Delaware and the Mason-Dixon Line (Delmar: live in, military, bill)

[JadeG]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

Annie, I'm not bashing the gay aspect of Rehoboth, its just that you kind of feel uncomfortable if you are a straight male and there might be a lot of gays you know watching you and all. I know someone who found out halfway through a year in College Park that one of his roommates was gay its not a great feeling.

Unless you're intent on developing your body and wearing clothes to show it off, the guys aren't looking at you, at least not in the way you think. Think about it -- gay folks are in a rare environment where other gay folks are easy to find. Why on earth would we be checking out straight people? (Most of us don't do that in our day-to-day lives, where gay people are harder to find, either.)

Admiring a shirt and wondering where you got it, maybe. Wondering why on earth you'd be wearing something so ugly, possibly. Thinking someone looks interesting and like a possible friend, perhaps. Looking for someone to date, not likely.

There are a lot of people in the gay community who think some straight folks need to get over themselves, in this way.

[Joe84323]

Being from Little Italy in Wilmington I have to speak up and say the entire Wilmington area is in the north. I am a northerner. I have never eaten grits, or drank sweet tea. People don't wave me on to highways, and people certainly don't have a southern accent where I am from.

I don't think southerners say "yous" or "wooder."

I would say "Slower Lower," is the beginning of any kind of transition to the south.

[jdoll]

Joe, I've gotten a "wave" in Wilmington. With a south of the canal wave you see a persons palm. North of the canal you see the back of their hand and only one finger.

[eastcoastblunder]

I always thought Maryland was "The Free State" because it was the first state slavery wasn't allowed. Now I find out that wasn't why it was called that. (The nickname "Free State" was created by Hamilton Owens, editor of the Baltimore Sun. In 1923, Georgia Congressman William D. Upshaw, a firm supporter of Prohibition, denounced Maryland as a traitor to the Union for refusing to pass a State enforcement act. Mr. Owens thereupon wrote a mock-serious editorial entitled "The Maryland Free State," arguing that Maryland should secede from the Union rather than prohibit the sale of liquor. The irony in the editorial was subtle, and Mr. Owens decided not to print it. He popularized the nickname, however, in later editorials.)
But Maryland did not have slaves and for the most part was the end of the Underground Railroad. I have no idea why anyone would think DE is south of the Mason Dixon Line other than it's "South of the line east of Maryland" which makes no sense.

[insurednotoriety]

Joe's post is right on the mark.

Being from New Castle and born in Wilmington myself, I must say that lower Delaware is almost like a complete 180 from New Castle County. You will not find many people above the canal, or even as far south as Middletown, Smyrna, or Dover, who identify themselves as "southerners".

Northern DE is very liberal and identifies much more with the Philadelphia mindset than anything else. I know I sound a little biased, but I guess I am. Kent and Sussex counties are just too slow paced for me, although I have many friends from there and visit regularly.

[Yankeerose00]

Here's my two cents. It doesn't matter what people from Delaware or Maryland think. I can assure you that 99% of the south does NOT in any way, shape or form, consider MD/DE the south. Go to any one of these boards where the real, hardcore southern states are and ask them if DE is the south. You'll get a resounding no.

I'm from NJ originally, have family roots in Connecticut, lived in Florida for 15 years, now live in Virginia and have family who live in Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Here's how I would segregate the states:

There is the deep south, which is what most southerners consider the "true" Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas,Georgia.

Then the other southern states such as NC, SC, Florida, Virginia are only southern depending on where you go. The more yankee transplants there are, the less southern the city is and the less southerners consider it southern.

For example, north carolina is the south, however, cities like Charlotte and Raleigh are so full of northern transplants that most of the southern influence is gone. Same with the majority of Florida. In Virginia, if you are in the south or western part of the state, it is very southern. Go to northern Virginia around DC and there is nothing southern about it.

So while MD and DE may not be the north east, they are NOT the south. Any southerner will back me up on that one. I'm married to one who swears that the south barely considers Virginia southern. IMO the mason-dixon line should end in Fredericksburg, VA. That is the begining of Northern Virginia and pretty much the end of the south.
I hate to break it to all of the northerners who say they hate the north and want to move south so they move to cities like Charlotte, Raliegh, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, etc or any other city with northern transplants....but you are not moving to the true south. Move to a really southern state like Lousiana and you'll come crawling on your hands and knees back up north.

