I have a question for other native Kentuckians....

[KY Native in IN]

do you think Kentucky is a state that can be tagged as being in "the South"?

with the exception of a year or so as an infant living in Evansville, Indiana around 1971.... i was born, raised and lived in the western section of the state of Kentucky up until 1999...and in my humble opinion, "the bluegrass state" MOST CERTAINLY IS IN "the south"....i have read in many online posts hither and yon concerning this subject and even Wikipedia terms Ky. on the teeter totter of being/not being the South....and frankly it ticks me off....any thoughts/opinions?

[MudCat]

My feeling is that since we're below the Mason-Dixon line, we're the "South", but when I was in middle school, I was in Greeneville, SC, and this reeeeealy old dude asked me where I was from.

When I told him, "Louisville", he looked at me, and said (and this is totally true), "Well, you're damn near almosta Yankee."

I say South.

[Will Lavender]

Definitely in the South.

When you get down into the southern part of the state, where I'm from, then there's really no difference between there and Tennessee.

Louisville, however, is unlike any other Kentucky town I've lived in. It definitely has a midwestern feel, and I believe that is exactly what its residents are striving for. (When you really look at certain parts of the city, though, you see that its truly Southern.)

[bleedbluelady]

I was born and raised in the South/Central part of the state (eight miles from the Tennessee line). I never thought of Kentucky as anything other than part of the South. I have lived in Northern KY for 15 + years...it's a very different atmosphere/attitude.

[HOMEYCAT]

I was born and raised in Lexington. My Grandparents ran a fancy tearoom near Transylvania. The John Hunt Morgan Home was a walk of 5 blocks or so. Antique shops everywhere. The horse farms and Keeneland. The Country Clubs and UK. Our library looked like theCivil War Capitol in Richmond VA. Lexington had such a southern tone and flavor. My mother hosted a Derby Party every year and the women would wear their finest with, of course, a big beautiful broad rimmed hat.

I live in Cincinnati now and teach in northern KY, and the flavor is soooo different. It's not Vermont, but it's very not southern. Overall, I always thought that Kentucky was an example of good Southern Life. It certainly ain't Yankee.

[zonetoncatfan]

Louisville and northern Kentucky are midwest/Yankee territory, the rest of the state is southern. JMHO.

[MudCat]

zonetoncatfan wrote: Louisville and northern Kentucky are midwest/Yankee territory, the rest of the state is southern. JMHO.

Smile when you say that, lady............:>;)

[Terry L. Wildcat]

:cool:I was born in Covington and raised in Newport so I'm from the very northern border...while considering myself a southerner I would have been veryopposed to slavery...I'm proud to be a Kentuckian and glad we were not part of the confederacy...when I ask the question in Colorado most folks think we were a rebel state.

[KY Native in IN]

Terry L. Wildcat wrote:
:cool:Â*I was born in Covington and raised in Newport so I'm from the very northern border...while considering myself a southerner I would have been veryÂ*opposed to slavery...I'm proud to be a Kentuckian and glad we were not part of the confederacy...when I ask the question in Colorado most folks think we were a rebel state.

slavery was definately not a factor in the original question...but as you probably are aware, alot of KY court houses (can't say that all of them do, i don't know...my hometown has one) have monuments to "our confederate dead"....KY was a very enigmatic and unique state during the civil war....seems like county by county it was pro conf/pro union, very much a civil war within the state itself...there's a neat new book out called "Kentucky's Civil War:1861-1865", you can pick it up at barnes and noble or their online site, very interesting and infomative
ah, Newport-Sin City of the South! :lol:

BTW-there's an "old time" banjo picker from Hazard, Ky, long since deceased named Roscoe Holcomb, that did a version of a song
"Born And Raised in Covington", on his record "An Untamed Sense of Control", worth checking out if you're into that sorta thing :shrug:

[mdluk1]

zonetoncatfan wrote: Louisville and northern Kentucky are midwest/Yankee territory, the rest of the state is southern. JMHO.

I have always considered myself a Southerner. And I always felt Louisville was more Southern than midwest until recently. I'd say, the past 10 years or so, Louisville has made an effort to distance themselves from the South and be more midwest.Just my opinion.

[oruacat2]

I've always considered KY as a 'tweener, and I have no problem with that. Like Terry, I'm a NKY native (Florence), so in my travels, when asked to describe my hometown, I've often described it as "the northernmost corner of The South" or "the southernmost corner of The North". lol

I feel lucky to be able to pick and choose from the best of both worlds while distancing myself from the worst characteristics of both.

