Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sorry for the aside, but I was traveling in SW Virginia over the holidays and saw a sandwich shop advertising "grinders."
25 years ago, you could only find "grinders" in New England and "hoagies" in the mid-Atlantic. So I think the Massachusetts influence has already spread South!
Anyway, on a "Southern" scale, I'd give Charlottesville about a 6 (compared to 1 for NoVa and 8 for Richmond)!
LoL... "Subs" seems to have replaced "grinders"...it's been a long time since I actually saw or ordered a "grinder"...in Massachusetts anyway...times change!
Us here hillbilly, goat humpin', baccar chewin', Ford drivin', Bible readin', gun toatin', coal minin', bass boat haulin' rednecks love to have new people move here.
Don't expect us to change. We enjoy our ways. As long as you recognize that, and learn to adapt no problems. If you expect us to wear Armanti, talk 100 mph and drive even faster you are mistaken. I hope you like Camoflauge!
Having lived in different countries and traveled a lot, I experience Charlottesville as liberal, friendly (no matter what if any religious orientation or heritage) and "forgiving". A large group of well educated individuals, etc. In my 10 years here, and meeting hundreds of people there was no single bad experience as mentioned in above posts.
My best, Tanja
"To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one's Mother's side, is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above."
-anonymous
Last edited by MarcopeteVT; 01-15-2009 at 06:38 PM..
Reason: forgot the credit
i read pretty much all the pages in this post...and i also see this in alot of other topics in other states when it comes to north and south. and its crazy. you see all the time, northerners posting things like "will i be accepted in the south" bla bla bla...but rarely do you see a southerner asking a northern forum..."will i be accepted in the north?" and then you wonder why southerners in general show aggitation towards northerners!! notice i said aggatation...not hatred, like most northerners assume southerners feel about northerners.
my family comes from the south, the mtns and coal mines mainly, my husbands family came from germany, over to MO, then settled up in MI. my family worked way over to OK, married some "northerners" and i guess you can say, we are a good mix of them both now. so i think i can give a good view on both, seeing as on top of that, hubby is retired military, and we have lived all over, getting a even better taste of both sides.
to those in the north, who seem to have nothing better to do then slam southerners all day, calling them trash, slow, ignorant, etc...well....ive lived in various northen towns, and low and behold...you got trash, slow, ignorant, etc etc to...so maybe if you stop throwing stones off your "stoops" onto our "porches" us southerners might be more welcoming to you, because, contrary to your beliefs, we are friendly, we are nice, we just get sick of people coming down here, finding our lifestyle differant then theirs, missing their hometowns, and then belittleing us for it afterwards.
you call us poor white trash....well...lets see...i do recall ALOT of slums up north....or do you have a differant name for your poor sides of town?
you call us uneducated and ignorant....well...are you trying to tell me that you have a 100% graduation rate yourself, and everyone in north reads and writes? hate to break it to ya...but you dont. and did you ever stop and ask youself why there is alot of less educated people in the south?? because most, and my family did to generations back...HAD to work, no matter what the job, kids included, to support the family, be it in the hills,fields or in the coal mines, that left no room for finishing school, which ment future generations would also probably follow suite. BUT....those same uneducated people you refer to are probably some of the hardest working folks you will EVER meet!!! they will give you the last shirt off their back, the last piece of bread of their table, and if you was broke down on the road....THEY wouldnt be the ones who flipped you off and blared their horns cuz you might be blocking the road like they do up north...down here...they would stop andhelp you....without helping themselves to you wallet, they would HELP you...even thou they know you in general will take their help...go home and laugh it up the next week on how some hillbilly southern boy helped you fix a flat, laugh at his accent, and his clothes....but thats ok...to a southener...thats us, we help out, we go home at night and feel good about ourselves for doing that, for being nice.....omg....no wonder you put us down and scared to move down south!!! we're to fricken nice...ugggg!!
but...in these forums....thou southerners travel up north, get flipped off, cussed at, picked on, laughed at....we dont bash northerners, you dont see southerners comeing back home and filling these forums up with..."would we be welcome up there, cuz northerners are cold, rude and non friendly!??"....no, you dont, and why is that??? cuz a southener's life is taken in stride, yes, things tick us off, but we dont wake up each day looking for things to complain about, we dont hit rush hour traffice with a flippen finger ready..cuss words in mouth...its traffic, we deal with it, we are not in a hurry to get anywhere, cuz it will still be there when we do arrive. we dont mind smiling and letten you out from that parking lot into the street, we are in no big hurry, and we do it to be nice, hmmm, i think its called curtisey and manners...omg...another southern crime!!
