my mom remembering all the times she had to help her grandma make okra and fried chicken and everything else for homecomings. So while I might live in the same small footprint as the transplant in Cary, I’m seeing things much deeper than they are. But also the Southern traits are still there if you know where to look (Mule Days is coming to Benson at the end of the month).