Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[LizzieMaine]

Many, if not most of us, know how to code-switch. We talk in our native dialect among ourselves, and we can put on the plummy voice when we have to when dealing with outsiders. However, when I sense that the person I'm talking to is the kind of person who tries to hide from their roots, I switch in mid-sentence to the thickest Maine accent I can manage just so they know I'm onto them.

One of the things that's always bugged me about upper-middle-class white people is how they tend to bleach any possible hint of a working-class background out of their lives and their speech -- and then turn around and start appropriating parts of other peoples' cultures in an endless quest for "authenticity." That's just very, very sad.

 

[Matt Crunk]

One of many reasons why I could never retire to the South: the notion of a total stranger asking me which church I attend. I know it's meant as a friendly and folksy gesture, but to me, it's presumptuous, akin to asking a stranger how much money is in their savings account.

That is a hard one for me to deal with and I was born and raised in the South. Usually, if I acknowledge the question at all, I'll tell them flat out that I don't attend any church. But sometimes, if they catch me in the right mood I'll mess with them a little bit by saying something like, "The first church of art and fashion." That really throws them off.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The way I've heard it recited is as follows:

If you're from outside of the USA, anyone from the USA is a "Yankee."

If you're from the South, anyone north of the Mason and Dixon line is a "Yankee."

If you're north of the Mason and Dixon line, anyone from New England is a "Yankee."

If you're in New England, only those from New Hampshire are "Yankees."

If you're in New Hampshire, the only real "Yankees" are those who still don't have indoor plumbing.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're from north of Interstate 10, you're a Yankee.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Ever notice how no matter what part of the country you are in, the lower the class of person, the thicker their regional accent? You'll find it different but just as severe in Northern "white trash" as it is in Southern rednecks, but the upper-middle classes speak about the same everywhere, usually with only a hint of local flavor.

I resent that remark. I have a natural Southern accent, and though I was poor I don't consider myself a "redneck". I'm as intellectual and cultured as anyone of any class, north or south.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's often a culture shock for Southern folk who move up here -- my mother had a neighbor from South Carolina who never quite got the hang of things, and there was friction as a result. For those below the Mason-Dixon who might be considering a move to Northern New England, here's a few things that are absolutely essential to know:

1. We don't make physical contact with anyone in public, and only with our immediate family in private. We don't hug, and we don't especially like even to shake hands. The correct acknowledgement when you meet someone you know is to make brief eye contact and nod and wait for the nod to be acknowledged. Only then does conversation begin.
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This is one of my favorite things about New England and, even though I grew up in NJ, this is my family to a tee (with some, unfortunately, notable exceptions). I love personal space and hate immediate or unfamiliar intimacy. That's it, just wanted to acknowledge your comment.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I resent that remark. I have a natural Southern accent, and though I was poor I don't consider myself a "redneck". I'm as intellectual and cultured as anyone of any class, north or south.

Then you are probably NOT of the lower ilk I was referring to. Social class does not always have to do with the amount of money you have.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Social class *seldom* has anything to do with the amount of money you have. Surface aspects of social class can stem from wealth or the lack of it, but its true definitions are the cultural attitudes you were raised with. I've known true upper class people who were practically destitute, and I've known extremely wealthy people who will never, ever be anything but middle-class arrivistes. If the great preoccupation of your life is "making a good impression," you will never, ever be anything but dead-center middle class. If you say "excuse me" after burping even if you're the only person in the room, you are lower-middle class with a desperate need to be noticed by the middle-middles. If you have ever worn a college sweatshirt after the age of forty, you are that same middle-middle with a desperate unspoken need to be noticed by the upper-middles, whom you mistake for actual uppers. And when you're born into the working class, it defines how you think no matter how much or how little money you make, even if you actually make more money -- as you will in a skilled trade -- than many middles.