we dont mind talking to you in checkout lines, at the mailbox, etc, why? cuz we are nice, but i guess if you prefer hiding behind your locked doors and barred windows...thats your choice, but dont put us down for venturing outside, enjoying life and being friendly verses cussen and screamen all the time.
but.....i can see why all that would scare you...so maybe best you dont come down, you might wake up one day down here, and find that you like to smile, that you like haven friendly neighbors, that you might enjoy being in line at walmart without hearing griping, or most of all...you might enjoy that rush hour traffic without being flipped the bird and screamed at. oh no...we wouldnt want you to take the time to smell the roses and enjoy all lifes treasures....so you best stay up there with the hustle and bustle, oh, and our towns may be boring as ive seen some say, but just because we value history in our buildings, and dont wish to build skyscrapers to block out the sun and stars isnt so bad....i think its refreshing...i like to enjoy the sky above!!! I prefer having some open countryside and scenery verses 20 starbucks and cement pathways all around me.
as far as the comments of racism from northerners....well...on that, i can walk both sides. we are white, and are not racisist, (see, i cant even spell it) but we grew up around it. I wont deny its here in the south, heck, in OK, back in 80's, in rural areas, i saw bathrooms still marked men/woman/colored!!! blacks lived on their sides, whites on theirs. it still exsist....sad to say, but to say it ONLY exsist in the south is bull!!! if anything, i see less of the steryotype racisim the south is known for, most of the blacks here are hard working, clean cut, polite, etc, a far cry from what ive seen in..;oh...lets say detroit, LA, etc.!!! we was stationed in idaho for 5 yrs...and withen 3 mo...knew all about the KKK in northen idaho...hubby is from MI, and admits racsism is there, i lived in MA for a year...and OMG...i must say, it was very bad there....in fact, i never heard the "N" word till i moved up north. my first husbands family assumed my name ment i was black and had a fit....bad enough i was baptist, that in itself was a crime in MA, at least to the high and mighty catholics in their fancy golden churches. but the thought of a black person in their midst was to scary for words....my former inlaws was releived when i arrived and saw that i was in fact white. which was funny to me, since i grew up in the south, where, its true, the war still lives on more then maybe it should in some areas, but in fact...northernes changed all that, fought to free blacks, yet in my opinion, from what ive seen first hand...northerners are the most predjudiced agaisnt blacks, i dont get it. so call only southerners racist.
so you see....WE all are differant, we all have our own way of life, to each thier own, but to sit here and bash the other is childish. and to bash a southerner for choosing to live life slower and enjoy it is stupid. if you cant say anything nice, then dont say anything at all. you dont have to come down here, you can go out west...their is plenty of snowbirds out there that are happy, life is still crazy, hectic, fast paced and over populated and cemented in that would make you happy.
or......you could come down here, kick your shoes off..learn to wave and smile, learn to take life slower, hence live longer, less stress, and truly enjoy your life and your town, but...please, dont do it if you cant do all that, cuz the moment you start griping, we, as southerners will go inside and shake our heads, we will stand up for ourselves. we are not being rude, we are not re-living the civil war, we are just simply pointing out the obvious, life is what you make of it, what you bring to the table, if you want to come and try and change us, then dont come down, we dont come up there and demand that you use better manners, we dont come up there and insist that you smile and wave, we dont come up there and insist that you slow down and enjoy life more, so dont sit up there and judge us. we do welcome you, we just dont welcome rainy day poopers...if thats to hard to understand..here it is in english....we dont welcome folks who whine over everything, life goes one, tomarrow is another day...life sucks if you let it, we just dont let it. sorry if thats a crime, or a offense to northerners, but personally, we like being who we are, and better yet, i think the good Lord likes us being nice to. so come or not, your choice, just leave your opinions back home.