Honestly, one of the things I HATE about the south is that they won't let the civil war end. REally who gives a f*ck where the north begins and the south ends? Can't there be a grey area? If the Del/MA/northern VA area needs a name, they are the mid-Atlantic. It may not be the north, but it's not the south by any stretch.

[Yankeerose00]

on Facebook I'm a member of a group titled "The Mason Dixon Line Should be a Fence" which is against northern transplants and influence in the "South".

OMG are you serious? Yeah, forget about the illegal immigrants, let's make sure those "yankees" stay out of the south. Here ya go northerners. You better think long and hard before moving down south. All of that southern charm is phoney. Here is what they really think of you. I cannot WAIT to get back up north. If it wasn't for my husband's job, I would be long gone.

I also find it amusing that southerners call those from the north yankees when really, all they did was steal that word from the Brits who were calling all Americans yankees. And they still do! I tried and tried to fit in the south. I wanted to call this place my new home badly back in the 80's. It's sad really that unless you are born in the south, you'll never be considered on of their own. How about starting a new club called, Americans? Why don't we be proud that we're all American and forget this north south thing? I don't get it.

[doctorjef]

Texas BTW is not part of the Deep South. I lived in that state the greater part of my life (mostly in Austin) and consider it to be part of the Southwest. Only the eastern 20% of the state's landmass might qualify as truly Southern - small cities like Tyler, Palestine, Beaumont, Orange. Houston, although in that area, is a creature unto itself. Any true southern feel pretty much peters out farther west than Huntsville.

I live in Wilmington (more accurately Westover Hills/Greenville). I get waves from people here all the time. I see that as more generally small townish American than Southern specifically. You can compare that with Europe, where friendly waves at people you don't know would be incredibly eccentric to say the least. Even in big cities, Americans will nod at one another to acknowledge the other person, whereas in the UK, for instance, this behaviour is practically unknown.

I don't think Delaware is either northern or southern. It really is a true border state with a distinctive culture of its own. And BTW, Buckley's in Centreville has a fabulous shrimp and grits dish on the menu.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Texas BTW is not part of the Deep South. I lived in that state the greater part of my life (mostly in Austin) and consider it to be part of the Southwest. Only the eastern 20% of the state's landmass might qualify as truly Southern - small cities like Tyler, Palestine, Beaumont, Orange. Houston, although in that area, is a creature unto itself. Any true southern feel pretty much peters out farther west than Huntsville.

Speaking again as a native Texas (4th generation) of "Deep South" ancestry, I would agree that, with the clear exception of East Texas, most of the state is not part of the Deep South.

However, it is part of the larger "South." And sociological surveys show the vast majority of Texans to consider it so. Texas is not "southwestern", as in the sense that New Mexico and Arizona are. The history and culture are vastly different from those two states. Topography not withstanding, Texas (and parts of other states such as Oklahoma and some of Arkansas, in particular) is properly classified as a sub-region of the Greater South, which can be labeled "Western South". This as opposed to "Southeast" or "Old South."

This is to say Texas is a place where traditional Southern culture and history are also flavored with characteristics of the post-bellum "West" (which is not really a "region", but an "era"). Whereas nothing about New Mexico or Arizona (the true SW states) can be considered "Southern" at all.

But anyway, I don't mean to hijack the thread talking about Texas. After all, this one is about Delaware!

[poltrup]

I've been half-heartedly joking for the last ten years through quiet observation (yes, I'm a transplant... South of the canal though... ;^) ) that the political line in Delaware is squarely seated at the C&D Canal... and given the chance, those South of the canal would gladly choose a new name and let those North go about their business independently...

After reading this thread and a quick check of Google Archives... Seems this has been the case dating back to the early 1800s... ;^D

An interesting read from the NY Times...
POLITICAL AFFAIRS IN DELAWARE.; Action of the Union State Contention-T... - Article Preview - The New York Times

And... Sweet tea RULZ! and you can't find it in Wilmington restaurants, *they* have "raspberry tea"... (cough) - Delaware is not the only place with "wooder", there's "wooder" in "Bultmoore, Mareland" too - and Texas is *not* part of the "Deep South" like Missssippi and Lou's-iana, nor part of the "Southwest" since, well... obviously someone had to be forcibly convinced to find another state to call New Mexico... Texas is Texas and call that good 'nuff!