Where does the south end and the north begin in the state of Kentucky?
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I lived in Lexington for 43 years and recently I got married and moved to Covington. Lexington is mostly Old South while Covington has a Northern look with a bunch of row houses and lots of people hanging on their front porches. This is a major divide between Lexington and Covington. Lexington is beautiful while Covington is a dump that happens to be a Cincinnati suburb. The Mason-Dixon line is somewhere just south of here, maybe 20 miles.
Kentucky is an odd place, culturally speaking. I've lived and worked all over Kentucky (and the deep south--mostly Georgia) and I see it as being four different states culturally / geographically.
1) The triangle of Louisville, Covington, and Lexington is the bluegrass region. It's relatively upscale (compared to most of Kentucky), urban, and bent toward an odd mix of agriculture and commerce. I would not call it, culturally, southern.
2) Out east, say from Estill county to the border, is Appalachia. Mountain folk, their attitudes built by their rugged surroundings. Appalachian culture is completely distinct from southern culture. There was no antebellum period in, say, Pike County's history.
3) West Ky (where I currently live) feels like an offshoot of southern Indiana. The topography is totally different from the rest of the country (Corn, soybeans, and flat fields as far as the eye can see). Even the accents are a kind of nasal Southern Illinois accent.
4) The Cumberland Gap region (south central Kentucky) is part of southern culture. The lakes and rivers, the food, the speech, the general feel of the culture are all southern.
There you have it. Kentucky, one of the most culturally diverse states in the union.
This is well done. I, too, have lived in several Kentucky locations and would argue that economics plays more of a role in what actually occurs in the state than does geography. Much of the population lives in the Ohio River Flood Plain and is more connected economically, culturally and polictically to actions in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois than anything that happens in Tennessee or Georgia, except football, of course. The Old South stuff is mostly a romantic ideal left over from John Hunt Morgan.
Man most I'm, sorry are off base of the Western part. Born and raised in Paducah and darn proud of it! Always thought of myself as a southerner! In my neck of the woods it goes like this #1 God ,2 Family,3 Wildcat Basketball, 4 Horses and 5 Pretty Women all in a nut shell!
I lived in Arkansas (10 years and job related)and use to laugh at those pig loving people call us Hillbillies. Some were very good folks but I had my will drawn up to take me home to be buried in Kentucky. My Old Kentucky Home!
I lived in Arkansas (10 years and job related)and use to laugh at those pig loving people call us Hillbillies. Some were very good folks but I had my will drawn up to take me home to be buried in Kentucky. My Old Kentucky Home!
Grew up in the Jackson Purchase, spent a lot of time working in Middle TN, upper Alabama and Northern Miss. There is no difference in the cultures. Western KY and Middle and Western TN are basically the same as far as I could tell.
Now, I can tell a big difference in people from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois above Vienna. Just a different persona.
Now, I can tell a big difference in people from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois above Vienna. Just a different persona.
Ohio.
Border state. We're part southern, part midwestern and part Appalachian. I've been all over. Lived in central and western. Worked in eastern. Western KY to me is very southern. That's where I saw tons of "We're No. 2!!" flags every where. Eastern is a mix of southern and Appalachian. Central is a mix of midwestern and southern. Central is what I claim.
I have. I loathe redneck culture and refuse to participate in it and that's what I associate with being southern. I also don't get why people from any region think it's something to be proud of.
Border state. We're part southern, part midwestern and part Appalachian. I've been all over. Lived in central and western. Worked in eastern. Western KY to me is very southern. That's where I saw tons of "We're No. 2!!" flags every where. Eastern is a mix of southern and Appalachian. Central is a mix of midwestern and southern. Central is what I claim.
I have. I loathe redneck culture and refuse to participate in it and that's what I associate with being southern. I also don't get why people from any region think it's something to be proud of.
And that's fine but many people feel a sense of belonging and a sense of community by identifying with a place. It's not unique to Kentucky or southerners. It's been happening since history has been recorded. Lots of wars have been fought simply because people were from different areas and had different beliefs.
Being southern doesn't make you a redneck. You can be southern and be redneck but they are not interchangeable.
Kentucky is an odd place, culturally speaking. I've lived and worked all over Kentucky (and the deep south--mostly Georgia) and I see it as being four different states culturally / geographically.