ps....my hubby, again isnt from down here, (TN) but been here 2 years, he loves it, he wishes i had brought him down here ages ago, he has no trouble making friends, he tells his family and friends back home how great it is, he says he can never go back to the rudeness he grew up with up north, he loves the way folks are down here, and in his heart, wishes it was like this everywhere, but its not, and thou there is no utopia, to my hubby, this is as close as it gets, so i guess either i brainwashed one northerner with my evil southern charm...or he truly came down, eyes wide opened and accepted it, adapted to it, and fell in love with it, i for one know the truth, its up to you scaredy cats up there to come down and find out for yourselves. if you come down scared, you will always be scared, we dont bite, unless you bite us first. oh, and maybe then, we can all stop yellen "north and south" and finally start say'n...americans, and america...hmmmmm.
i read pretty much all the pages in this post...and i also see this in alot of other topics in other states when it comes to north and south. and its crazy. you see all the time, northerners posting things like "will i be accepted in the south" bla bla bla...but rarely do you see a southerner asking a northern forum..."will i be accepted in the north?" and then you wonder why southerners in general show aggitation towards northerners!! notice i said aggatation...not hatred, like most northerners assume southerners feel about northerners.
my family comes from the south, the mtns and coal mines mainly, my husbands family came from germany, over to MO, then settled up in MI. my family worked way over to OK, married some "northerners" and i guess you can say, we are a good mix of them both now. so i think i can give a good view on both, seeing as on top of that, hubby is retired military, and we have lived all over, getting a even better taste of both sides.
to those in the north, who seem to have nothing better to do then slam southerners all day, calling them trash, slow, ignorant, etc...well....ive lived in various northen towns, and low and behold...you got trash, slow, ignorant, etc etc to...so maybe if you stop throwing stones off your "stoops" onto our "porches" us southerners might be more welcoming to you, because, contrary to your beliefs, we are friendly, we are nice, we just get sick of people coming down here, finding our lifestyle differant then theirs, missing their hometowns, and then belittleing us for it afterwards.
you call us poor white trash....well...lets see...i do recall ALOT of slums up north....or do you have a differant name for your poor sides of town?
you call us uneducated and ignorant....well...are you trying to tell me that you have a 100% graduation rate yourself, and everyone in north reads and writes? hate to break it to ya...but you dont. and did you ever stop and ask youself why there is alot of less educated people in the south?? because most, and my family did to generations back...HAD to work, no matter what the job, kids included, to support the family, be it in the hills,fields or in the coal mines, that left no room for finishing school, which ment future generations would also probably follow suite. BUT....those same uneducated people you refer to are probably some of the hardest working folks you will EVER meet!!! they will give you the last shirt off their back, the last piece of bread of their table, and if you was broke down on the road....THEY wouldnt be the ones who flipped you off and blared their horns cuz you might be blocking the road like they do up north...down here...they would stop andhelp you....without helping themselves to you wallet, they would HELP you...even thou they know you in general will take their help...go home and laugh it up the next week on how some hillbilly southern boy helped you fix a flat, laugh at his accent, and his clothes....but thats ok...to a southener...thats us, we help out, we go home at night and feel good about ourselves for doing that, for being nice.....omg....no wonder you put us down and scared to move down south!!! we're to fricken nice...ugggg!!
but...in these forums....thou southerners travel up north, get flipped off, cussed at, picked on, laughed at....we dont bash northerners, you dont see southerners comeing back home and filling these forums up with..."would we be welcome up there, cuz northerners are cold, rude and non friendly!??"....no, you dont, and why is that??? cuz a southener's life is taken in stride, yes, things tick us off, but we dont wake up each day looking for things to complain about, we dont hit rush hour traffice with a flippen finger ready..cuss words in mouth...its traffic, we deal with it, we are not in a hurry to get anywhere, cuz it will still be there when we do arrive. we dont mind smiling and letten you out from that parking lot into the street, we are in no big hurry, and we do it to be nice, hmmm, i think its called curtisey and manners...omg...another southern crime!!
we dont mind talking to you in checkout lines, at the mailbox, etc, why? cuz we are nice, but i guess if you prefer hiding behind your locked doors and barred windows...thats your choice, but dont put us down for venturing outside, enjoying life and being friendly verses cussen and screamen all the time.
