GreekChat.com Forums - South vs. North?

GreekChat.com Forums (https://greekchat.com/gcforums/index.php)

- Greek Life (https://greekchat.com/gcforums/forumdisplay.php?f=24)

- - South vs. North? (https://greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=85873)

well. come to naples my friends, if you want to see northerners who left a better place, know more than us, blah, blah, blah.

from november to easter we are inundated with "snowbirds" for whom the phrase "ugly american" must have been coined. they are the rudest, most arrogant, unhappy bunch of people i have ever had to deal with. they feel that they are entitled and that everyone should kow tow to them. i have had them actually cut in front of me in line-just bypass the line of people waiting to pay , walk up to the clerk and demand to be waited on. when one woman started creating a scene after charging past those of us waiting to pay,and then creating a scene when the clerk told her that we had been waiting, we locals told the clerk to wait on her-we would wait.

a month ago i was waiting in line at the grocery store and two women who were behind me, complaining about how the store did not stock a few items that they got "back home." then they proceeded to bash the beach parking, property taxes, restaurants, high cost of living in naples,etc. and how we locals need them in order to maintain the lifestyles we have . if you are so miserable, why don't you stay up north? believe me, we won't miss you!!

i am counting the days until easter when the great migration will begin again.
it can't come soon enough for me!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle (Post 1422043)

If that is what you choose to believe that is fine. I've had the conversation with a southerner (more than one if you include my cousins, but since the back in forth between them and my dad was more of light banter I didn't count it). I didn't/don't have the conversation because I choose not to indulge in it. People are going to have strong feelings about where they come from and it's pointless to go back and forth and it's one of those arguments where the two sides are never going to come into agreement with each other.

Then I'm curious as to why you posted to this thread??? :rolleyes:

FSUZeta - I know, I know. I lived in Melbourne, FLA for years and was amazed at those snowbirds who were sooooo unhappy. For the love of God, move back north! Life is too short to be miserable where you are living.
Lest you think we stayed in the north when we were unhappy - when my family was in NJ, my father was a vice-president at a Fortune 500 company. He told the president to move us south - or he would quit. They didn't believe it - look at your title! look at your salary! No one would leave here!
He did. Packed up his wife and 4 kids, and moved home to Texas. We spent a summer haying and ranching while he looked for a new executive position. I didn't appreciate at the time the bravery that took. He got a great job with a company he has been with since 1978 - and I learned to do something rather than sit around and complain. ;)

Naples would be one of the greatest places on earth if not for the yankees. I really like that town. Thankfully the snowbirds in the Destin area aren't as bad.

Oklahoma isn't "south" by any stretch of the imagination right?

Oklahoma isn't south, but there are similarities

Um...we don't want the snowbirds either. They suck up here too. It's not a northern thing it's a crotchety old person thing.

Well true, it could be worse for Naples. Most other places in mid or south florida have some magical direct pipeline which imports sketchy people from Jersey on a daily basis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by banditone (Post 1421367)

Is Texas considered "south"? I know it's the most south you can get without being in Mexico, but it seems to never get mentioned when compared to "real south" states like Mississippi, Bama, SC, Georgia, Louisiana.

Yes, TX is real south!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatalDSTination (Post 1422273)

Yes, TX is real south!

I thought so too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1908Revelations (Post 1422276)

I thought so too.

I dont even see how its questionable personally. I mean we have 7 of largest cities in the U.S. maybe that has something to do with it.:rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatalDSTination (Post 1422277)

I dont even see how its questionable personally. I mean we have 7 of largest cities in the U.S. maybe that has something to do with it.:rolleyes:

Don't ask me....I'm just a Bama.:rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatalDSTination (Post 1422277)

I dont even see how its questionable personally. I mean we have 7 of largest cities in the U.S. maybe that has something to do with it.:rolleyes:

Why would that have anything to do with it?

Why do you think it is a "Real South" state? I don't...and I was born and raised in Texas. Again, I think Texas is in a class of its own......and that East Texas is the only part of Texas that could be considered truly Southern.

Most people tend to think of Texas as like west Texas - they don't realize that Texas has 5 distinct geographical areas. Texas has everything from mountains to beaches - it really is "A Whole 'Nother Country."
I'm from an east Texas family (7 generations - ancestor fought at the Battle of Bexar) and they are most assuredly southern. Tyler, Jasper, Henderson - very southern. Dallas - some parts and citizens yes, some no. El Paso - not southern at all. You get the idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle (Post 1422043)

CH2tf - so you had maybe one conversation about this with a southerner, but you heard the "At least we won the war" comment once or twice? Doesn't that kind of prove my point? The fact that you had only the one conversation despite going to grad school in the south seems to also support another observation of mine - that most southerners are too polite to bring up the subject.
In all my years in NJ I never brought up the subject - but upon hearing my accent northerners felt obliged to comment on the north vs. south thing. If southerners were exactly the same, you should have been the reciepient of many of the same kind of comments I was subjected to, and yet by your own admission you were not.
Sociologists have noted that southerners tend to identify with their region to an extent that northerners do not; linguists have found to their surprise that instead of dying out, regional accents are in fact continuing to be an important identifying charcteristic of regional groups. I would hope that everyone could appreciate regional differences without resorting to insults.
I don't want grits in Maine, scrapple in Georgia, Tex-Mex in Tennessee or Philly Cheese steaks in Florida. I'm using food as my metaphor, but I'm personally glad that different areas of the country continue to be unique, and only wish everyone could appreciate the diversity of this country. Years as an Air Force brat taught me that there is something to enjoy no matter where you live. I enjoy visiting other areas of the country, and have often decried in my newspaper column the spread of strip centers and chain restaurants - too many areas of the country look exactly alike!
I'm also very glad I live in the south - told my husband the Yalie that I'd follow him anywhere, as long as it was below the Mason-Dixon.

Great post, especially, "I would hope that everyone could appreciate regional differences without resorting to insults." Having been raised by a Southern mother (who loved my daddy enough to move North), I've come up against my share of hostile remarks. Unfortunately, Northerners feel free to knock the main principles of my being raised Southern, and Southerners can't forgive me for living where I can best use my education. And I'm not about to compromise my values either way!

ETA: I'm DAR & UDC, too.