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In the early 60's my Daddy was transferred from our beloved Knoxville to Fort Wayne, IN. When my mother took us to enroll us at our new school the principal told my mother that "coming from a southern state like Tennessee, your children may not be up to their grade, you know, academically." He then said in a most condescending and badly executed southern accent, "ya know, thar's more to skool the-un readin', writin' 'n 'rithmitic." Then he chuckled all bemused with himself. I could see the blood rise on my mother's complexion as she began, "I see. Let me tell you a little bit about my family. My brother is an orthopedic surgeon and a concert violinist. My father was an engineer at K-25 and Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, you know, where they developed the atomic bomb. He's also an ordained Baptist Pastor. My husband attended Georgetown University and Carson Newman College, graduating in 3 years Koom (had to spell phonetically) Laude and went on to get his Master's Degree while supporting a wife and 2 children after being a pilot in the Army Air Corps in WWII and the Air Force during the Korean conflict. I am a published writer as is my father. Now, would you like to tell me a little bit about your family? I'm quite sure my Southern children will have no trouble keeping up in your Yankee school. Can we move on and get them to their classes or do you want to spend more time insulting and belittling them?" The guy was left with a befuddled look on his face trying to find words to respond. I just looked at the principal with a satisfied the-South-just-rose-again smile. (Go mama, go mama, go mama.)
That's just one example of the kind of stuff we put up with as Southerner's living up North for 3 fah-ree-zing years, and I don't just mean the weather, before Daddy found a new job, on purpose, back South in South Carolina. Thank you God!
I was just wondering, is it still like that if you move from the South to the North or have they wised up and dropped their stereotypes of us?
Have any of you moved North and then back South of your own volition and why?
I moved from TN to the Northeast and I haven't had any such experiences. Many people have commented on my Southern accent (which I consider very mild from a relative standpoint), but never with any derision. You may run into such people on occasion, but probably not more often than you would run into Southerners that deride non-Southerners (i.e., rarely).
If I move back South in the future, the biggest factors will probably be proximity to family and weather. And sweet tea, of course.
Fortunately, that isn't as much the case as it once was.
I moved from S. CA to WI as a teenager at the height of the Vietnam War. I was not from the south, but there were definitely preconceived ideas about who I was just because of where I came from. I remember feeling that the prejudices here were very strong when we first moved here - whether it was racial, geographic, religious, social or whatever. Many families had lived in the same small town for several generations and really had no knowledge of anything beyond their immediate world. Today with people relocating more often I think many have learned that people are people no matter where they are from.
The flip side is I have experienced the same thing in the south on more than one occasion. People are interesting creatures!
I don't think that's a Northern thing, I think that's an Indiana thing. I live in South Bend now, and people were rude to me when they discovered I was from the Chicago area. I have met a shocking number of people in South Bend who have never traveled out of the state (mind you, it is 20 minutes to the Michigan border and there is a $7 train, 3 hour train to the heart of downtown Chicago and some world-class museums).
The Indianan's over did the comments about our accents. They seemed oblivious to their own midwestern twang. When we had just moved there, my mother asked a neighbor if she could drop us off at school with her own children. The neighbor looked at me and my sister and proceeded to say, "uhl rate you gays, gat in tha kerr" - translation, " All right you guys, get in the car." We just looked at eachother trying not to rudely giggle at her midwestern speech. My sister whispered, "I think she wants us to get in the kerr, er, I mean car." Also Fort Wayne was pronounced Furt Ween by the Furt Weenian's. And if they said Knoxville, it was pronounce Knaxveel. As Southernern's we say Knox-vul. Just like Louis-vul in Kentucky and Green-vul in South Carolina and Ash-vul in North Carolina.
I have lived in several states, both north and south, and hardly ever heard the sort of thing you describe. What I did learn while living in southern Indiana was that their national disease is "it's my nerves". Srsly - nobody ever had a headache or a backache or a sprained ankle. It was always nerves. That was a few years ago, back before I developed nerve problems of my own. hehe
The people in Southern Indiana have very strong southern leanings and they speak with a southern accent like Kentucky's. Larry Bird the famous former basketball star of the Celtics is from Southern Indiana and sounds very southern in his speech.
heh. What midwest twang? lol, sorry, I had to bite at that one. In fairness, news companies do send a lot of their up and coming news anchors to Chicago local news before upgrading them to national news desks, mostly so they can cut out regional accents. Of course, I listened to myself say Knoxville, and I totally just said Knox-veele. ha!
In the early 60's my Daddy was transferred from our beloved Knoxville to Fort Wayne, IN. When my mother took us to enroll us at our new school the principal told my mother that "coming from a southern state like Tennessee, your children may not be up to their grade, you know, academically." He then said in a most condescending and badly executed southern accent, "ya know, thar's more to skool the-un readin', writin' 'n 'rithmitic." Then he chuckled all bemused with himself. I could see the blood rise on my mother's complexion as she began, "I see. Let me tell you a little bit about my family. My brother is an orthopedic surgeon and a concert violinist. My father was an engineer at K-25 and Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, you know, where they developed the atomic bomb. He's also an ordained Baptist Pastor. My husband attended Georgetown University and Carson Newman College, graduating in 3 years Koom (had to spell phonetically) Laude and went on to get his Master's Degree while supporting a wife and 2 children after being a pilot in the Army Air Corps in WWII and the Air Force during the Korean conflict. I am a published writer as is my father. Now, would you like to tell me a little bit about your family? I'm quite sure my Southern children will have no trouble keeping up in your Yankee school. Can we move on and get them to their classes or do you want to spend more time insulting and belittling them?" The guy was left with a befuddled look on his face trying to find words to respond. I just looked at the principal with a satisfied the-South-just-rose-again smile. (Go mama, go mama, go mama.)
That's just one example of the kind of stuff we put up with as Southerner's living up North for 3 fah-ree-zing years, and I don't just mean the weather, before Daddy found a new job, on purpose, back South in South Carolina. Thank you God!
I was just wondering, is it still like that if you move from the South to the North or have they wised up and dropped their stereotypes of us?
Have any of you moved North and then back South of your own volition and why?
They were probably just bitter....I mean..they did live in "INDIANA". I can't imagine a fate much worse.
Careful though, you're bordering on stereotyping us yankees just like they stereotyped you.
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