but.....i can see why all that would scare you...so maybe best you dont come down, you might wake up one day down here, and find that you like to smile, that you like haven friendly neighbors, that you might enjoy being in line at walmart without hearing griping, or most of all...you might enjoy that rush hour traffic without being flipped the bird and screamed at. oh no...we wouldnt want you to take the time to smell the roses and enjoy all lifes treasures....so you best stay up there with the hustle and bustle, oh, and our towns may be boring as ive seen some say, but just because we value history in our buildings, and dont wish to build skyscrapers to block out the sun and stars isnt so bad....i think its refreshing...i like to enjoy the sky above!!! I prefer having some open countryside and scenery verses 20 starbucks and cement pathways all around me.
as far as the comments of racism from northerners....well...on that, i can walk both sides. we are white, and are not racisist, (see, i cant even spell it) but we grew up around it. I wont deny its here in the south, heck, in OK, back in 80's, in rural areas, i saw bathrooms still marked men/woman/colored!!! blacks lived on their sides, whites on theirs. it still exsist....sad to say, but to say it ONLY exsist in the south is bull!!! if anything, i see less of the steryotype racisim the south is known for, most of the blacks here are hard working, clean cut, polite, etc, a far cry from what ive seen in..;oh...lets say detroit, LA, etc.!!! we was stationed in idaho for 5 yrs...and withen 3 mo...knew all about the KKK in northen idaho...hubby is from MI, and admits racsism is there, i lived in MA for a year...and OMG...i must say, it was very bad there....in fact, i never heard the "N" word till i moved up north. my first husbands family assumed my name ment i was black and had a fit....bad enough i was baptist, that in itself was a crime in MA, at least to the high and mighty catholics in their fancy golden churches. but the thought of a black person in their midst was to scary for words....my former inlaws was releived when i arrived and saw that i was in fact white. which was funny to me, since i grew up in the south, where, its true, the war still lives on more then maybe it should in some areas, but in fact...northernes changed all that, fought to free blacks, yet in my opinion, from what ive seen first hand...northerners are the most predjudiced agaisnt blacks, i dont get it. so call only southerners racist.
so you see....WE all are differant, we all have our own way of life, to each thier own, but to sit here and bash the other is childish. and to bash a southerner for choosing to live life slower and enjoy it is stupid. if you cant say anything nice, then dont say anything at all. you dont have to come down here, you can go out west...their is plenty of snowbirds out there that are happy, life is still crazy, hectic, fast paced and over populated and cemented in that would make you happy.
or......you could come down here, kick your shoes off..learn to wave and smile, learn to take life slower, hence live longer, less stress, and truly enjoy your life and your town, but...please, dont do it if you cant do all that, cuz the moment you start griping, we, as southerners will go inside and shake our heads, we will stand up for ourselves. we are not being rude, we are not re-living the civil war, we are just simply pointing out the obvious, life is what you make of it, what you bring to the table, if you want to come and try and change us, then dont come down, we dont come up there and demand that you use better manners, we dont come up there and insist that you smile and wave, we dont come up there and insist that you slow down and enjoy life more, so dont sit up there and judge us. we do welcome you, we just dont welcome rainy day poopers...if thats to hard to understand..here it is in english....we dont welcome folks who whine over everything, life goes one, tomarrow is another day...life sucks if you let it, we just dont let it. sorry if thats a crime, or a offense to northerners, but personally, we like being who we are, and better yet, i think the good Lord likes us being nice to. so come or not, your choice, just leave your opinions back home.
ps....my hubby, again isnt from down here, (TN) but been here 2 years, he loves it, he wishes i had brought him down here ages ago, he has no trouble making friends, he tells his family and friends back home how great it is, he says he can never go back to the rudeness he grew up with up north, he loves the way folks are down here, and in his heart, wishes it was like this everywhere, but its not, and thou there is no utopia, to my hubby, this is as close as it gets, so i guess either i brainwashed one northerner with my evil southern charm...or he truly came down, eyes wide opened and accepted it, adapted to it, and fell in love with it, i for one know the truth, its up to you scaredy cats up there to come down and find out for yourselves. if you come down scared, you will always be scared, we dont bite, unless you bite us first. oh, and maybe then, we can all stop yellen "north and south" and finally start say'n...americans, and america...hmmmmm.
Hmmm...agitation???...not hate????..I wouldn't want to see you when you were being hateful then!...geeesh!!!