KD

[catfeverintennessee]

I sometimes tease hubby that there is North and South and then there is Kentucky. They are a world all of their own!:D

But seriously while doing my family tree and hearing some stories from family members, the thoughts were that places like Etown and up or east of therewere more northern while the places like Bowling Green and western Kentucky were more southern.

[CoquieKat]

But seriously while doing my family tree and hearing some stories from family members, the thoughts were that places like Etown and up or east of therewere more northern while the places like Bowling Green and western Kentucky were more southern.
I would agree with this assessment. People here in Nashville definitely consider me more Northern than Southern, considering that I'm from Louisville. But when I travel to southern and western Kentucky for various reasons, they definitely seem more like the South than the northern part of the state does.

So I'd say that the North/South line actually cuts through Kentucky; the state as a whole is not on one side or the other of it.

[KY Blue in Carolina]

There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.

[KY Native in IN]

KY Blue in Carolina wrote:
There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu?Â* If so, you're in the south.Â* If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.






so if there's a cracker barrel in bangor, maine it's the south? :lol:
just kiddin'...yeah, i would definately say that louisville is considered the South...i just think it's such a large city and has expanded to the size it is and is such a focal point with southern and northern states, it's gotten the rep of being on the teeter totter, but i say L-ville is the south IMHO....some people even consider missouri the south...part of that state is connected to the mississippi delta...i say anything south of the ohio river, IS the south IMHO...that's my yardstick FWIW...:shrug:
i would consider W.Virginia to be in the south and they're geographically further north than KY or VA....

[jpay]

Born and raised in Ashland, Work in Carter county. Ashland has a Northern feel to it. Probably due to the tremendous suction coming from across the river in Ohio.:shrug: However it also still has that down home Southern feel to it as well. You head south of Ashland and the rest of EasternKentcky has a definite southern feel.

[Terry L. Wildcat]

KY Blue in Carolina wrote: There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.





:cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.

[baldcat]

North of Berea, Yankee lite.

South of Berea...Southener.

IMHO, this is a pretty solid line of demarcation.

[KY Blue in Carolina]

...by local eatery.... I mean a local down home Mom & Pop place. Not some national chain based in the south.:X:rolleyes::cool:

[KY Blue in Carolina]

Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.
Ain't that a bit off your route?

[HOMEYCAT]

Another measure would be ....at the Fish House, do they serve Hush Puppies. No chains, I'm talkin' chunks of onions?

[Andrew]

Geographically, Northern Kentucky and Louisville should be in the Midwest. However, I think we are culturally all Southern.

[PsychoCat]

When you move from Calif to Montana to South Dakota to KENTUCKY ..... Kentucky feels like the deep south lol

[Littlemeyer]

PsychoCat wrote: When you move from Calif to Montana to South Dakota to KENTUCKY ..... Kentucky feels like the deep south lol

I was born and raised here (Kentucky), so not knowing anything different, I always assumed us to be the South. Then, I moved to Alabama for a few years....let me tell you, THAT is the South!

I moved back to Kentucky about three years ago, and although I still consider us to be a southern state, it is definitely a different kind of southern. I'll go ahead and say it: its a BETTER kind of southern...all of the charm and character, but not as many of the negative southern connotations.

[bigjeep]

HOMEYCAT wrote: I was born and raised in Lexington. My Grandparents ran a fancy tearoom near Transylvania. The John Hunt Morgan Home was a walk of 5 blocks or so. Antique shops everywhere. The horse farms and Keeneland. The Country Clubs and UK. Our library looked like theCivil War Capitol in Richmond VA. Lexington had such a southern tone and flavor. My mother hosted a Derby Party every year and the women would wear their finest with, of course, a big beautiful broad rimmed hat.




you just described the best of Kentucky...:thumbup

Morgan has quite a history in Glasgow. Anyone that comes to our area, please go and see our South Central Kentucky Cultral Center (http://www.cityofglasgow.org/sckcc/exhibits.htm). A fantastic Civil War exhibit, and the best military exhibit in the state...

[UKSam]

Smooth bourbon, fast horses, beautiful women and basketball. Call it North call it South I call it Heaven.

[Arkansas Cat Fan]

I was born in Breckinridge County, about half way between Louisville and Owensboro. The local newspaper editor used to refer to us as "UP SOUTH". When I moved to Arkansas, I was told I was a Yankee but I knew that wasn't right. Kentucky is defintely in the South.

