Southerners! What's weird about the North? (US)

I've added US into the thread title since we have folks from all over the world contributing.

No sweet tea. In the south, you ask for it at a restaurant and you get tea that's had sugar or sweetener added while it was being brewed. It's cold and, well, sweet, sometimes teeth-rottingly so. Go north of Virginia and ask for sweet tea, and you get looked at like you just grew a second head (or told they only have unsweetened tea.) If you're accustomed to getting it while you're out to dinner, it's hard to get used to.

When you're walking down your own neighborhood street in the middle of the day and you pass someone going the other way and they do their level best to not look at or acknowledge you're there at all.

In other words...small civilities.

In Massachusetts -- at least, in areas around the Boston region -- "regular" coffee isn't black coffee. It's served with milk. (Blech, I don't like milk in my coffee, so this was an unpleasant revelation.)

Agree on the absence of Sweet Tea! Most weird to me is the dialect and use of words like Pop for soda, or various forms of you guys instead of y’all. Oh yea, and winter. Here in Charleston SC winter begins and ends around February. Cold aint funny y’all!

I couldn't figure out why it was so quiet. Then I realized, after a lifetime in the south, that when winter arrived everywhere else, the birds were gone. I'd always lived where they migrated to, so there were always birds.

Having to drive in snow, of course.

Not being able to work in my garden in January, February, March, April, or sometimes even May.

RhettSumner said:

Agree on the absence of Sweet Tea! Most weird to me is the dialect and use of words like Pop for soda, or various forms of you guys instead of y’all. Oh yea, and winter. Here in Charleston SC winter begins and ends around February. Cold aint funny y’all!

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Oh man, yeah, Southern winters. I've never been lucky enough to be in the North in winter, but I've seen the pictures and heard the stories. I moved to NC almost 10 years ago and I've seen only one really good snowfall. Most years we've been lucky to get an inch total that stuck to the ground.

I had a friend in college in MA who was from TN. One of the things she struggled with was the different expectations in social interaction. For instance, one time she wanted to get rid of a guy who was hanging out in her room, so she said she was "really rude," but he didn't take the hint. When we pressed her, it turned out her version of really rude was to smile and nod and every so often laugh and maybe ask him a question. We pointed out to her that in the Northeast that counts as being encouraging, not hinting someone should leave. She was quite resistant to that idea!

She also refused to believe her accent was any different from anyone else's.

When you're down south and order a "coke" they ask what kind.

Hearing "pop" for soda or soft drink.

The thing about ordering a coke and being asked what kind is seconded. As is the fact that southerners will greet strangers as they pass them finding the lack of greetings odd in the north.

Southerners in my experience also find the phrase "government solutions" said positive light to be unusual. The south's mistrust of government goes back to the beginning (1600's) and they find "Government" and "Solutions" to have different and incompatible definitions.

Most southerners live in a rural area with very little police presence, they therefore have a very open philosophy about guns and their use, and find anti gun philosophy to be very out of place. (the north being generally more anti-gun)

depending of the parts involved, northerners talk too fast.

and that's about all I can think of for now.

I grew up in Alaska and moved to SC, the opposite of what you want, haha, but the first thing that struck me was how different the trees are down south. Even the pines are a completely different variety. Also, the noise like someone else mentioned. No cicadas, no constant buzzing sound. Also the suffocating humidity. North tends to be dry.

The North, by which I'm specifically referring to New England, tends to not make eye contact with strangers; it's rude.

Also, they may omit the basic courtesies of please and thank you and how are you and lovely weather in commercial transactions.

It's not so much being rude, as a devotion to being non-intrusive is considered a virtue.

Humor is often laconic. Litotes is a way of life, possibly a religious ritual.

But they will plow your driveway for you, without expecting anything in return, ever.

The dialect differences are extreme, not only with respect to North vs. South, but Northern state vs. Northern state.

Also, and maybe it was just the people I knew, but I was called Miss Kaylyn by my friends kids and kids' friends. Up north they use Mrs. so-and-so instead

"Pop" for soda is a Midwest/Plains states thing, not Northeast.

Make sure your MC packs a real winter coat. My aunt from Tennessee showed up here at Christmas time with a, well, windbreaker.

Seconding the iced tea thing: In the South, iced tea means sweet. Up north, unsweetened. Unless it says "sweet tea". Can't speak for other parts of the country, though, but I suspect that everywhere besides the South iced tea comes unsweetened.

Life in the Northeast is generally "faster" - people walk faster, people have a more rushed demeanor: gotta get to work, gotta get this done. One could make this comparison with East Coast vs West Coast, too. Doesn't mean you actually have somewhere to go - it just seems like it, in comparison.

Southern hospitality - when it's present - is a real thing. That does not mean we Northerners are rude. We're just in a hurry.

But as long the MC packs warm winter clothes s/he'll be fine. It's not a different country, after all. We all speak American.

Oh, if the MC is church-going, s/he may remark upon not seeing a church every 100 feet, like in the Bible belt.

(Spoken as a Southerner/Northerner)

untechioux said:

"Pop" for soda is a Midwest/Plains states thing, not Northeast.

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No, no really, it's not. It's a regional thing, right down to the level of county line. This is documented; see Hans Kurath, for a start. It is used in New England.

Also: in New England, in most areas, that would be so-dar.

And my name is Lee-sir.

Lutefisk.

(This, from a Norse northerner, raised in northern Norse country, GarrisonKeillorville. It's weird to me, too. If you don't know what it is, groooogle. Then again . . . maybe you'll be happier if you don't.)

caw

My point.

Actually, I think that response to the waitress was both unfunny and rude, and not at all associated with regional differences in humor (which do exist). It wasn't designed to entertain the waitress, it was designed to entertain the utterer at the expense of the waitress. Ha ha.

"It was just a joke" is the lamest excuse for offending somebody I can think of.

Perhaps this is an indication of another regional difference, between the northeast and the north-central approaches toward humor. Us north-centralers often get accused of being "too polite".

caw

Oops, I thought it was funny. I use that kind of language often, and everyone seems to get it and reply in the same manner. I immediately chuckled when I read it - if I wanted to spare someone's feelings I wouldn't say I choked it down to spare their feelings right away, would I?

Rina Evans said:

Oops, I thought it was funny. I use that kind of language often, and everyone seems to get it and reply in the same manner. I immediately chuckled when I read it - if I wanted to spare someone's feelings I wouldn't say I choked it down to spare their feelings right away, would I?

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It is funny. It's not at the expense of anyone's feelings. I love it when sarcasm like that is directed at me in real life, because it gives the opening for a sarcastic come-back.

Yes, I live in the northeast.

ETA: And cornflake edited her post while I was screwing with iTunes and replying, so now my post makes no sense. Great.

As a Yankee I do notice that southerners are just nicer in general to strangers, so I'm sure southerners notice the opposite.