Unfortunately, exactly what you expressed about "your" experiences up North...some Northerners have experienced down South...so are their opinions or concerns less valid than yours? I have lived in Massachusetts for most of my 57 years and have never seen or heard what you are talking about regarding Southerners being treated so harshly. I've had southern friends and acquaintances and if I did see or hear this going on..I would certainly defend them against it...but like I said...not in my 57 years have I seen it. It makes me wonder what town or city you were in when you say these things were said to you/about you?...perhaps it was an area that was considered "white trash" to begin with, by us!...and being a Baptist???.....I've never, ever, heard anyone, ever, concern themselves with another person being a Baptist....I think you exaggerate a bit, my guess is, your 1 year in MA. was tainted by preconceived prejudices. As a matter of fact, Northerners already understand this hostility (prejudice) Southerners have towards us, call it: "the post Civil War resentment", if you will. We stole your dreams of succession, imposed our will on you and freed your slaves...it makes absolute sense that you'd still be resentful...the thing is..we (Northerners) don't still live the Civil War era like some Southerners do, we just realize where this hostility towards us comes from....hence the reason Northerners ask.."is it safe, will I be treated well"...when considering a move or visit down South.
Another thing, does it make any sense to you that if we Northerners, hated or thought as less, you seem to think we do about Southerners that we'd even consider living among them?
I love Southerners as much as I love any other person as long as the love is shared equally...
Lots of misinformation on this thread. First, for those that who think Virginia in general is the epitome of Southern life--you obviously have not lived in the deep South. Virginia left that station during World War 2 when hundreds of thousands of people moved into the state from other areas to work in defense industries. No other southern state experienced this influx. At the end of WW2, most other southern states lost population as people moved north and west but Virginia continued to grow rapidly. It was not until the sixties that other southern states began to grow in population and wealth---Virginia therefore had about a twenty year head start on the rest of the region. The result is that by the 21th century, eastern VA, where the vast majority of the population lives, sociologically and economically more closely resembles the mid Atlantic states of MD, PA, Del, than places such as SC, GA, AL. Charlottesville is an extreme example of this, except the area is much more wealthy and better educated, and more liberal politically, than most of the mid-Atlantic. Almost any statistical analysis will verify this. A good example of this is last Tuesday's election where Obama carried the city of Charlottesville with over 70% of the vote--surrounding Albemarle County also voted strongly for Obama.
I have to disagree with you. Of course, Virginia is not The "Deep South". But I for sure as heck would not lump it in with PA and DE ! I am from Virginia and I am a Souhron, by God! I don't know what you are. But I like my sweet tea, and I like it sweet!
And I find Richmond is a lot like Charleston and Savannah.
Oh, and BTW,NC vote for Osama, I mean Obama, too. So I guess they're no longer South?
Sorry for the aside, but I was traveling in SW Virginia over the holidays and saw a sandwich shop advertising "grinders."
25 years ago, you could only find "grinders" in New England and "hoagies" in the mid-Atlantic. So I think the Massachusetts influence has already spread South!
Anyway, on a "Southern" scale, I'd give Charlottesville about a 6 (compared to 1 for NoVa and 8 for Richmond)!
What part of NOVA? You dont find the horse country of Loudoun and Fauquier county to be Southern? Ever visit Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg?
I would say NOVA is about a 4 on Southern scale, not a 1. Richmond is a 10 ! C- ville a solid 7.5
I think Charlottesville is relatively better on those points than most other places in the South, especially if you stick to the city itself.
People also talk about Asheville, NC and Austin, TX.
I haven't been to either, but keep reading that Asheville is a sort of mecca for reformed meth addicts (while Boone, not too far away, is a center for active meth addicts). Austin might be worth checking out though.
I've been in the N.C mountains for around 2 years from Chicago and I love it here in the mountains. Asheville has 68k population and is full of kids of every color and type. Lots of mixed-race families (a good thing); lots of kitchy touristy shops and resturants, not much else. But, it's a huge area of commerce and activity and is very vital to the economy in this area. Asheville has a UNC extension that many kids are very proud to be in as it's got many many applicants; millionaire houses destroying the mountains...there's more "northerners" than southerners here! And I came here to be in the South not the North!
If you move South and complain about it and talk about how great your Northern home was, well, don't expect much.
I've heard great things about Austin and it's warmer there than the Southeast!
Good luck where ever you go!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
omg...cant we all get along??