[Grub]

Terry L. Wildcat wrote: KY Blue in Carolina wrote: There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.





:cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.
The eatery was probably owned by some guy sitting behind a desk in Atlanta, Georgia.

[Old Blue]

Kentucky is the only state on the winning side in the Civil War that decided to join the losers after the war was over so I guess that makes us Southern for better or worse. Before then, we were a "western" state. Actually, I've always determined whether a state is really southern or not on the basis of whether the waitress at the local restaurant asks you whether you want "regular" tea or unsweetened. If they do that, you are definitely in the South.

[surveyor]

KY Blue in Carolina wrote: ...by local eatery.... I mean a local down home Mom & Pop place. Not some national chain based in the south.:X:rolleyes::cool:
Mom and pop restaurant in Scottsburg, Indiana (29 miles north of Louisville) serves grits. :thumbup

[Old Blue]

But what kind of tea? Like I said before, you can almost always tell whether you are in the North (where they don't sell iced tea at all except after Memorial Day), or the Midwest, the South or a border state, depending on their iced tea. In Virginia, which geographically is no more southern than Kentucky, you always get sweet tea unless you request otherwise. In most parts of Kentucky and Tennessee even, you'll be asked which you want. Below Tennessee, you'll probably only get sweet tea; you might get unsweetened if you make a point of asking for it. Then again, they may say that's all they got. Now that's the South. It's not so much a geographical thing as it is a cultural one. I've always felt that the South and being Southern was a cultural thing, a state of mind, if you will. Southerners have always been more interested in heritage, traditions, folklore, story telling, regional writers, genealogy, dialects, etc. than the rest of the Nation. They still are, but with the malling of America, even that heritage is threatened. It is our Nation's last surviving culture. The Northeast used to have one, but it has long since perished. The Midwest never really had one, because everybody was always just passing through on the journey West. The West died after it killed off all of the Indians and the Buffalo. And the "culture" of the west coast is that anything more than 20 years old should be bulldozed. Except for those tiny little sections of Boston and New York where they have actually preserved structures that were around 200 or more years ago, you have to go to Lexington (just walk around Gratz Park sometime, folks) or Williamsburg or Charlottesville or Savannah, etc. to find either ante-bellum or pioneer buildings intact. So sweet tea or not, does that make us Southern? Don't know. It certainly makes us historic in the best sense of the word.

[KY Native in IN]

surveyor wrote:
KY Blue in Carolina wrote: ...by local eatery....Â* I mean a local down home Mom & Pop place.Â* Not some national chain based in the south.:X:rolleyes::cool:
Mom and pop restaurant in Scottsburg, Indiana (29 miles north of Louisville) serves grits. :thumbup


geez man, don't even go there..:rolleyes:....Indiana will never, ever be the south, there may be a "southern" portion of the state which differs from the northern part, but it's all yankee territory :D IMHO....i think there's a difference between "country" and "southern"....just because there's big patches of woods and lakes and people eat certain types of foods don't mean it's the "south"....granted KY is not the "deep south" but no 2 ways about it in my book, it's the south, IMHO ....funny story, saw a bio show on charles manson one time, who i think was mainly from Ohio, and his grandfather who he described as a "kentucky mountain man" strongly urged him not to go "to them Yankee schools" when he got of college age.....but anyways, i think the south is not really the south it used to be, obviously, in many many ways - the advent of the railroad, the automobile, TV, radio, phone, fax, internet, things we take for granted now, which at one time made "regions" so "regional" and i think that northern culture and southern culture ooze into one another because of the aforementioned "advancements", but southerners moving up north to get jobs, northerners moving down south in the name of capitalism, cultural exchange and intermingling...but, as many,many of us know, there is still a real distinction of attitude and general demeanor/interaction when you cross that Ohio River friends and neighbors, when you go across it and when you come back across it....there's no way to describe it...it's just different when you cross that river and "go up north" ! :shrug: and i've heard that about other geographical locations, rivers seem to be strong and intense boundaries all over the nation, even the world...:(

[surveyor]

