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Florida, the deep south, as in a southern culture, like Dixie? Not so much. The panhandle is southern in culture, and further east it is southern, all the way to Jacksonville. Yet Jacksonville is not as much a southern city as Tallahassee, which has more an older southern feel to it than Atlanta. I could say more about Tallahassee, but it would be tangential to the topic at hand.
I feel the southern culture in Florida wanes today at Ocala and drops off at Orlando, to the east coast and to the west at Tampa. Some of the counties adjacent north to Tampa, like citrus county are more southern.
I base my observations on adherence to religion identification, as such Ocala has far more persons who claim to have no religious affiliation. You may measure it differently, but as an old southerner, I see religion and church affiliation as a hallmark of southern culture.
Florida, the deep south, as in a southern culture, like Dixie? Not so much. The panhandle is southern in culture, and further east it is southern, all the way to Jacksonville. Yet Jacksonville is not as much a southern city as Tallahassee, which has more an older southern feel to it than Atlanta. I could say more about Tallahassee, but it would be tangential to the topic at hand.
I feel the southern culture in Florida wanes today at Ocala and drops off at Orlando, to the east coast and to the west at Tampa. Some of the counties adjacent north to Tampa, like citrus county are more southern.
I base my observations on adherence to religion identification, as such Ocala has far more persons who claim to have no religious affiliation. You may measure it differently, but as an old southerner, I see religion and church affiliation as a hallmark of southern culture.
Do you consider being in the actual south as a requirement? Because its not in the Midwest, West, or northeast.
Houston doesn't have a culture of sweet tea, I would often ask (after I lived in Atlanta I had a real craving) and people would often give me puzzled stares.
I'm not sure about New Orleans. It's definitely not ubiquitous there as Atlanta but at the same time, all 3 times I've been there, I never bothered to ask for sweet tea.
I will try an experiment, tomorrow I head out from Tampa, I will stop at a random diner and ask for sweet tea.
There was an article where New Orleans is like an island in the South where sweet tea is less popular, but its popular throughout the rest of Louisiana including as close as Baton Rouge and Hammond. With Florida I know its still popular in the Panhandle. I do consider the Panhandle to be clearly Southern culturally, but Tampa, Orlando and points South are not.
Orlando has never been a Southern city since most of it wasn't developed until the second half of the 20th century. A place like Atlanta is historically Southern but its culture has been diluted but still clearly Southern. A place like Houston is historically Southern but has been so diluted that there are hints of its Southern past. A place like Northern Virginia is historically Southern but has been so utterly overtaken by Yankees and immigrants now that there's no a single trace of the South left.
There was an article where New Orleans is like an island in the South where sweet tea is less popular, but its popular throughout the rest of Louisiana including as close as Baton Rouge and Hammond. With Florida I know its still popular in the Panhandle. I do consider the Panhandle to be clearly Southern culturally, but Tampa, Orlando and points South are not.
Orlando has never been a Southern city since most of it wasn't developed until the second half of the 20th century. A place like Atlanta is historically Southern but its culture has been diluted but still clearly Southern. A place like Houston is historically Southern but has been so diluted that there are hints of its Southern past. A place like Northern Virginia is historically Southern but has been so utterly overtaken by Yankees and immigrants now that there's no a single trace of the South left.
Wrong, Orlando was as Southern as it gets. It still is in scattered spots if you know where to look.
There was an article where New Orleans is like an island in the South where sweet tea is less popular, but its popular throughout the rest of Louisiana including as close as Baton Rouge and Hammond. With Florida I know its still popular in the Panhandle. I do consider the Panhandle to be clearly Southern culturally, but Tampa, Orlando and points South are not.
Speaking of what you said about Texas, I always suspected it gets less culturally Southern the further west you go in Texas. Like I bet there'd be smaller traces of Southern culture west of I-45, but it wouldn't be as strong as east of I-45. Would that be a good rule of thumb, for Texas?
And I wonder if any of the Cajun culture of southern Louisiana, ever spread into southeast Texas? Or is that more of a Louisiana only thing? I wouldn't be surprided if some of that Cajun culture, might also exist to a lesser extent in southern Mississippi and south Alabama (near Mobile, mainly).
Back to the main topic, I get the sense Tampa isn't as strongly culturally southern, as the Florida panhandle. Though it still might exist to a limited extent, but not be as very low as say what you'd notice (almost non existant, I suspect) in the greater Miami area.
Do you consider being in the actual south as a requirement? Because its not in the Midwest, West, or northeast.
No, not anymore than I think California is in the south, nor is Arizona and new Mexico are southern states. Just because Florida borders on Georgia and Alabama, this does not mean all of the state of Florida is southern regarding culture. I would say the northern part of the state, as I laid out above is southern, while parts south are neither southern, nor northeastern. Like some other big population states, such as California and Texas, Florida has it own identity, certainly in pasts south.
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