South Carolina and Tennessee are definitely in that same MS, AL, and GA Southern category.

Can we also add Cincinnatti, OH ? It almost is....

I live in Dallas, and can tell ya, it shows very very little "southyness" to it. Actually, none.

What kills me about Vera Bradley is that her crap has been around for years and years, and they (at least previously) were only available in Hallmark stores.

Little old ladies carry their knitting hooks and yarn in them. The only other "acceptable" place is on the Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard ferries, in which case, a tote is necessary to pack one's essentials for a day on the islands.

(PS I in no way claim to be fashionable, just making an observation)

Hmm... My Great Grandmother (94 years old) is a quilter and always had stuff that looked like VB. Then, towards the end of last year, all the girls started buying VB totes and wallets and purses(everyday purses).

Now, it is everywhere! The very young to the very old, crazy!

As Mac will most likely to say, it depends on where in Dallas much like the rest of the state. Dallas has some terribly un-south portions including Plano, Addison, Richardson, and all of south Dallas. However, Highland Park (which may be one of my favorite cities ever) is very Southern and very old money. SMU is a blight on HP, in that it's mostly filled with Florida and California kids, Phi Delt and maybe SAE are the only ones who keep with Southern/Texan values.

There are also other conclaves in Texas (such as Tyler, which I figure Mac will say) that are very Southern. It varies greatly within the state however.

I guess I'm not a true Missourian then...it's Missouri to me not Missourah. Also I say wash not "warsh".

Culturally, Texas and the Deep South are two different worlds.

Social order and formal courtesies are far more closely observed in the Deep South than they are in Texas.

And in Texas we are far more flamboyant with our wealth. This is evident in Greek life. I have been to some awesome parties at Georgia and Auburn, but the chapter dues and budgets at UT-Austin are far in excess of anything I have ever seen at any school. When I was at UT- my chapter dues were 3-4 times my tuition every semester (and my dues were the cheapest possible since I had a private room in the chapter house.)

I would attribute it to oil. That wealth came fast and furious to this state- and to this day there is still enormous money to be had. I know of cases where people owning less than 1% of a share in a field started getting 5 and 6 digit royalty checks when an old field was reopened to extract remaining reserves using new technology (usually injection with salt water or directional drilling.) And this state is full of people who still own tiny shares in fields that, although with increasing rarity, can still make them millionaires in a very short time. That oil is running out- but this gives you an idea of what kind of money we are talking about when a tiny piece of interest in a single field can generate that kind of income for one person.

There is similar wealth remaining in the Deep South, but much of it originates from far older fortunes. And those who still hold those fortunes kept them with generations of a more conservative approach.

Going back to Greek life, a good example of this conservative and ritualistic difference is football games.

When I was going to Georgia, we wore khakis and a white shirt and tie to the games. Our dates wore black cocktail dresses. Game days started with a buffet at the house, then the game, then home to clean up, dinner- again either at the house or large groups going to nice restaurants- and then a band party. Going to a football game was an all day ritual with strict dress code and social procedure.

At Texas- nothing like that. Jeans and a T-shirt for the game. Sneak all the booze in you can (though we did that at Georgia too), dinner whenever and wherever with whoever, and then a band party after.

While Texas is my home and I prefer it here- games days at Georgia were as good as college life got.

As far as south, I think even the true SE can be broken down. For example, there is the coastal south (Southern AL, Miss, Savannah/brunswick, charleston/hilton head), there is more central south (bham, metro atlanta, greenville), then there is the mountain south (Tenn, N. AL, N. GA, NC) which can be completely different. When I think true deep south, I don't include TN.

As far as Dallas, I'm not sure thats a fair assessment. I'm not saying TX should be lumped in with the rest of the South, but ATL isn't exactly pure south either (full of yankees).

Would it not be fair to say that applies to all the really large southern cities that have experienced a lot of recent growth?

If someone told me they wanted to go to Georgia for a week and "experience southern culture", I would sent them to Augusta or a small town like Thomson- but not Altlanta, perhaps not even Athens at this point.

For Texas, I would not send a person to Houston, Dallas or San Antonio. There are any of a number of decent sized towns one could go and see the genuine difference here vs. elsewhere in the US- but in a major city it won't be a driving force that is readily evident to an outsider.

I forgot all about TN. LOL

Ditto!

No family there anymore. My grandfather and his side of the family were all from Missouri though.

I'm from Tyler......yesh, I concur.