You know you're from Delaware when, (Wilmington, Newark: how much, school, vs)

[Legendof302]

Originally Posted by Joe84323

You have to go a good 30 miles into Maryland from Delaware to get to majority southern culture.

30 miles? More like 30 yards (even so, with all due respect 30 miles is not that far considering the difference in South vs East coast)

Salisbury & Elkton are without a doubt "southern culture" imo, 9 out of 10 Americans would say the same.

Urban Dictionary: Rising Sun Warning: Read at your own risk

^Now, As for Good Ole "Rising Sun" well lets just check the (urban dictionary)



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[doctorjef]

Joe, I think we've had this discussion before, but I'm not just talking about speech patterns for heaven's sake. There are more important cultural and ethnic differences between the longstanding populations of upper and lower DE. How many Baptist, Assembly of God, and Church of Christ congregations do you see up in the greater Wilmington area? They're all over Kent and especially Sussex counties. Those are typically Southern denominations. Conversely, how do the Roman Catholic, Jewish and Quaker presences in the two lower counties stack up against those in New Castle Co.? The percentage of Anglo-Scots surnames in lower DE is much greater than that in upper DE. In Upper DE you have a great many more people of Italian, Polish and Ukranian origins. That aspect of the demographics also marks a significant North-South cultural divide between upper and lower DE. Historically and geographically lower DE is very much continuous with the upper reaches of the agrarian and historically slave-labour based Southern economy and way of life. Conversely, northern New Castle County was always a manufacturing-industrial centre with a Northern way of life. Lower DE is historically a part of the Upper South. That BTW would also be historically true for both MD and DC. The Southern culture of DC pretty much ended by the mid-20th Century. In Maryland it has been increasingly effaced with the constant suburban outgrowth from DC and the growth of bedroom communities; MD was a great deal more Southern in the 1960s when I lived in the area as a child. In DE it is being progressively diluted by the influx of settlers from farther north, hence pretty much nonexistant in a place like Rehoboth but more apparent in Dover.

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by Legendof302

You know your from Delaware when crossing the Canal Bridge is the difference between being on the East Coast or "Down South".

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No need to cross the Canal Bridge. We have everything we want down here. Including the beach and friendly people.

[toobusytoday]

I think that a rural way of speaking can sound almost like a southern accent. My parents made a very easy transition from Southern New Jersey to Lower Delaware and most of my cousins in South Jersey sound like the people I grew up with in Milford. The one word pronunciation I consciously changed after I moved away was saying water and not "wudder".

[DelawareLiz]

I come from a long, loooong line of farmers on both sides of my family, but let me tell ya....my New Castle County family thinks I'm pretty darn hayseed compared to them. I'm not sure if I could ever "fit in" up in north Wilmington again, but that's fine. My Sussex County husband won't live any farther north than Lewes. I will always consider north Wilmington my hometown, always....but boy, has that area changed since I was a child living on Foulk Road.

I also agree that TRUE southerners do NOT consider any Delawareans to be true southerners, much to the dismay of some of the Confederate flag waving southern Delawareans.

[doctorjef]

But this gets into the question of who is a "true Southerner". The South isn't just the Deep South. Reading through C-D forums, you will find that some in the Deep South don't regard Virginians as Southerners . A friend in Texas recently opined to me that Kentucky isn't a "real" Southern state (I strongly disagree -- the historical trend tends to show that Kentucky has actually become more, not less, culturally Southern in the century and a half since the Civil War). Of course, I know this is all a terrible digression and there is already a very long thread on the DE forum that long since fell asleep called "Is Delaware in the South?" (the word "South" was spelled with extra vowels to mimic a southern pronunciation, but I couldn't reproduce the spelling from memory). Maybe someone wants to wake that one up, though it won't be me.

[DelawareLiz]

Yeah, I'll let somebody else dig up that old thread as well. Wow--some southerners don't consider Virginia the south?? My parents live south of Chincoteague (outside Parksley, VA), and the lifestyles and attitudes are very different than anyplace I've been in Delaware. Very southern. Even their accent(s) differ from those in western Sussex; it appears to be more of the true southern style.

As a lifelong Delawarean from an old Delaware family, I don't consider Delaware to really be a southern state. But, that's only my opinion. The people here don't really have the true southern charm and hospitality I've experienced down south--not trying to sound condescending, but people are generally friendlier down there. I think some people try though

[Pine to Vine]

I see this topic is back. Before determining whether an area is southern, shouldn't there be a definition of what defines a southern culture? Opinions may vary.

When I left Sussex for UD at 18, I noticed the upstate/downstate differences and so characterized downstate as southern. In my mind at that time, "southern" equated to a slower pace of life and different speech patterns. Now that I've lived in Houston for 26 years (southeast Texas is definitely southern) and spent time in every southern state, I would say Delmarva has its own culture, formed by its geographical isolation.

My bases for this opinion are many. Those Delmarva speech patterns are NOT southern: No one I know of in the south goes "down the beach" to swim in an "oh'shun" full of "wooter." Potatoes and scrapple are the choice for breakfast - not biscuits and gravy with a side of grits . We were not taught "southern history" growing up, as occurs in many southern schools, nor did we celebrate confederate holidays. Finally, my partner, whose parents live in SC and who grew up in Houston, used to report he felt "up north" when visiting my family.

I couldn't agree more with Joe:

Originally Posted by Joe84323

Give a southern Delawarean one of those Southern quizzes, and I bet you they'll fail - because they're rural, and NOT SOUTHERN.

There is nothing inherently good or bad about being northern or southern, urban or rural. But if southern means a slower-paced, agrarian, less ethnically diverse, more protestant region where one occasionally sees a confederate flag, then central PA and NY and many other places north of the Mason-Dixon line would also be "southern."

[DelawareLiz]

Good description, jm02. Just to add: my husband's father's side has lived in Seaford (Blades, actually) for generations. However, his paternal grandmother was from Appalachian Tennessee. My husband said his grandmother claimed that Blades was "rural and slower-paced, but still nothing like Tennessee". What's remarkable is that my husband's accent actually sounds more southern than southern Delawarean; he spent a lot of time around his paternal grandmother as a child.

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by jm02

swim in an "oh'shun" full of "wooter."

That's a great post, jm02! Only one minor correction, if I may........
We swim in "wooder" and we also listen to the "redio" while we eat an "Arenge". I've become very self conscious when speaking in a group these days. I try to say "wahter" but it just doesn't come out right.

One more comment - When I was growing up, New Castle County was thought of as another state, and we referred to the people up there as "the rich northernors". To take a trip up there was a major event. My mom used to stand along Rt. 13 south of Smyrna with us, waving her arms to flag a bus down.The bus would always come to a screeching halt, and we had to run to catch up to it. Then, we were on our way to shop in Wilmington. Market Street, then, was the only place to shop for school clothes in Delaware. And, that was a once/year trip. Back then, Rt. 13 was a two-way road, no dual lanes. Quite an exciting day!