Paul Fussell's writings on class structure in America are very illuminating. Half of what he writes is intended to be sarcastic, in a specifically threadbare upper-class sort of way, but it's still a definitive exploration of something too many Americans deny exists.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

1. We don't make physical contact with anyone in public, and only with our immediate family in private. We don't hug, and we don't especially like even to shake hands. The correct acknowledgement when you meet someone you know is to make brief eye contact and nod and wait for the nod to be acknowledged. Only then does conversation begin.

Funny, I was born and raised in Southern California and have never been anywhere near Maine and yet that's exactly the way I am because I was never a "handsy" person. And I must say that it is often a source of discomfort for me because many around here are the handsy type.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I was never a "handsy" person. And I must say that it is often a source of discomfort for me because many around here are the handsy type.

I played a music festival last weekend and had people who upon meeting me for the first time wanted to hug as a way of greeting me. Of course they were mostly musical hippie types.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I played a music festival last weekend and had people who upon meeting me for the first time wanted to hug as a way of greeting me. Of course they were mostly musical hippie types.

Nothing worse than a handsy hippie.

 

[Renault]

As far as I'm concerned, if you're from north of Interstate 10, you're a Yankee.

I was going to say the Brazos River.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I was never a "handsy" person. And I must say that it is often a source of discomfort for me because many around here are the handsy type.

I played a music festival last weekend and had people who upon meeting me for the first time wanted to hug as a way of greeting me. Of course they were mostly musical hippie types.

 

[dh66]

Nothing worse than a handsy hippie.

Well....maybe not if she's a cute handsy hippy

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I played a music festival last weekend and had people who upon meeting me for the first time wanted to hug as a way of greeting me. Of course they were mostly musical hippie types.

Musical and hippie don't go together if their "music" is anything to go by.

 

[Stearmen]

Funny on the hugging thing. When Harley's became acceptable, and bikers became politically acceptable to people that once had an intense hatred of us and thought we were scum, started to ride and hugging became popular. I have been ridding since the 60s, and I never hugged another guy!

 

[Stearmen]

I don't think it is the snow that keeps the Southerners out of the North! We have way to many here. Texans, Floridians, and a lot of Georgians.

 

[rjb1]

I wonder if those Southerners in Colorado are natural-born, true-blue, Southerners or just carpetbaggers and transients who started out in the North and drifted through Texas, Florida, and Georgia on their way to your place. In particular, it depends on what part of Florida they are from, since the bottom end of the State is sometimes referred to as Lower New Jersey.
Most of the Southerners I know would never live in any place that might need to use the words snow and tires, snow and shovel, snow and plow, or snow and blower in the same sentence.
When LizzieM mentioned a person who moved from South Carolina to Maine all I could think of was "What was she thinking?!" (The lady who moved, not LizzieM...)

On the asking of religious questions in the South, I think the question is (or, more accurately, was) asked less for theological than social reasons: They asked what church you went to so they could know if you knew, or were related to, someone they knew.
Even if you weren't really religious, as I was not, your early friendships and later dating relationships were substantially formed in church, so it was important to belong somewhere, and people wanted to know where that was.
However, the custom of asking strangers this question has almost completely fallen away in recent years, except possibly for older people.
(When I was growing up the question meant: Are you Baptist, Methodist, or Church of Christ? No other options existed.)

 

[Matt Crunk]

When I was growing up the question meant: Are you Baptist, Methodist, or Church of Christ? No other options existed.

Yeah, no need to ask if someone was Pentecostal or Church of God. You could always spot them a mile away.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Musical and hippie don't go together if their "music" is anything to go by.

Maybe a better choice of words would have been "Hippie musician type".

 

[HudsonHawk]

However, the custom of asking strangers this question has almost completely fallen away in recent years, except possibly for older people.
(When I was growing up the question meant: Are you Baptist, Methodist, or Church of Christ? No other options existed.)

When I was growing up, people wanted to know if you were a "dunker" or a "sprinkler". To see if you were marrying material.