Do people in Maryland consider themselves North, Southern, or in Between? (Baltimore: cost of living, law)

[Joykins]

eeehh, it depends on where in Maryland of course. I grew up driving past the Surratt House every day reminding me that my townfolks-of-years-past were Southern sympathizers supposedly implicated in the Lincoln assassination. Ended up in Montgomery county and married to a man with family from Baltimore and Hancock and Cumberland and Hagerstown. Maryland can be southern, it can be northern, it can be Appalachian or very much like Pennsylvania or WV, it depends on where you are and who you're with. I can go from a crab feast one day to the hoedown on my husband's cousin's property to feeling like I live in a suburb of NYC. I can go to the beach or mountains, I can talk to someone who likes hip hop or symphony or country--It's kind of neat to have that kind of variety available. I am a glass half full person. I personally identify more as a northerner than a southerner (my parents are from Philly) but there are southern things like country music and warm weather I really identify with also.

And Montgomery county does have geniuine towns, communities--yes, Rockville Pike is like strip mall heaven in some respects but then you go to Jimmie Cone in Damascus on a summer night and it is like little town USA out there.

[TheWereRabbit]

Why Maryland is southern:
It's ridiculously hot and humid in the summer. RIDICULOUSLY!
You have cycadas, ewwwwwwww
You have black people who aren't Cape Verdean
It's south of the Mason Dixon line
You had slaves....for a whiiiiiiile
You don't have real towns you have "housing developments"
You have decent bud
You have ANY republicans in congress
It's close to Virginia

And of course, you are the south if it's even debatable

Why Maryland is northern:
It's catholic

[nohope]

maryland is not a southern state.......i would consider myself northeasterner or mid-atlantic

[Billiam]

"Why Maryland is southern:
It's ridiculously hot and humid in the summer. RIDICULOUSLY!"

weather doesn't make it northern or southern, culture does

"You have cycadas, ewwwwwwww"

bugs don't make it northern or southern, culture does

"You have black people who aren't Cape Verdean"

WTF is that supposed to mean?

"It's south of the Mason Dixon line"

wow! a fake line, but we're talking baout TODAY

"You had slaves....for a whiiiiiiile"

um...the north had slaves too, but we're talking about TODAY

"You don't have real towns you have "housing developments""

That is just plain old BS, you've never been to MD have you. and if you have you haven't explored it at all

"You have decent bud'

what?

"It's close to Virginia"

SO??? thats like saying South Korea is communist because North Korea is!! (..almost anyway)


"And of course, you are the south if it's even debatable"

We are in the Mid atlantic, Thank you very much

"Why Maryland is northern:
It's catholic"


WOW. where are you from, out of curiosity?

[westsideboy]

I think I said this already about 500 posts ago, but MD is a classic example of a border state. Our state has characteristics of both the North and South. Cultural boundries rarely follow clearly defined boundaries like rivers or state lines. In fact most cultural boundaries don't have sharp lines at all. There are transitional areas in between what is defined as one region or another. MD is one of these areas. Anybody who tries to pigeon-hole the state into either North or South is going to be disappointed.

[Billiam]

Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit

You don't have real towns you have "housing developments"

This one bugs me the most,tell me, are THESE housing developments?????

Frederick
Centreville
Hagerstown
Bel Air

[MrsTaz]

I was born and raised in Bmore and have never considered myself to be Northern or Southern but rather Mid-Atlantic.

[DannyM]

Absolutely..! Garrett County. I suppose when I mentioned being on top of the mountain gave it away, right? <grin>

--and I say 'you guys' also.

In case anyone is wondering when I mentioned my uncle being born after the civil war, I myself was born in the early 20th century. I'm a pre-babyboomer. Yes, a few of us 'old fogeys' have figured out how to work a computer...




Quote: "were youse (Baltimore dialect not sure if I used it correctly, I personally say you guys) from western md?"

[DannyM]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

dee2South, WOW someone didn't have their Wheaties this morning. I got a nasty red face and everything.

If memory serves the posts directly before mine were MDers stating their personal regional identity. My post is how I, as a Western Marylander, would identitfy myself. I guess it would have been more clear if I had put "I am" at the beginning of the statement so everybody knew I was talking about myself and not the state as a whole. Because, as I am sure you know, calling Maryland as a whole an Appalachian state would be inaccurate

I kinda thought you were from the western boot... We (I'm from Garrett County) often call ourselves hillbillys - at least for fun. (Thank goodness I'm not a "flatlander"! Or as John Denver said, "Thank God I'm a country boy." <grin>)

I couldn't figure out the other post, myself. The history I learned agrees with you, that Marylanders went both north and south during the war, as many other people have explained. Only thing I could figure out was that maybe she had something against hillbillies. (?)

[angelbug]

I was born and raised in Maryland, and my experience there was this. If you traveled north, people considered you a southerner. If you went south, they considered you a northerner.