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Arterial roads all over, flat unadorned A&p style stores. Religious billboards, small farms visible form the street in an otherwise suburban environment, outwardly RED politics and signs/bumper stickers, large black population, a relative lack of environmentalism, southern accents, slower pace of life, car socover on the side of the house to keep the car cool, shot gun shack type residences like this, vast amount of treeless, cleared undeveloped land
In North Jersey they call South Jersey "Alabama"
Like that doesn’t seem “south” to me besides maybe accents I guess. It could just as easily be any generic place in the Midwest. I guess it’s perhaps unique nestled in-between NYC, Philly, Baltimore, but otherwise seems overly broad.
Mid-Atlantic almost doesn’t exist for me. I can’t really think of any places I would actually call mid-Atlantic, even though it’s supposed to exist. It’s the Northeast starting from north of DC, and the Southeast south of DC, in my mind. So maybe it’s just DC that’s the mid-Atlantic? It’s perhaps the weirdest geographical area in the US, to my mind.
Similarly, I find it fairly odd that Pennsylvania and New York are categorized as “Mid-Atlantic” states when large swaths of those states are either at the same latitude as or extend farther north than most of the major population centers in New England, especially in the case of New York. Places located north of Interstate 80 are nowhere near “the middle,” and they certainly do not have (what most Americans would consider to be) a moderate climate.
Like that doesn’t seem “south” to me besides maybe accents I guess. It could just as easily be any generic place in the Midwest. I guess it’s perhaps unique nestled in-between NYC, Philly, Baltimore, but otherwise seems overly broad.
Yes, I'm in agreement. I've never heard anything approaching a Southern accent in New Jersey, and I've been to extreme SJ many times.
I've also seen religious billboards and hard-core right-wing support in New England (this region is FAR from devoid of dedicated Trumpers). Those are very much national phenomena.
Lol if you're gonna say nothing is southern like.. I cant but shrug. This is the same thing that happens with Maryland people. People from the accused region say "what is southern?" you list a bunch of things you think are southern and they go: "none of that is southern"
I literally laugh aloud because its like-idk feels like a joke. Why even ask? It's whatever you say guys, honestly its not a big deal. Just dont ask me this question again lol.
Arterial roads all over, flat unadorned A&p style stores. Religious billboards, small farms visible form the street in an otherwise suburban environment, outwardly RED politics and signs/bumper stickers, large black population, a relative lack of environmentalism, southern accents, slower pace of life, car socover on the side of the house to keep the car cool, shot gun shack type residences like this, vast amount of treeless, cleared undeveloped land
In North Jersey they call South Jersey "Alabama"
North NJ is mostly made up of NYC suburbs and exurbs. They think they're going 'to the country' when they head into rural upstate NY as well. Every Northern state has rural regions that the residents of the major metropolitan areas mock as rednecks/hillbillies.
Of course the single biggest center of black population in New Jersey is the Newark-Irvington-East Orange area which as we all know is firmly attached at the hip to NYC.
Are there subtle changes in the countryside as you go from Maine southwards? Sure. There's subtle changes even within New England. Connecticut is not at all the same as Maine as Maine has some unique elements mostly missing in southern New England.
New Jersey, just like PA, DE and MD and even the Northern section of VA represents a transitional space. I don't know why it's so hard for people to accept that these exist. New Jersey's climate also has more tropical elements than New England's, but that doesn't mean it's in the tropics.
Lol if you're gonna say nothing is southern like.. I cant but shrug. This is the same thing that happens with Maryland people. People from the accused region say "what is southern?" you list a bunch of things you think are southern and they go: "none of that is southern"
I literally laugh aloud because its like-idk feels like a joke. Why even ask? It's whatever you say guys, honestly its not a big deal. Just dont ask me this question again lol.
One would think people from the south know what southern is and there's polling that 90%+ of southerners don't consider Maryland the south.
An analogy if I may: soccer players say Lebron James isn't a soccer player. Baseball players say he is. Uhm, ok?
Growing up in Texas, which I consider southern for the most part, DC and above was just lumped with NYC, Philly as the mid-Atlantic, or worse yet, Yankees. North Carolina was considered south.
New Jersey, just like PA, DE and MD and even the Northern section of VA represents a transitional space. I don't know why it's so hard for people to accept that these exist. New Jersey's climate also has more tropical elements than New England's, but that doesn't mean it's in the tropics.
It's not-but when you bring up the southern aspects of the transition people get weird. Cant be a transition if there's nothing to transition from/to.
It's not-but when you bring up the southern aspects of the transition people get weird. Cant be a transition if there's nothing to transition from/to.
Not from what I've seen. DC posters agree it has some southern traits. To me, "a lot of black people" isn't enough to be a southern trait.
I think in another thread, biscuits vs bagels, waffle houses, etc were all brought up and then swept under the rug when it was proven that they weren't prevalent in the DMV.
Last edited by Gaylord_Focker; 03-17-2023 at 09:28 AM..
I don't think the Mid-Atlantic region is one that most people think about, and probably many don't even know about. I've always been into geography, regions, etc., but couldn't even tell anyone for sure, what states are in this region. Just sayin'...
Not from what I've seen. DC posters agree it has some southern traits. To me, "a lot of black people" isn't enough to be a southern trait.
I think in another thread, biscuits vs bagels, waffle houses, etc were all brought up and then swept under the rug when it was proven that they weren't prevalent in the DMV.
I should say a lot of suburban an exurban. Like if you look at New Jersey has a great deal of suburban exurban and even some rural black populations. It's a different set up than the Black population in Essex County which going off population density and proximity to Newark and NYC really is more of an urban black population. Basically no underdeveloped land, tons of rail and bus connections, tons of apartments and multifamily homes...pretty traditionally urban area in feel even in the more suburban areas like Maplewood imo.
Things don't have to be exclusively southern for it to be generally more of a southern characteristic. There's nuance. Were all in agreement New Jersey is a northern state, but theres a feel to parts of South Jersey... I think a fair amount of NJ is below the Mason Dixon and it shouldn't be considered so left-field that it might have some southern vibes. I recently went to Paulsboro for the first time..it gave me a transitional vibe. Its obviously not Dixie but I just noticed tons of vacant lots in otherwise SFH areas, suburban poverty, fried chicken spots, super flat, a lack of pine trees, idk. It was just a feeling.
Again- they dont call it "Alabama " for NO reason. I've never heard anyone in Mass call Western Mass Alabama..
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 03-17-2023 at 09:47 AM..
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