Yankee Girl Survives First Year at Southern University

[naraht]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

What about San Antonio? Or is all of SOUTH Texas not "culturally southern"?

Well, I'd say you have degrees of "cultural southernness" in Texas. I mean no one is going to consider Beaumont anything by culturally southern, and no one is going to consider El Paso culturally southern.

To give you an idea, I consider Dallas culturally southern, but not Ft. Worth. I tend to go off the descriptions in "Nine Nations of North America" which has Houston as a border town between "Dixie", "The Breadbasket" and Mex-america. Given the degree to which the borders of Dixie have shrunk in Florida and Virginia in the 30 years since NNoNA has been published and what I have read about Houston poltics, I presumed the border had moved enough in Texas to move Houston slightly outside the definition.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by naraht

Well, I'd say you have degrees of "cultural southernness" in Texas. I mean no one is going to consider Beaumont anything by culturally southern, and no one is going to consider El Paso culturally southern.

To give you an idea, I consider Dallas culturally southern, but not Ft. Worth. I tend to go off the descriptions in "Nine Nations of North America" which has Houston as a border town between "Dixie", "The Breadbasket" and Mex-america. Given the degree to which the borders of Dixie have shrunk in Florida and Virginia in the 30 years since NNoNA has been published and what I have read about Houston poltics, I presumed the border had moved enough in Texas to move Houston slightly outside the definition.

Not familiar with your source, but if it includes St Louis as "culturally southern" (see your earlier post), then I don't know how much stock I'd put in its definitions.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by naraht

To give you an idea, I consider Dallas culturally southern, but not Ft. Worth.

This is a mistake (my opinion)...Dallas is as culturally southern as Nebraska. Fort Worth is far more southern-acting than Dallas. Dallas the city =/= Dallas the TV show.

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I would say that Houston as a whole is not southern, but there are very strong enclaves of southerness.

I would agree and tell you that the older neighborhoods (River Oaks, Heights, Memorial Park, etc...) are what would drive my opinion to believe that Houston is far more southern-acting than noted here. I suppose the same argument could be made for Dallas' older neighborhoods, but I still say it's too much of a midwestern melting pot to be considered "southern". Northern Oklahoma...

Originally Posted by amIblue?

Not familiar with your source, but if it includes St Louis as "culturally southern" (see your earlier post), then I don't know how much stock I'd put in its definitions.

Co-Sign

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

This is a mistake (my opinion)...Dallas is as culturally southern as Nebraska. Fort Worth is far more southern-acting than Dallas. Dallas the city =/= Dallas the TV show.



I would agree and tell you that the older neighborhoods (River Oaks, Heights, Memorial Park, etc...) are what would drive my opinion to believe that Houston is far more southern-acting than noted here. I suppose the same argument could be made for Dallas' older neighborhoods, but I still say it's too much of a midwestern melting pot to be considered "southern". Northern Oklahoma...


Co-Sign

The best way to describe it is Dallas is a small piece of Chicago that drifted south and got lost. The Woodlands or Katy might be trying to be southern, but Houston isn't for the most part. Hang out in Atlanta for five minutes and you will see the difference.

Texas is its own country.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by HQWest

The best way to describe it is Dallas is a small piece of Chicago that drifted south and got lost. The Woodlands or Katy might be trying to be southern, but Houston isn't for the most part. Hang out in Atlanta for five minutes and you will see the difference.

Texas is its own country.

True statement!

Originally Posted by shirley1929

I would agree and tell you that the older neighborhoods (River Oaks, Heights, Memorial Park, etc...) are what would drive my opinion to believe that Houston is far more southern-acting than noted here. I suppose the same argument could be made for Dallas' older neighborhoods, but I still say it's too much of a midwestern melting pot to be considered "southern". Northern Oklahoma...

It's definitely too much of a melting pot. The entire city is growing exponentially with people from all over the country (and the world). I live just south of Memorial Park in the Galleria area, and I've been all over the Heights, River Oaks, etc., and I don't get a southern feel at all. Farther west - in Katy, the Woodlands, as HQWest pointed out - maybe.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

Not familiar with your source, but if it includes St Louis as "culturally southern" (see your earlier post), then I don't know how much stock I'd put in its definitions.

St. Louis is another border town, and an odd one at that. It is on the border between the Breadbasket (to its north and west) and Dixie (to its south and east), but East St. Louis belongs in the Foundry.

[LaneSig]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

Not familiar with your source, but if it includes St Louis as "culturally southern" (see your earlier post), then I don't know how much stock I'd put in its definitions.

Originally Posted by naraht

St. Louis is another border town, and an odd one at that. It is on the border between the Breadbasket (to its north and west) and Dixie (to its south and east), but East St. Louis belongs in the Foundry.

I will have to say that there is quite a bit of southern 'influence' in St. Louis. A large percentage of the St. Louis-area population is either from southern Missouri or descents of family from southern Missouri. Southern Missouri, especially close to the Arkansas border, identifies strongly with the South. As a result, many people who moved to St. Louis for jobs carried a lot of southern traditions with them (and I don't mean the Confederate flag).