Crazy superstitions about Southern people

[savvy]

It's insane some of the things I've heard people ask about the South. Friends of mine had internships in NY and were asked questions such as:
Do southerners wear shoes? Do they have cars? Do they have teeth?

What???

Someone asked my cousin whether she had to get a passport to visit NYC. A Canadian friend of mine seriously thought she would encounter shoeless hillbillies when she came here.

Has anyone ever been asked similar things? How do people know so very little about this region? Do they think we live in the dark ages???

 

[MissRowboat]

They're just ignorant.

 

[SoulFly51]

I'm a hi-tech redneck.

 

[`Raine]

I've got it double here. Not only do I live in the south, but in the southern Appalachians. It seems like even other Southerners think us mountain people are all hicks and hillbilles. Most of my family live at the coast, and I've got some wierd questions and things too. My dad was scared I'd end up at a "snake handling" churchu when I told him I was looking for a Pentecostal church up here, and a lot of people back home thing everyone is dirt poor or "backwards" in their way of thinking. My sister thought for surem because I married a boy from the moauntains, that I'd end up with a drunk who wouldn't lt me work, and living in a shack with 8 kids. I don't know where people get some of their ideas.

 

[crazy4Christ007]

Know what you mean! We're rednecks and southerners but we aren't idots.

 

[SpaceProg]

Meh, they're just being as ignorant as they accuse us of being, that's all.

 

[Debbi]

Oh, you mean like, "keep the wife bare foot and pregnant", that kind of stuff. Like they think we eat possoms and chitterlings and talk like people from "The Beverly Hillbillies". I live in Alabama and there is a place call Bug Tussle near here. On the "Beverly Hillbillies" they joked about it being in the ozarks but actually its in Cullman county. People make fun of our southern accent but we southerners can mostly understand it fine. But then when we go somewhere and get lost, know the weird feeling of saying, " I came from Alabama"... and they think it is a line from "O Suzannah"

 

[CPman2004]

My mom had some relatives come up from Georgia to vist here and family is Kentucky. A few of them actually thought our grass was really blue

 

[rosenherman]

I lived in NY about 35 years ago (I was still in grade school) and they asked me if we lived on a farm and if we had slaves!!! They were very disappointed to find out we had lived in a house in suburbs and when we returned to Virginia we'd be living in an apartment.

 

[Norseman]

I lived in NY about 35 years ago (I was still in grade school) and they asked me if we lived on a farm and if we had slaves!!! They were very disappointed to find out we had lived in a house in suburbs and when we returned to Virginia we'd be living in an apartment.

Actually my grandmother owned a farm in NY up until a few years ago (no slaves except for the younginns' of course).

 

[rosenherman]

Actually my grandmother owned a farm in NY up until a few years ago (no slaves except for the younginns' of course).

This was in Queens. The only open space was at the city parks.

 

[Norseman]

This was in Queens. The only open space was at the city parks.

NY state, I think it was either wolcott or wolchester.

 

[crazy4Christ007]

It's all good...I heard up north you they dont seve grits or sweet tea? I would starve to death!

 

[Southern Cross]

Yup, we all just sit around on our porches, fanning ourselves with our newspapers, swattin' mosquitoes and watching the okra grow. That's our Monday. Weekends are quite a bit slower. Our women have tabacco spitting contests at the church functions, and once in a while we have to go pick up a tooth. Old Bessie the midwife just glues it back in with nail glue, sure does a fine job and we pay her in chicken eggs. The men shoot live rattlesnakes off each other's heads just for the fun of it, then fry up the leftovers along with some gator and possum. Then we all head on over to the neighbors house to watch huntin' and fishin' movies of uncle Ned's vacation from back in '62. Oh, yeah, Jeb's old pickup truck backfired and old Sheriff Porter thought he was under attack and shot a hole in his foot. That was last year, but it's still in the paper on the front page along with Martha's latest Rhubarb Pie recipe.

Honestly, folks, I laughed when I saw this thread out there. Most people in my area of Florida came from NY, NJ, CT and PA... Chicago and Michigan seem to be pretty well represented, too. But we still race old school buses on a figure eight track, and we still have airboats for gator chasing (it's all fun until you have to pick bugs out of your teeth). Trust me, the quality of life down here is pretty good. When you are fighting bitter cold weather up North, I'm down here fishing in the surf in my shorts and a tank top. I will not go back up north unless I really have to. The only real southern thing that's happened to me since I came down here is my 80 year old neighbor was out in his saggy fruit of the loom underwear one morning shooting at squirrels with his pistol. That was before other houses were built on our street. He's turned out to be the nicest guy around!

 

[Locket]

Oh wow. Ppl are really mixed up. lol
I had a friend move down here from NY. She expected everyone to speak in this really deep accent (which we don't) and she was amazed at all the lizards!! I had never even really thought about them before...

 

[ChrisLockhart]

To many, though.. Florida is not necessary concerned a Southern state due to the large Yankee population.

 

[SpaceProg]

Depends on what part of FL you're talking about, really. Some parts are very Southern. Granted; the main cities are, for the most part, pretty Yankified.

 

[Locket]

Wanna hear a Fl joke?

Ok these four guys were goin on a road trip. A guy from Idaho, a guy from New York, a guy from Nebraska and a guy from Florida.
They had been driving for a day or two when all of the sudden the Idaho guy rips open his suitcase, grabs a bag of potatoes and throws them out the window.
"What was with that?" they asked.
"Those things are everywhere at home and I'm sick of them!" The other three nodded, it made sense.
Then the Nebraska guy was inspired by the other guy's actions so he opened his suitcase and dumped out an armload of corn.
"What was with that?" they asked.
"Those things are everywhere at home and I'm sick of them!" He cried. The other three nodded, it made sense.
The Florida guy was inspired by the actions of the other two so he opened his dorr and pushed out the New York guy...

 

[nicodemus]

I was born and raised in north-central Alabama (Birmingham.) Birmingham is very hilly and is very woodsy (there's a word I think only we southern folk use.) Anyway, I was entertaining a business client from Massachusetts and as we were out driving he said, "Wow, this place is really pretty. I can't believe how hilly and green it is. I thought it would be all flat & dusty." I cannot imagine thinking of northern Alabama being described as flat & dusty.

 

[crazy4Christ007]

lol wow i love me south! We do still have customs down here though. i mean I heard yankees call a coke--pop! haha what is pop? yall that was so funny when i heard it bc i had no idea what she was taking about and she had to explain that to me. It tells im a southern redneck