[MiamiRob]

Originally Posted by BadgerFilms

I'd rather be in Georgia than Florida, hell even rather be in Alabama. Those states don't have as many snotty plastic yuppies.

I find it amusing that somebody from Coral Gables which is a 'snooty" upper crust / turn up your nose type Yuppie suburb of Miami would rather live in Jawja or Alabamy! I guess to each his own!

[CravingMountains]

Well, roughly half the state I would say is pretty Southern. But like 80% of the population lives from the I-4 corridor and south. Those areas aren't Southern at all. If you want Southern culture north Florida does have some very cute towns that have the feel. I only ever drive through though and don't really stay to asses the situation.

[SeaLark7]

If you want a taste of the Deep South in Florida, go to Micanopy. Unless it has changed drastically in recent years, it is "five miles and fifty years from the interstate", as I dubbed it when we visited. It was the film location for "Doc Hollywood". It's just south of Gainesville, exit 374 off of I-75. Charming little town !

[Spring Hillian]

I agree with the posters who figure the line is along I-4, but it may be further north, like State Road 50. South Florida, at least its highly populated areas, are just like the Northeast with better weather. There are plenty of areas in South Florida that are still quite southern. That would be found in the less populated areas. Lake Wales, Newberry, and those areas down in citrus land. North of 50 is very different than south of 50. The person who says the further north you go in FL, the more southern it gets has stated it truly. To enjoy FL the way it was you need to be nearer to Ocala than Ft. Lauderdale. Two different worlds.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

If most of the people have a Southern accent, I'd say the area is mostly pure Southern.

If most of the people don't have a Southern accent, I'd say the area has been infiltrated by people from outside the South, that is, say for example, if you was blindfolded and you didn't know your location, and all you had to go on was the accents that the people spoke with, you might think you was in Ft Wayne instead of Ft Myers.

[emily24601]

Literally? Very Southern. Perhaps the southern-most state in the U.S., with Texas being the only competitor for that category. You mean Dixie southern? In Florida, the more North you go, the more South it gets.

[DragonflyMom]

Well, I moved to Venice, FL last October, after being raised in Alabama and spending my entire adult life in Atlanta. I thought Florida was the south, but this part is NOT. Everyone is meet is from New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, etc. This town is more Italian than anything else. I hear many accents from Boston, New Jersey, and there are people speaking Italian in the grocery store. My husband and I kinda joke about 'The Sopranos' living on our street. I have lost count of the number of times people have been surprised by my Southern accent and asked me where I'm from.

Florida is not part of The South.

[Bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by dlking58

Well, I moved to Venice, FL last October, after being raised in Alabama and spending my entire adult life in Atlanta. I thought Florida was the south, but this part is NOT. Everyone is meet is from New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, etc. This town is more Italian than anything else. I hear many accents from Boston, New Jersey, and there are people speaking Italian in the grocery store. My husband and I kinda joke about 'The Sopranos' living on our street. I have lost count of the number of times people have been surprised by my Southern accent and asked me where I'm from.

Florida is not part of The South.

As I have stated before Florida isn't culturally Southern since it was developed by Northerners to begin with. Of course that all depends on what part of the state you are living in and it isn't a rejection of Southern culture but it never was part of our DNA.

[StreetSmarts]

in rural areas.

[smarino]

I think the comment that the further north you go in the state the further south you go is accurate. But, there's southern and there's Southern. Nothing I have seen in this state is Southern, and I don't mean rebel flag waving, church going, and NASCAR, all of which seem to be fully rooted here. I fully agree that nothing in a state full of Yankees could ever be Southern, and never was, other than being a part of the Confederacy many, many years ago.

Southern means manners and the fine art of conversation. You really need to go somewhere like Savannah or Oxford, Ms to find anything Southern that is what I would call a positive force. And even there you have to take a lot of the good w/ a lot of the bad. The South has always been a polarizing place, and I feel very fortunate to have grown up there, but I don't want to live there anymore.

My take is a little skewed, as my main Southern memories are from the Gulf coast of Mississippi (and New Orleans, a wonderful place back then but not Southern). Gulfport was REAL different than even 20 miles northerly from the beach. I could never have lived up there. Even Oxford, a place I really like, has some of that repressive and racial feel to it. In Gulfport we had 24 hr night clubs, lots of music, the food was more about seafood, and being situated so close to New Orleans there was a more casual feel to things. The huge Air Force base in Biloxi brought in people from other cultures and different states. And trust me, having lived there, Texas is NOT the South either.