Capital of the Upper South (cost, state, population, people)

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by JMatl

Oh, I know. But they refuse to admit it, and will argue to death that they're in no way Southern.

FWIW, Country Grammar by Nelly (who has a Southern Drawl) does kind of play homage to St. Louis' southern ties.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by citidata18

FWIW, Country Grammar by Nelly (who has a Southern Drawl) does kind of play homage to St. Louis' southern ties.

Yes, but the large majority there - especially natives, would rather die than to be associated with the South. I mean, they are really hard-core about it. They consider St. Louis to be a Northern river city, with a strong kinship to Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati to a lesser extent.

[aquest1]

Haha, I think the OP intentionally omitted VA cities. I thought VA was the proto-typical, upper south state? Guess not. Too Northern or something? Of these, Raleigh. Louisville and Nashville, are more Mid-South than they are Upper South from my perspective, though no region has hard borders that don't somehow overlap with another cultural or geographic region.

[Heel82]

Whatever else, Raleigh is not mid-South.

[Mutiny77]

It seems that Memphis and its larger region have adopted the mid-South moniker pretty strongly. The city's Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace defines the mid-South as the region located within a 200-mile radius of Memphis.

According to The Mid-South and Its Builders: Being the Story of the Development and a Forecast of the Future of the Richest Agricultural Region in the World (sheesh) which was published in 1920, the mid-South covers western KY, western TN, part of the Tennessee River Valley in AL, the northern half of MS, the eastern half of AR, and southeastern MO and Memphis is the region's hub.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Mid-South
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-So...n)?wprov=sfti1

^^^^^^

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

It seems that Memphis and its larger region have adopted the mid-South moniker pretty strongly. The city's Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace defines the mid-South as the region located within a 200-mile radius of Memphis.

According to The Mid-South and Its Builders: Being the Story of the Development and a Forecast of the Future of the Richest Agricultural Region in the World (sheesh) which was published in 1920, the mid-South covers western KY, western TN, part of the Tennessee River Valley in AL, the northern half of MS, the eastern half of AR, and southeastern MO and Memphis is the region's hub.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by aries4118

^^^^^^

Thanks for that. I wanted to find a source I could access and just realized the book I mentioned is the one in the Wikipedia entry.

[costellopresley82]

I've never heard of the "Mid-South." In my book, the Upper South is North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and southern West Virginia. There are some areas in Virginia (D.C. suburbs) and Kentucky (Cincinnati suburbs) that probably shouldn't be included, but the majority of both states are in the Upper South.

As a Triangle native, I definitely wouldn't describe Raleigh as "Mid-South." You can drive four hours north of Raleigh and be in the Northeast (D.C. area). In fact, North Carolina's proximity to the Northeast might be a reason why so many northern transplants seem to prefer North Carolina over other southern states.

[Ebck120]

Originally Posted by JMatl

OMG, the people that live there would totally freak over being labeled as such. They want nothing to do with the South, and many refuse to even accept that the southern portion of Missouri has southern elements. They're as hard-core as people in NOVA and South Florida about being labeled as being even remotely Southern.

And, do you have an issue with this? I'm from Nova and have never identified as a Southerner.....

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Ebck120

And, do you have an issue with this? I'm from Nova and have never identified as a Southerner.....

Yeah, I have a problem with it. Just like I do with South Florida. I came to the conclusion long ago that they stopped teaching geography in Virginia a couple of decades ago.