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Many of us northerners are moving to the South for various reasons: warmer climate, affordable cost of living, and better job opportunities.
Please share your experience about living in the South.
-What are similarities and differences?
-What is your cultural shock?
-What are the pros and cons of living in the South compared to the North?
-Are you happy or do you regret the move?
-Would you ever go back in the future?
As an original poster, I will share my personal experiences from living in the South for almost a year and half.
I'm originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and I did all of my education in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) in Minnesota. After having a tough luck to find a job in the Twin Cities, I decided to apply for jobs out of state. Unexpectedly, I heard from my current employer in Tulsa, Oklahoma quickly and I ended up moving to the South. It was never a part of my plan.
Differences between the North and the South
Both have religious population; however, southern Christians are more openly about their faith and evangelical in style. Most are conservative also. Northern Christians keep it personal unless asked or only talk about it with family and really close friends; there aren't many evangelicals either.
Southerners are more friendlier and very forwarding. Total strangers would wave at me and try to make a conversation with me in an elevator. It took me some time getting used to it. Northerners (speaking of MN & WI) are friendly too but reserved. It takes time for us to open up to people we don't know.
Incomes are lower in the South so are poor public transportation systems (city buses and not having light rail in many cities).
The Twin Cities may have a good economy but it can be harder to get a job due to stiff competition. I believe it's the main reason I ended up in Oklahoma.
Life is very slow paced in the South. I have never heard of sweet tea or okras until I moved. Fried foods are popular in the South.
Diversity is seriously lacking in Oklahoma but I am sure not all of the South is that way.
Being from one of the most health conscious states, I enjoy eating health and staying in fit. Some of my southern counterparts think I am too obsessive with exercising. Most of them lead a sendentiary lifestyle.
As a native Southerner, anybody NOT from the South is a Yankee. That includes the Midwest and the western state. Many of us would argue that Oklahoma is more Western than Southern.
We don't have much public transportation because a) populations are smaller and b) populations are more spread out, making it more expensive to equip and operate public transportation. Many of our cities are where they're at because they were accessible for farmers to bring their produce, cotton, tobacco, corn, etc. In other words, more people lived out in the country than in the city. Nowadays, the opposite is true. We also like to live in houses with big yards and do a lot of gardening because we aren't yet that removed from the farm.
As an original poster, I will share my personal experiences from living in the South for almost a year and half.
I'm originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and I did all of my education in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) in Minnesota. After having a tough luck to find a job in the Twin Cities, I decided to apply for jobs out of state. Unexpectedly, I heard from my current employer in Tulsa, Oklahoma quickly and I ended up moving to the South. It was never a part of my plan.
Differences between the North and the South
Both have religious population; however, southern Christians are more openly about their faith and evangelical in style. Most are conservative also. Northern Christians keep it personal unless asked or only talk about it with family and really close friends; there aren't many evangelicals either.
Southerners are more friendlier and very forwarding. Total strangers would wave at me and try to make a conversation with me in an elevator. It took me some time getting used to it. Northerners (speaking of MN & WI) are friendly too but reserved. It takes time for us to open up to people we don't know.
Incomes are lower in the South so are poor public transportation systems (city buses and not having light rail in many cities).
The Twin Cities may have a good economy but it can be harder to get a job due to stiff competition. I believe it's the main reason I ended up in Oklahoma.
Life is very slow paced in the South. I have never heard of sweet tea or okras until I moved. Fried foods are popular in the South.
Diversity is seriously lacking in Oklahoma but I am sure not all of the South is that way.
Being from one of the most health conscious states, I enjoy eating health and staying in fit. Some of my southern counterparts think I am too obsessive with exercising. Most of them lead a sendentiary lifestyle.
I say stick with it. Give Okies/Southerners a chance.
I have extended family in the Tulsa area; personally, I think it's a pretty nifty South-Central city right there on the edge of the Ozarks.
As a native Southerner, anybody NOT from the South is a Yankee. That includes the Midwest and the western state. Many of us would argue that Oklahoma is more Western than Southern.
We don't have much public transportation because a) populations are smaller and b) populations are more spread out, making it more expensive to equip and operate public transportation. Many of our cities are where they're at because they were accessible for farmers to bring their produce, cotton, tobacco, corn, etc. In other words, more people lived out in the country than in the city. Nowadays, the opposite is true. We also like to live in houses with big yards and do a lot of gardening because we aren't yet that removed from the farm.
That's true, but there is no denying Oklahoma's Southern sentiments, especially in rural locales (which comprises most of Oklahoma).
You are correct that there is a heavy dose of Western culture mixed in with the Southerness that's why many of us will refer to Oklahoma as the Southwest/South-Central....as in SOUTHwest (OK/Western Arkansas/Texas) and SouthWEST (New Mexico/Arizona). Oklahoma is different than the Deep South, say like your homestate of Bammer, but there is cultural continuity as well across the Southeast to the Southwest, with Oklahoma forming the westernmost boundary of the South.
I do agree with much of what the OP has written. There are clear cultural differences between a South-Central state like Oklahoma with a Midwest state like Minnesota. Having said that, I don't think the differences are enough to warrant leaving, one just needs to find his/her niche.
Edit:
To the OP: I did not vote in your poll as I did not meet your prerequisites. So don't worry about me skewing the data.
Last edited by Bass&Catfish2008; 02-24-2014 at 05:33 AM..
As a native Southerner, anybody NOT from the South is a Yankee. That includes the Midwest and the western state. Many of us would argue that Oklahoma is more Western than Southern.
We don't have much public transportation because a) populations are smaller and b) populations are more spread out, making it more expensive to equip and operate public transportation. Many of our cities are where they're at because they were accessible for farmers to bring their produce, cotton, tobacco, corn, etc. In other words, more people lived out in the country than in the city. Nowadays, the opposite is true. We also like to live in houses with big yards and do a lot of gardening because we aren't yet that removed from the farm.
It really depends on whom you ask. No question, Northeasterners are Yanks. The jury is out on Midwesterners and Westerners, but native Hawaiians, Alaskans, and (especially) Canadians are definitely NOT Yankees. Hawaiians and Alaskans are their own breed, and the preferred term of endearment for Canadians are Canucks, or Canuckleheads. You'll see plenty of them heading down to Florida for the winter.
I say stick with it. Give Okies/Southerners a chance.
I have extended family in the Tulsa area; personally, I think it's a pretty nifty South-Central city right there on the edge of the Ozarks.
I would think that Tulsa is one of the least southern places in the south excluding those cities that have been overrun by transplants. It may be more southern than anything else but just barely.
That's funny, I usually don't think of Wisconsonians as Northerners and I don't think of Oklahomans as Southerners...
Really? I find that interesting, because Wisconsin is one of the geographically northernmost states in the country. Is it because you consider being a Northerner as more of an attitude or a mindset, something that you identify more with people from NYC and other areas of the Northeast?
I don't really think of Oklahoma as the South, per se, either, but it does seem like people from Wisconsin would be considered Northerners, unless there's something that I don't get. I do know that I see a lot of comments on the forums for the southern states where Southerners differentiate between people from the Northeast and people from other parts of the North, so is that what I'm missing here?
I'm not arguing with your assessment at all, or in any way negating it. It really just intrigues me, because I live in Michigan, another state that is geographically quite far north (although comfortingly full of pickup trucks with gun racks and redneck attitude), and now I'm wondering if people in the South would consider me a Northerner or if that distinction is reserved for the "Noo Yawkers" out there. I don't mind either way, just curious.
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