Why is Missouri so southern? (Kansas City, St. Louis: schools, oil, office)

[GunnerTHB]

Originally Posted by stlouisan

Southern food and grits are not bound to the south anymore...haven't been for a long time. I agree btw with your assessment...just experienced it today...in Paducah, kentucky, it's southern like Sikeston, Missouri. When you cross the Ohio River and go about 50 miles to the north in Illinois, you'd have no idea how close to the south you were. Same thing with Sikeston, Missouri and southern Cape Girardeau.

Yeah Paducah is very southern for having Illinois right across the river (it even surprises me sometimes still). Then again even in Illinois if your south of the I-57/I-24 intersection its not very midwestern anyway. Kentucky west of the lake is a very unique place just because of how southern it is for how far north it is. The terrain changes a little bit and there is more industry going into Union City TN but otherwise you would never be able to tell a difference once you crossed the KY/TN state line.

As far as SE Missouri goes, Sikeston is the last decent sized town heading north that is definitely more aligned with the south. Cape Girardeau is a mix, it's almost like you can get either southern or midwestern culture in full force if you seek it out but you will see both. Jackson always seemed more midwestern to me than Cape but it has influence from both as well. I went to high school in Jackson and every once in awhile someone would comment about me having a southern accent which I thought was odd, but almost all of my ancestors were from southern places so that may have something to do with it. The village I live near in Cape county is probably more aligned with the south than the midwest as well so that may have something to do with it.

I would say grits are still pretty confined to the south with a few exceptions. You can't get them at any place in Rolla that I've found other than instant grits at the grocery store.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by stlouisan

Southern food and grits are not bound to the south anymore...haven't been for a long time. I agree btw with your assessment...just experienced it today...in Paducah, kentucky, it's southern like Sikeston, Missouri. When you cross the Ohio River and go about 50 miles to the north in Illinois, you'd have no idea how close to the south you were. Same thing with Sikeston, Missouri and southern Cape Girardeau.

The thing is, food like grits are a litmus test of sorts on whether there is enough of a southern population in any given area to support restaurants offering items like grits.
Given that I have long been a keen observer of what sort of foods are offered by local restaurants all over the country, I have found this method to be pretty reliable.
An interesting side note......when we moved to Sainte Genevieve in 72, my mother had to have the local grocer (who had been in business 100 years at the time) special order grits for her, they had no clue what grits were.
They still do not carry grits in Sainte Genevieve, although they are available at Huddle House....wish they would learn how to cook them.

[NativeMissourian]

Originally Posted by GunnerTHB

Yeah Paducah is very southern for having Illinois right across the river (it even surprises me sometimes still). Then again even in Illinois if your south of the I-57/I-24 intersection its not very midwestern anyway. Kentucky west of the lake is a very unique place just because of how southern it is for how far north it is. The terrain changes a little bit and there is more industry going into Union City TN but otherwise you would never be able to tell a difference once you crossed the KY/TN state line.

As far as SE Missouri goes, Sikeston is the last decent sized town heading north that is definitely more aligned with the south. Cape Girardeau is a mix, it's almost like you can get either southern or midwestern culture in full force if you seek it out but you will see both. Jackson always seemed more midwestern to me than Cape but it has influence from both as well. I went to high school in Jackson and every once in awhile someone would comment about me having a southern accent which I thought was odd, but almost all of my ancestors were from southern places so that may have something to do with it. The village I live near in Cape county is probably more aligned with the south than the midwest as well so that may have something to do with it.

I would say grits are still pretty confined to the south with a few exceptions. You can't get them at any place in Rolla that I've found other than instant grits at the grocery store.

You also have Benton too which is Southern, but I guess that is not considered a decent sized town compared to Sikeston. I guess Jackson is right on the line because the southern halfs of Bollinger, and Cape Counties are more southern than the northern halfs. I guess Marbill Hill and Jackson can have influences of both as they're still within the transition zone of that map I made.

[NativeMissourian]

Here is a video from Hunter, Missouri that is only about 30 miles from the Arkansas border on US60. As you can see the foilage is different than other areas of the northern ozarks, or St. Louis and the landscape in general at the end of the video is more like what you would see in Central TN.

The Ozarks down by Annapolis, Piedmont, Ellington start to look a lot different than the northern part of the Ozarks such as around Lake of the Ozarks.