KY Native in IN wrote: surveyor wrote:
KY Blue in Carolina wrote: ...by local eatery.... I mean a local down home Mom & Pop place. Not some national chain based in the south.:X:rolleyes::cool:
Mom and pop restaurant in Scottsburg, Indiana (29 miles north of Louisville) serves grits. :thumbup


geez man, don't even go there..:rolleyes:....Indiana will never, ever be the south, there may be a "southern" portion of the state which differs from the northern part, but it's all yankee territory :D IMHO....i think there's a difference between "country" and "southern"....just because there's big patches of woods and lakes and people eat certain types of foods don't mean it's the "south"....granted KY is not the "deep south" but no 2 ways about it in my book, it's the south, IMHO ....funny story, saw a bio show on charles manson one time, who i think was mainly from Ohio, and his grandfather who he described as a "kentucky mountain man" strongly urged him not to go "to them Yankee schools" when he got of college age.....but anyways, i think the south is not really the south it used to be, obviously, in many many ways - the advent of the railroad, the automobile, TV, radio, phone, fax, internet, things we take for granted now, which at one time made "regions" so "regional" and i think that northern culture and southern culture ooze into one another because of the aforementioned "advancements", but southerners moving up north to get jobs, northerners moving down south in the name of capitalism, cultural exchange and intermingling...but, as many,many of us know, there is still a real distinction of attitude and general demeanor/interaction when you cross that Ohio River friends and neighbors, when you go across it and when you come back across it....there's no way to describe it...it's just different when you cross that river and "go up north" ! :shrug: and i've heard that about other geographical locations, rivers seem to be strong and intense boundaries all over the nation, even the world...:(
geez, man, I was just commenting that there was a mom and pop place north of Louisville (based on the original poster's question) that served grits, man.........Man.

Okay, man? Just to be clear, I never, ever held Indiana up as being southern.....man. (Hey, there's a song there somm'rs)

Further, this area of southern Indiana (Scottsburg and Austin) has a heavy population of 2nd and 3rd generation folks who migrated here from southeastern Kentucky. I'd gather that for every house you visited 1 of every5 has immediate family from SE Kentucky. That ratio is likely higher in Austin. These people may not be southern by geography, but their immediate ancestry indicates otherwise. In Austin, you're likely to find several confederate flags aloft.

[gerntz]

south/north, who cares? Kentuckian is good enough for me.

[Terry L. Wildcat]

KY Blue in Carolina wrote: Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.
Ain't that a bit off your route?

:cool:I have a good friend from UK in Des Moines and we saw Bob Dylan on Friday night..."everybody must get stoned".

[Levi]

I had always felt like I was from the south and then I went down south and lived for three years. I wasfirmly told I wasnot a southerner, that I was a yankee and my halucinations about polite southerners came to an end. I am now from Kentucky and do not even want to be considered a southerner. In my experience the closest thing to the polite southern peopleare inAlabama. I'll be quite content to be fromtheheart of the USA, neither southern nor Yankee andthe only place I want to live and that place is Kentucky.

[HOMEYCAT]

Levi wrote: I had always felt like I was from the south and then I went down south and lived for three years. I wasfirmly told I wasnot a southerner, that I was a yankee and my halucinations about polite southerners came to an end. I am now from Kentucky and do not even want to be considered a southerner. In my experience the closest thing to the polite southern peopleare inAlabama. I'll be quite content to be fromtheheart of the USA, neither southern nor Yankee andthe only place I want to live and that place is Kentucky.
Well said. I spent a good deal of time in Birmingham. Kentucky is not the same flavor. We aren't deep south.....but that's fine with me. My old Kentucky Home is the best. Just right. Especially in early May.

[KY Native in IN]

Levi wrote:
I had always felt like I was from the south and then I went down south and lived for three years. I wasÂ*firmly told I wasÂ*not a southerner, that I was a yankee and my halucinations about polite southerners came to an end. I am now from Kentucky and do not even want to be considered a southerner. In my experience the closest thing to the polite southern peopleÂ*are inÂ*Alabama. I'll be quite content to be fromÂ*theÂ*heart of the USA, neither southern nor Yankee andÂ*the only place I want to live and that place is Kentucky.

good point...KY seems to be like Texas, it is it's own place...texas has such a "world of it's own" flavor, which is cool...and i think KY has that too...IMO

[Arkansas Cat Fan]

I have found Mississippi people to be the most polite people.

[ukwebfan]

The Hoosiers and Buckeyes say that about us. The "politeness" that is.

[bigsky]

I consider it a southern state. And yes, I'm a native Kentuckian.

[trublu]

Julia Sugarbaker once said "In the North, you hide your crazy people and don't want anyone to know about them. In the South, we like to get them out and parade them around.":P

[fanaticfan]

KY Blue in Carolina wrote: There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.





