In what ways is Southern Missouri southern, and in what ways is it not? (Kansas City: construction, school)

[OA 5599]

Originally Posted by northbayeric

Makes me wonder how many folks there are in southern Missouri who wear their Yankees baseball caps backwards and have rap noise, I mean "music"**** blasting out of their little Honda Civics...... Probably not one in 250,000.

****Their big ol' subwoofers going tha-thUM, tha-thUM, tha-thUM.... just INTOLERABLE.

Those people definitely do exist in Southern Missouri...you'll also find subs blaring rap in pickup trucks too around there. There were quite a few in my home county (35,000 people) so I'd say more than 1:250,000

I think alot of people in the Ozarks who do that are merely emulating what they've seen on TV and in movies.

[Hillman]

Originally Posted by Cali BassMan

Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that bisquits and gravy along with Squirrel and dumplings ain't served through out the state???Why maybe it time to teach them Yank Northern Missourians how to cook......I bet they don't even eat Sucker Hushpuppies...might as well be CAliforienyans...

Yea what he said.






Oh we have Mudbugs and Grits here.Oh when we lived in the Deep South the kids couldn't handle having Rice three times a day.

hillman

[kshe95girl]

Hillman, how did you get pix of my uncles???????

[caydriver]

Lived and raised in Ava, and have 6 generations burried there. Would agree that it is southern. My grandparents and great grandparents certainly were. Also know Higginsville quite well and they certainly identify with the south, not the yanks.

[Cali BassMan]

Originally Posted by caydriver

Lived and raised in Ava,

Ava, Missouri
Home of the World's Best Bassfisherman, Rick Clunn

[MoFlaGirl]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Obviously it did not join the Confeds...but what about cultural differences today?

Their accent is somewhat southern, as is their love of barbeque which is evident in both St. Louis and Kansas City. St. Louis seems to keep some southern traditions, such as drinking sweet tea.

I'd agree with most people who've been saying that it's kind of a mixed state. I used to live south of Sedalia/Warrensburg but just north of Springfield, and I lived there till I was about 16 then moved to Florida, but I haven't noticed too much of a change in people/culture/practices. I grew up eating red velvet cake, drinking sweet tea, hanging out with friends and family on the front and back porch, saying yall, listening to country music and driving trucks
I think for most people being southern has less to do with geographic location and more to do with your lifestyle and how you were raised. I'd consider myself to be southern because I spent most of my life all over southern Missouri, and I now live in Florida.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by MoFlaGirl

I'd agree with most people who've been saying that it's kind of a mixed state. I used to live south of Sedalia/Warrensburg but just north of Springfield, and I lived there till I was about 16 then moved to Florida, but I haven't noticed too much of a change in people/culture/practices. I grew up eating red velvet cake, drinking sweet tea, hanging out with friends and family on the front and back porch, saying yall, listening to country music and driving trucks
I think for most people being southern has less to do with geographic location and more to do with your lifestyle and how you were raised. I'd consider myself to be southern because I spent most of my life all over southern Missouri, and I now live in Florida.

But Florida isnt southern, unless you get into some very rural pockets! I have been in Ocala for 20 years, Poplar Bluff is much more southern than here.
Growing up in Ste Genevieve was a very midwestern experience, you had to get down to Cape and beyond to get the southern vibe.

[MoFlaGirl]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

But Florida isnt southern, unless you get into some very rural pockets! I have been in Ocala for 20 years, Poplar Bluff is much more southern than here.
Growing up in Ste Genevieve was a very midwestern experience, you had to get down to Cape and beyond to get the southern vibe.

True! Most of Central Fla and all of So Fla isn't southern.
But I live up in the tri state area around Georgia/Alabama.

[OA 5599]

While driving around yesterday, hunting down parts for our tractor, I saw three Rebel flags . So at least a few people in this neck of the woods (Howell and Texas counties) self-identify as Southerners. However, the accent just isn't southern at all, and this part of the Ozarks "feels" a heck of a lot different than the portions of rural East Texas and most of Arkansas (the true South) that I drove through to get here a few days ago. You won't find any Spanish Moss, bald cypress trees, or people fishin' on the bayou in the Ozarks.

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by jackhitts

I've wondered about this myself. I'm from Michigan, so it's definitely different than the Midwest I'm used to, but I've also lived in Texas and spent some time in Oklahoma. Missouri shares many more affinities with the Midwest, I think, than with Texas or Oklahoma or other states I've visited. I've never heard anyone from around here (Waynesville...and by that I mean Waynesville-area natives, not soldiers) refer to themselves as southern.

Although, one strange thing I've noticed: Waffle House. I thought there were purely Southern, and I've never seen them in southern Indiana or Illinois or Kansas. Hmm.

Being from Northeast Ohio, my regional perspective is probably similar to yours, jackhitts My wife and I just had an awesome vacation in Missouri. We spent a day in St. Louis sightseeing, and several days in Branson. Before our trip, we were wondering just how Southern things would feel in Missouri.

Our thoughts?? Missouri is a midwestern state. Just like the other border states (Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky), Missouri does have some Southern influence. In the case of Missouri, we found the Southern influence to be negligible, and that influence to only be in the Ozarks.

St. Louis is a midwestern city through and through. The accent is not at all Southern. In fact, the accent is, we thought, less Southern than Cincy. There is greater feeling of friendliness than in the Ohio cities or around Chicago, we thought, but we experienced a similar feel to Springfield, Illinois. It was a genuine and informal friendliness like one finds out West and deeper into the midwest, very different from the Southern manners of a place like Virginia or South Carolina. St. Louis felt more midwestern that Cleveland, but not more Southern.

As far as Branson and the Southwest Missouri area, we could hear a definite shift in the accent from St. Louis in the voices on the radio as we headed west, and some Southern influence. Words like light began to sound like "laht", and we could hear the Southern letter "o" in words like "go" as well. St. Louis has the rounded "o" sounds of the midwest. We heard a lot of rounded "o" sounds around Branson, though, as there are many midwestern tourists.

When we heard accents around Branson that sounded truly Southern and chatted with the people who had the accents, they were usually from Arkansas or Oklahoma. The Southwest Missouri natives sounded only slightly Southern, but still mainly midwestern.

Other than a little bit of Southern speech sounds in Southwest Missouri, there was one trait in Missouri that we thought might be more Southern than midwest, and that we found to make Missouri especially appealing. We found Missourians to be very respectful in comparison to folks in Ohio or even neighboring Illinois. This thing where young males have the bass beat thumping so loud in their car was something we heard less of than in any place we have been in recent years. We heard less of this in St. Louis than we do in rural Ohio, and really noticed the lack of this. I don't know if a respectful mentality toward others of being truly considerate, though, is more akin to places like Kansas or Nebraska, or to the South. Being West of the Mississippi, we wondered if being pleasant and friendly, polite, and respecting others' desire for peace and quiet were more the spirit of the prairie states.