Hunter, Missouri tornado: May 25, 2011 - YouTube


Just look at the average highs for the WAPPAPELLO DAM area. By the last day of Jan the average high is near 50 degrees!

National Weather Service Climate

[kshe95girl]

Um, that average is for 2012, which we are 9 days into.......having lived in that area, I can say with some authority that it does not normally get that warm in January.
Its 44F there right now, the low on Thursday is supposed to be 17F.
10 Day Weather Forecast for Wappapello - weather.com

[Zach.USCG]

I'm from Bernie Missouri about ten miles south of highway 60 I'd have to say southeast Missour"uh" is definitely as southern as it gets. In the bootheel pretty much all ya see is corn and cotton for miles back country roads, definitely more gravel roads than paved! I actually graduated high school in Bloomfield and its right above highway 60 and it's the same as the rest of the bootheel definitely a farm town for sure, I don't think southeast MO is gunna change either considering the farmland is some of the best, it used to be swamp they drained it an now it's some of the most fertile land in the south that's why there's a ton of drainage ditches all through southeast MO. I'm in the military now stationed and California and I'm about to die out here it's so much different people ask where I'm from all the time almost every day I just tell them the south cuz if I say Missouri they get confused thinkin its all Midwestern! I've had a few ask me if I'm from Georgia!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by Zach.USCG

I'm from Bernie Missouri about ten miles south of highway 60 I'd have to say southeast Missour"uh" is definitely as southern as it gets. In the bootheel pretty much all ya see is corn and cotton for miles back country roads, definitely more gravel roads than paved! I actually graduated high school in Bloomfield and its right above highway 60 and it's the same as the rest of the bootheel definitely a farm town for sure, I don't think southeast MO is gunna change either considering the farmland is some of the best, it used to be swamp they drained it an now it's some of the most fertile land in the south that's why there's a ton of drainage ditches all through southeast MO. I'm in the military now stationed and California and I'm about to die out here it's so much different people ask where I'm from all the time almost every day I just tell them the south cuz if I say Missouri they get confused thinkin its all Midwestern! I've had a few ask me if I'm from Georgia!

You do realize that SE MO encompasses everything from STL on down to the AR border, right?
Not all of that is southern by any stretch of the imagination.
You live in the Bootheel, which is southern.
That swamp thing, is a Bootheel characteristic, not a SE MO thing as a whole.
My mothers people are from Fisk, so I know what I'm talking about.

[ConservativeMissouri]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

You do realize that SE MO encompasses everything from STL on down to the AR border, right?
Not all of that is southern by any stretch of the imagination.
You live in the Bootheel, which is southern.
That swamp thing, is a Bootheel characteristic, not a SE MO thing as a whole.
My mothers people are from Fisk, so I know what I'm talking about.

True, but I never hear people consider St. Louis part of southeast Missouri. Ste Gen sometimes I see grouped in with SE MO, but it's not until Perry CO I see the SE Missouri reference being used.

Stl is usually grouped in with East Centra MO, or just Stl.

KSHE I heard Reelfoot lake just across the river from SE MO has been having alligator sightings. I wonder when they will swim across and be found in the bootheel. Espesically with the super warm winter. I have heard a few times of Alligators being found in the southern part of the bootheel in the summer on the MS river. Heck in Jonesboro a couple years ago a large gator was killed not too far from Missouri.

They deleted my comment on the KSDK website story about Pacific in the civl war today.

[SW Missouri Dave]

Originally Posted by ConservativeMissouri

They deleted my comment on the KSDK website story about Pacific in the civl war today.

I can't imagine why

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by ConservativeMissouri

True, but I never hear people consider St. Louis part of southeast Missouri. Ste Gen sometimes I see grouped in with SE MO, but it's not until Perry CO I see the SE Missouri reference being used.

Stl is usually grouped in with East Centra MO, or just Stl.

KSHE I heard Reelfoot lake just across the river from SE MO has been having alligator sightings. I wonder when they will swim across and be found in the bootheel. Espesically with the super warm winter. I have heard a few times of Alligators being found in the southern part of the bootheel in the summer on the MS river. Heck in Jonesboro a couple years ago a large gator was killed not too far from Missouri.

They deleted my comment on the KSDK website story about Pacific in the civl war today.

I heard the moon is made of green cheese.