The first time I had ever heard of grits was when I went toAnaheim, California when I was 16 years oldand went to a little diner for breakfast. Now,I was born and raised in Knott County, Kentucky and I am sure that people there eats grits, just not my family.

[johnkyblue]

One of the best things about Kentucky is that it is both.

[BOURBON TOWN CAT FAN]

I was born and raised in Lexington and always considered Kentucky the south, until I live in Columbia, South Carolina for a few years. It definitely made KY feel for midwestern.

[Stucat]

I am from Floyd Co. in eastern Kentucky and it is really hard to say what we are but we are a lot like people from almost any place in Kentucky or West Virginia or western Virginia. I think most people in our area would consider us south but when you go south you know that eastern Kentucky is not really southern at least not like they are in South Carolina or Georgia. A trip to Dayton or Columbus Ohio will tell you that we are not really midwestern. I guess that we are just Kentuckians which is unique. Kentucky is not truly midwestern, southern or Yankee in any way. I think Kentucky defies being put in a category of any kind. We are just Kentuckians and like West Virginians it defies being put in a category.

[phoenix]

West Virginia is much moreof one typethan KY was, is, or ever will be. As said by a couple posters, Kentuckians might consider themselves southern but when they actually go south, find that they are not southern at all. You probably don't really find a lot in the north to identify with either unless you live in the beltline of LEX, Frankfort, Louisville. If you are rural in KY and live in the eastern 1/4-1/3, your real roots are Appalachian more than anything else. If you live in the western portion of the state, you are much more midwestern, than anything else. The state itself is a mixture of distinct parts and historically very distinct economies in the separate sections, which help define the people. East, subsistence farming, timber, mining. Westhistorically isan agricultural economy and river trade. Northern KY, a blend ofag, river trade and manufacturing.

TN is the north of the south. KY I guess, is the south of the north, the west of the east and a solid big chunk of Appalachia.As natives there seems to be some disagreement as to what or where you are a part of, but then KY still seems to have much more of a self identity than do FL, or Arizona, both states that should have a strong regional identity due to their location and yet,because of migration, neither state is really what it claims to be anymore

[mdluk1]

phoenix wrote: West Virginia is much moreof one typethan KY was, is, or ever will be. As said by a couple posters, Kentuckians might consider themselves southern but when they actually go south, find that they are not southern at all. You probably don't really find a lot in the north to identify with either unless you live in the beltline of LEX, Frankfort, Louisville. If you are rural in KY and live in the eastern 1/4-1/3, your real roots are Appalachian more than anything else. If you live in the western portion of the state, you are much more midwestern, than anything else. The state itself is a mixture of distinct parts and historically very distinct economies in the separate sections, which help define the people. East, subsistence farming, timber, mining. Westhistorically isan agricultural economy and river trade. Northern KY, a blend ofag, river trade and manufacturing.

TN is the north of the south. KY I guess, is the south of the north, the west of the east and a solid big chunk of Appalachia.As natives there seems to be some disagreement as to what or where you are a part of, but then KY still seems to have much more of a self identity than do FL, or Arizona, both states that should have a strong regional identity due to their location and yet,because of migration, neither state is really what it claims to be anymore
I am from Louisville and totally disagree. I have lived in Texas, spent a lot of time in Mississippi and I have always felt just as Southern as they are. We are different, true, but still Southern.

[mdluk1]

phoenix wrote: West Virginia is much moreof one typethan KY was, is, or ever will be. As said by a couple posters, Kentuckians might consider themselves southern but when they actually go south, find that they are not southern at all. You probably don't really find a lot in the north to identify with either unless you live in the beltline of LEX, Frankfort, Louisville. If you are rural in KY and live in the eastern 1/4-1/3, your real roots are Appalachian more than anything else. If you live in the western portion of the state, you are much more midwestern, than anything else. The state itself is a mixture of distinct parts and historically very distinct economies in the separate sections, which help define the people. East, subsistence farming, timber, mining. Westhistorically isan agricultural economy and river trade. Northern KY, a blend ofag, river trade and manufacturing.

TN is the north of the south. KY I guess, is the south of the north, the west of the east and a solid big chunk of Appalachia.As natives there seems to be some disagreement as to what or where you are a part of, but then KY still seems to have much more of a self identity than do FL, or Arizona, both states that should have a strong regional identity due to their location and yet,because of migration, neither state is really what it claims to be anymore
I am from Louisville and totally disagree. I have lived in Texas, spent a lot of time in Mississippi and I have always felt just as Southern as they are. We are different, true, but still Southern.

