The Free State. Is it Southern?

[mississippi revolverman]

Southern is a state of mind I highly agree. A native mississippian living it south Florida. It is almost to believe this area is "the South"

Maybe south Mexico or Hatia

 

[red14]

Southern is a state of mind. Tom is right about south Florida. I was there in the 50s and 60s. It really started to change in the 70s. It is foreign to me now. You better learn Spanish itf you stay there. Just ask Mississippi. Awful lot of Yankees there too.

The Highlander is right about Georgia, and Barb is right about grits. When I was in the Navy, most of the guys called me Grit. I kept trying to tell them Grits are always plural, but they just couldn't understand.

 

[Muley Gil]

It depends.

At the beginning of the War of Northern Agression, Maryland was set to secede, but a number of pro South supporters in the state government were jailed. Lincoln was VERY concerned about Maryland, as that would have surrounded the capital.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, if you went to Southern Maryland and listened to the accents, you would swear you were in North Carolina. The Eastern Shore was very southern back then too. Western Maryland leaned strongly to the North, even in the 1860s.

Many folks don't know that slavery was still legal in the border states, even after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. It was legal in areas of the southern states that were under Union control as well, like Northern Virginia outside of DC. Few folks are aware that Delaware was a slave state as well.

I have Marylanders in my family tree, including a Confederate general, and I lived there for a while. Even had a music teacher in elementary school that taught us to sing "Dixie".

I've eaten grits and hashbrowns both, just not during the same meal.

It's definitely a border state, but becoming more and more Yankeeifed every day, just like Northern Virginia.

 

[gamedic]

When I was a teenager I took a trip from my home in Georgia up to Maryland. I stopped for breakfast in Virginia. I ordered a biscuit with gravy and a sweet tea. The waitress looked at me kinda strange. The gravey was made with water instead of milk and it had some kind of chipped beef in it instead of sausage and that sweet tea wasn,t sweet. Virginia is definitly a yankee state. I went on to Maryland and wasn,t brave enough to even ask for good old southern food there. I think when you leave North Carolina and enter Virginia you have left the south.

 

[Muley Gil]

gamedic,

Don't know where in Virginia you ate, but my local eateries all serve bisquits with milk gravy and piggy sausage. We also have some danged good catfish and BBQ as well.

As a whole, Virginia is NOT a yankee state, but go up around the DC and all bets are off. Heck, some areas around Dulles airport seem more like a MEXICAN state.

 

[VAdoublegunner]

Correct, VA is still southern enough. Except for barbecue. I was raised in North Carolina and Virginians can't seem to get it quite right in either style, Lexington (hat off reverently) or eastern. However, we do have quite proper sweet tea, country ham, grits, biscuits and gravy here! Even collard greens and blackeyed peas. Most of the state, that is.

I think MD barbecue mostly comes from a can. And they totally ruin good southern fried seafood. Res ipsa loquitur...

 

[Muley Gil]

Lexington (hat off reverently)

Oh no, the pink vinegar!!

Give me tomato based sause, please.

(Starting the BBQ war agin)

 

[walnutred]

Originally posted by tom turner:
Here in Georgia, the only southern state we've got . . . is FLORIDA . . . and the further down you go in Florida . . . the more NORTHERN it becomes!

I'd have said the farther south you go the more Cuban it becomes.

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

On topic with Maryland; off topic with the balance...
Is it true that MD is the only state in the union without a natural lake?
(Trivia question-my guess was Hawaii!)

 

[tops]

A reply to the comment from BarbC about the grits and hashbrowns. I heard Jerry Clower say one time that yankees make fun of us for eating grits, but he had never been so poor that he had to eat an irish tater for breakfast. Larry

 

[judge]

Maryland is a great place to get the hell out of asap. Especially if you are a gun owner or like to carry concealed. If you shoot someone on your property, expect to be charged & put thru the wringer. You will need a very good attorney. The criminal is always "right", until you prove otherwise.

 

[scoutsdad]

Well, Well, Well Maryland Blue crabs are steamed, Louisiana Blue crabs are boiled. But softshell crabs are pan fried in both states.

 

[The Big D]

Originally posted by Jim in Wisconsin:
On topic with Maryland; off topic with the balance...
Is it true that MD is the only state in the union without a natural lake?
(Trivia question-my guess was Hawaii!)

Well, kiss my grits! Born and raised in the great state of Maryland and never knew there were no natural lakes in our fair state.

Thank you for that tidbit; off to the barroom where I am sure to make lotsa $$$ posing that trivia question.

Be safe.

 

[wbraswell]

Catfish ain't no seafood, unless it's salt water catfish, and I don't even know if they eat those critters. Catfish and crawdads are more correctly lakefood. Here in east Texas, a lot of folks think we're not Southern because we're too far west. Wrong! Some think we're Southwestern, bur we're really too far east for that, but we truly embrace both cultures and cuisines. Some of our Tex-Mex cafes have crawfish enchiladas. Yeehah!

 

[gamedic]

I don,t remember where I had the horrible breakfast in virginia, but I do believe it was near D.C. (it,s been 20 years) I have been to virginia several times. Its where my wife grew up. It seems to be a pretty nice place, at least on the coast where she is from. I played golf yesterday with Tracy Stallard, he is a retired Redsox pitcher. he is from the western part of virginia which he described as very similar to north GA. The only part of Maryland I visited was Havre De Grace. A friend of mine from west virginia said that wasn,t really maryland.

 

[yashua-p]

Southerner to Waitress: Give me a cup of coffee and hold the grits.

yashua

 

[bk43]

Originally posted by tom turner:
Here in Georgia, the only southern state we've got . . . is FLORIDA . . . and the further down you go in Florida . . . the more NORTHERN it becomes!

Florida is very much like the OP describes Maryland, very diverse. I can think of eight areas of the state, each with its own distinct peoples and heritage.

...unless it's salt water catfish, and I don't even know if they eat those critters.

Nobody with any sense does.

Bob

 

[Muley Gil]

he is from the western part of virginia which he described as very similar to north GA."

That's pretty accurate.


"The only part of Maryland I visited was Havre De Grace. A friend of mine from west virginia said that wasn,t really maryland.

A whole of folks from Southwest Virginia moved to that area during WW II, many working for the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. There is a strong tradition of old time and bluegrass music there now.

 

[bubbajoe45]

Do most restaurants serve iced tea sweetened or unsweetened? This is a true test. It really is a state of mind.

 

[SIG229fan]

In all respect to our Maryland residents, this isn't about grits v. hashbrowns; rather about the current-day headlong rush to make your state the Peoples Republic of Maryland, where your elected "representatives" want to emulate socialist neighbors such as New Jersey.

It's not just your Second Amendment guarantee of an inalienble right that is threatened.

Your whole way of life is in jeopardy...and either you retake control or suffer the consequences.