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THIS is, in my opinion, one of the best posts that has described the cultural makeup of Louisville, KY. Louisville is first and foremost, a Southern city, no other way to spin its ties to the South and it permeates throughout the city's culture. I was in Cleveland for the Holidays and my in-laws friends asked me if we wear shoes in Louisville and have Dentists. Clearly, many outsiders think Kentucky, and its stereotypes, FIRST when hearing Louisville, not the progressive, vibrant, growing Southern city that it really is. This is why Louisville will never fit in with the Midwest, it has a Southern identity that is deeply rooted. Not deep South, but clearly South none the less.
Also, many true Midwestern Cities have large ethnic groups that shaped the culture of the city. Cleveland has a ton of Italians and Polish immigrants and families. Cincinnati is heavily German as other posters have mentioned, but Louisville, although with some German influence, is largely absent of the European ethnic groups that immigrated to Midwestern cities during the last two centuries.
Surely your in-laws friends were kidding you. If you took offense, it makes you look thin skinned. With all the advancement made in communications these days, everybody knows that people do wear shoes in Kentucky and the people do go to dentisits, just like they do everywhere else in this country. There is no reason why any reasonable thinking person would think otherwise, unless they go thru life with their ears plugged and their eyes closed.
THIS is, in my opinion, one of the best posts that has described the cultural makeup of Louisville, KY. Louisville is first and foremost, a Southern city, no other way to spin its ties to the South and it permeates throughout the city's culture. I was in Cleveland for the Holidays and my in-laws friends asked me if we wear shoes in Louisville and have Dentists. Clearly, many outsiders think Kentucky, and its stereotypes, FIRST when hearing Louisville, not the progressive, vibrant, growing Southern city that it really is. This is why Louisville will never fit in with the Midwest, it has a Southern identity that is deeply rooted. Not deep South, but clearly South none the less.
Also, many true Midwestern Cities have large ethnic groups that shaped the culture of the city. Cleveland has a ton of Italians and Polish immigrants and families. Cincinnati is heavily German as other posters have mentioned, but Louisville, although with some German influence, is largely absent of the European ethnic groups that immigrated to Midwestern cities during the last two centuries.
Yes. And though Louisville has a German plurality, Germans didn't really influence city culture like they did the rest of the Midwest. Neither did the Irish which is the 2nd largest European group there.
Try googling German restaurants in Louisville even and the list is scant. Germantown is not even really German in culture.
Surely your in-laws friends were kidding you. If you took offense, it makes you look thin skinned. With all the advancement made in communications these days, everybody knows that people do wear shoes in Kentucky and the people do go to dentisits, just like they do everywhere else in this country. There is no reason why any reasonable thinking person would think otherwise, unless they go thru life with their ears plugged and their eyes closed.
Where are you from? Up North in places like the Great Lakes, the prevailing thought is that anything in Kentucky is backwater hillbilly. Hell, people in Cleveland think of Cincinnati as the South as it is.
I can attest to the story of KY_ Transplant. So many people in Chicago have the same idea. And they are serious about it.
Where are you from? Up North in places like the Great Lakes, the prevailing thought is that anything in Kentucky is backwater hillbilly. Hell, people in Cleveland think of Cincinnati as the South as it is.
I can attest to the story of KY_ Transplant. So many people in Chicago have the same idea. And they are serious about it.
Basically the same thing about Missouri too. Most from New England or the East coast thing it's a bunch of hicks and think of the Ozarks when describing Missouri. The New York Times made fun of Missouri calling it the Shoot me State because of the lax MO gun laws and not needing a permit to carry. That and meth too they make fun of with Missouri.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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From previous post Ivory indicated he was born in Clinton Co KY (on the TN line, one county from where my mom's family is from) but raised in Central Indiana. A lot of people from that part of KY moved to Indy for work pre 1970.
From previous post Ivory indicated he was born in Clinton Co KY (on the TN line, one county from where my mom's family is from) but raised in Central Indiana. A lot of people from that part of KY moved to Indy for work pre 1970.
Do those jobs even exist still or have they evaporated along with many other manufacturing jobs? Trump is trying to get manufacturing jobs back. Maybe states like Kentucky, Missouri that lost a lot of those jobs especially in the rural areas will get some of them back. In rural parts of KY, MO you can tell the economy is hurting. I stayed for a day outside Paducah in the Purchase region and you could tell the area was struggling.
Missouri will be right to work this year, and it's possible Kentucky might become a right to work state since Republicans got control of the house finally. It depends on how many of the KY Republicans though are pro union. Many of them just elected replaced pro union Democrats. Missouri only needs 82 republicans in the house to vote for it which will be easy to get.
So I also need to clarify that I don't believe Louisville is simply Southern culture everywhere you go. But I know if I don't clear it up that some Midwest aspiring types will come in and say that Louisville has amazing restaurants and lots of non Southern things to do. And while Havana Rumba, 502 yoga, salsa dancing, and many gay bars abound, nobody thinks of these things when they discuss Louisville.
Every Southern city and I mean every Southern city has hints of non Southern culture. What Louisville doesn't have is much Midwest culture. By this I mean culture steeped in German and other immigrant traditions as seen in Cincinnati and every other city in the actual Midwest. Catholicism is really the only thing about Louisville that wasn't culturally Southern and could group Louisville with the Midwest. The German and Irish elements of the city never penetrated significantly to make it another Cincinnati or Milwaukee.
And while Louisville is a logistics hub it also cannot be put in the Rust Belt or even in the agricultural corn belt. These are other things that put Kentucky's northernmost city outside of the typical Midwest.
So I also need to clarify that I don't believe Louisville is simply Southern culture everywhere you go. But I know if I don't clear it up that some Midwest aspiring types will come in and say that Louisville has amazing restaurants and lots of non Southern things to do. And while Havana Rumba, 502 yoga, salsa dancing, and many gay bars abound, nobody thinks of these things when they discuss Louisville.
Every Southern city and I mean every Southern city has hints of non Southern culture. What Louisville doesn't have is much Midwest culture. By this I mean culture steeped in German and other immigrant traditions as seen in Cincinnati and every other city in the actual Midwest. Catholicism is really the only thing about Louisville that wasn't culturally Southern and could group Louisville with the Midwest. The German and Irish elements of the city never penetrated significantly to make it another Cincinnati or Milwaukee.
And while Louisville is a logistics hub it also cannot be put in the Rust Belt or even in the agricultural corn belt. These are other things that put Kentucky's northernmost city outside of the typical Midwest.
Corn is grown outside of the great plains. It's even grown in MS too. Agriculture is a lot different than it was 100 plus years ago.
Louisville is southern, but it's on the fringe of the south. It isn't southern like Nashville or Memphis.
Louisville is a southern city sure, but it's not deeply southern like Nashville is and certainly not as southern as Paducah.
Another thing about areas like Louisville is that it is divided by the Ohio river. While on the other side of the Ohio there is southern influence, the transition zone, it seems to drop off faster once you cross the Ohio. Like southern IN for example really has no place that's truly 100 percent southern.
Missouri for example doesn't have the Ohio river dividing it where you have a sharp drop off. Except in far Eastern Missouri it changes from Midwest to mostly southern really quick in the middle of Cape Girardeau County around Jackson. It's a gradual transition starting in the middle of Missouri and gradually becomes all southern once you get to about 50 miles of the Arkansas border.
I think that's why it's easier to see Louisville is southern because you have a sharper dividing line between lower Midwest and the south.
Basically the same thing about Missouri too. Most from New England or the East coast thing it's a bunch of hicks and think of the Ozarks when describing Missouri. The New York Times made fun of Missouri calling it the Shoot me State because of the lax MO gun laws and not needing a permit to carry. That and meth too they make fun of with Missouri.
The last statement is factual, Missouri was one of the worst if not the worst state for that until it was brought more under control a few years ago. Still a significant problem for rural areas especially.
The last statement is factual, Missouri was one of the worst if not the worst state for that until it was brought more under control a few years ago. Still a significant problem for rural areas especially.
True. It seems it's usually Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and sometimes West Virginia people make fun of calling them meth heads, hicks and white trash.
Sometimes people mention Indiana but not very much. Missouri is really the only Midwestern state that you see people calling them hillbillies, hicks, meth heads and white trash.
Missouri seems to be the outlier on pretty much everything in the Midwest which is another reason how it shows its strong southern influences that the other Midwest states don't have. A lot of Missouri has characteristics of the south such as conservative politics, lax gun laws (actually more lax than most of the other southern states) low taxes in general, southern Baptist largest religion, and abortion laws.
While Missouri is about 25 percent fully southern, 25 percent a transition zone, and 50 percent Midwest, I still consider that enough to be a border state. Kentucky today I think is southern enough to not be called a border state. Today I'd consider states such as MO, WV, OK, and VA to be border states. VA has a lot of non southern influences in the northern part of the state. DE, MD have too much in common with the north and I don't consider them modern day border states. Florida isn't up north so technically it can't be a border state, but FL defiantly isn't fully southern anymore. Only in the northern parts and few tiny areas in south central part of the state.
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