[Stucat]

phoenix wrote: West Virginia is much moreof one typethan KY was, is, or ever will be. As said by a couple posters, Kentuckians might consider themselves southern but when they actually go south, find that they are not southern at all. You probably don't really find a lot in the north to identify with either unless you live in the beltline of LEX, Frankfort, Louisville. If you are rural in KY and live in the eastern 1/4-1/3, your real roots are Appalachian more than anything else. If you live in the western portion of the state, you are much more midwestern, than anything else. The state itself is a mixture of distinct parts and historically very distinct economies in the separate sections, which help define the people. East, subsistence farming, timber, mining. Westhistorically isan agricultural economy and river trade. Northern KY, a blend ofag, river trade and manufacturing.

TN is the north of the south. KY I guess, is the south of the north, the west of the east and a solid big chunk of Appalachia.As natives there seems to be some disagreement as to what or where you are a part of, but then KY still seems to have much more of a self identity than do FL, or Arizona, both states that should have a strong regional identity due to their location and yet,because of migration, neither state is really what it claims to be anymore

Phoenix,

I think you can scratch the subsistence farming in eastern Kentucky now. While I was growing up that was still true and my grandfather kept cows, mules, chickens, etc. They just don't do that anymore. Most people still raise a small garden but I think it is more out of tradition than anything else. The hills have nearly all been overgrown with brush, briars, honeysuckles and yes to some extent even kudzu. People just don't keep livestock to keep the hills trimmed down in the spring and summer anymore. Subsistence farming is an outdated practice that is seldom followed in eastern Kentucky anymore.

[Terry L. Wildcat]

:thumbdownThe bigotry I saw while doing ten weeks of basic training at Fort Polk, La. in 1969 was a real eye opener about the deep south...I sure hope things have improved...even though I may never live in Kentucky again I am a Kentuckian for life and damn proud of it.

[phoenix]

Stucat wrote: phoenix wrote: West Virginia is much moreof one typethan KY was, is, or ever will be. As said by a couple posters, Kentuckians might consider themselves southern but when they actually go south, find that they are not southern at all. You probably don't really find a lot in the north to identify with either unless you live in the beltline of LEX, Frankfort, Louisville. If you are rural in KY and live in the eastern 1/4-1/3, your real roots are Appalachian more than anything else. If you live in the western portion of the state, you are much more midwestern, than anything else. The state itself is a mixture of distinct parts and historically very distinct economies in the separate sections, which help define the people. East, subsistence farming, timber, mining. Westhistorically isan agricultural economy and river trade. Northern KY, a blend ofag, river trade and manufacturing.

TN is the north of the south. KY I guess, is the south of the north, the west of the east and a solid big chunk of Appalachia.As natives there seems to be some disagreement as to what or where you are a part of, but then KY still seems to have much more of a self identity than do FL, or Arizona, both states that should have a strong regional identity due to their location and yet,because of migration, neither state is really what it claims to be anymore

Phoenix,

I think you can scratch the subsistence farming in eastern Kentucky now. While I was growing up that was still true and my grandfather kept cows, mules, chickens, etc. They just don't do that anymore. Most people still raise a small garden but I think it is more out of tradition than anything else. The hills have nearly all been overgrown with brush, briars, honeysuckles and yes to some extent even kudzu. People just don't keep livestock to keep the hills trimmed down in the spring and summer anymore. Subsistence farming is an outdated practice that is seldom followed in eastern Kentucky anymore.



Gee Stucat, I guess that is why I used the term historically. What do you think?:P

[phoenix]

[macdon]

Terry L. Wildcat wrote: KY Blue in Carolina wrote: There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.





:cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.In Iowa, if it can be done with corn, they do it.

[phoenix]

macdon wrote: Terry L. Wildcat wrote: KY Blue in Carolina wrote: There is a very simple yardstick to answer this question:

When you pull up a chair for breakfast at your local eatery..... are grits on the menu? If so, you're in the south. If not.... you're in damn Yankee land.

Therefore... I submit that Kentucky, even Louisville my hometown, is in the South.





:cool:I had grits for breakfast Saturday morning...in Des Moines, Iowa and I know that's not the south.In Iowa, if it can be done with corn, they do it.

Shhhhhhhhhhuuuuussssshhhhhh! This is a family board!:blush: