What IS Southern?

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Delta Planter

Sad though it may be, he cannot change the simple fact, he is a Southerner. Period. Wonder what the ambivalence is all about, though?

I know lotsa folks who have "lost" their Southerness in long years away from the South. They've lost the dialect, the manners, the postures simply cause they ain't down there. And going back can be sweet, and bittersweet at the same time when one realizes he/she doesn't live there, anymore.

I would say he has become a "southerner"...sans the capital "S." There is a difference, to me. A Southerner is all of what you wrote about. A "southerner" is someone born in the South who chooses to disassociate themselves from it. *wry smile and just my opinion*

Or, actually, perhaps if he chooses to call himself a "Californian", then I guess that is what he is.

I always liked that line from the Pat Conroy novel: "A Southerner is, and a Southerner knows he is."

[crayfish]

Oklahoma-Southwest? I always thought of Oklahoma as being part of the South. I guess it could be considered part of the southwest, if you also include Texas in that category.

[guestposter24]

I enjoyed this essay and like TexasReb did find it somewhat poetic.

I will say that your use of the term "good ol' boy" would've been better used for the nice redneck, IMO. The term is tricky in that it's used in a good and bad sense (bad sense: good ol' boy network/system).