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That map is pretty much the way I have always viewed the state...with the exception of the North Central part. I always considered Louisville a section All to itself...because it is. And I consider Lexington to be the capital of the Central KY region. And Northern Kentucky is its own little world...part of Kentucky but not really.
As others have stated...your take on WKY is horribly inaccurate. WKY is nothing like southern Indiana.
Most of my ancestors came from Virginia and North Carolina. I have extensive knowledge of my family tree and have no ancestors that came after the revolution. As you go into southern Illinois and Indiana, you start to get German populations that came to the US Post 1840. These folks are dominantly Lutheran and Catholic. KY has portions of the state where these groups are, mainly along the Ohio and in northern KY. Those people do not have roots into Virginia and Carolina. That is where things change culturally. Back to Bill Derington's comment
...southeastern Illinois has old Anglo populations that are very southern culturally.
Rural parts of KY in the west are dominantly Anglo Celtic and very southern. Central as well. Eastern as well, but it becomes more Celtic and less Anglo. Louisville and northern KY have a mix of post 1840 immigrants and colonials.
...southeastern Illinois has old Anglo populations that are very southern culturally.
Rural parts of KY in the west are dominantly Anglo Celtic and very southern. Central as well. Eastern as well, but it becomes more Celtic and less Anglo. Louisville and northern KY have a mix of post 1840 immigrants and colonials.
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No it is not. Mason and Dixon were surveyors and it is not some imaginary line that the uneducated made up, it is a real line surveyed and marked the states boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. People who say it is the Ohio river do not know American history.
You must be a millennial. Plenty of attitude, absolute judgement of superiority, and little to back it up. Just get your information from Facebook and twitter. My advice is to travel with an open mind and keep your eyes open. I have lived all over and there are rednecks and cultures of prejudice from Massachusetts to Tennessee. There are also great people from Palo Alto to Manhattan.
The South has flaws like anyplace else but it also has great social traditions such as being welcoming, helping your neighbors, and being polite and respectful to others. Lots of the rural southerners that are labeled rednecks are really fine people who don't fit the PC criteria developed by the national media and entertainment industry. While Cousin Eddy wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer he had a kind heart. That counts for something.
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You guys are splitting hairs on the differences in the state. By far, the biggest divides are between Applachia and inner city/subberb/rural. The rest of it is gradual change like the rest of the country.
The only place the south might end in KY is Covington as it is really an extension of Cinci.
The only place the south might end in KY is Covington as it is really an extension of Cinci.
Human beings are an odd lot. The collective attitudes of the people in your geographical area have absolutely nothing to do with your individual character. Who you are is a product of the choices you make as an autonomous individual. This whole business of who and what "my people" are is pure tribalism, the irrational desire to shift personal, individual identity to the faceless, collective masses. This is the same kind of knee-jerk behavior that causes lemmings to run off cliffs.
It is beyond me why people get angry over general characterizations of a particular region, as if I walked up and kicked your dog. The truth is that you, me, and anyone else reading this post are not southern, or northern, or anything in between; we're individual human beings with thoughts, dreams, and desires that exist nowhere but our own minds.
I shouldn't be surprised. We now live in the regressive era, where lessons we supposedly learned 200 years ago have lost their didactic inertia. We have re-become a people who identify ourselves not as individual, principled beings with agency over our own lives, but as slavish devotees to clans, tribes, and flags.
It is beyond me why people get angry over general characterizations of a particular region, as if I walked up and kicked your dog. The truth is that you, me, and anyone else reading this post are not southern, or northern, or anything in between; we're individual human beings with thoughts, dreams, and desires that exist nowhere but our own minds.
I shouldn't be surprised. We now live in the regressive era, where lessons we supposedly learned 200 years ago have lost their didactic inertia. We have re-become a people who identify ourselves not as individual, principled beings with agency over our own lives, but as slavish devotees to clans, tribes, and flags.
In my travels when people would ask me about the South.... I would say that Kentucky is not really any region.
Kentucky is just plain old Country... At least that is what it felt like growing up in and around Augusta right on the Ohio river.
People in the north are smart and they tell you, people in the south are smart and you find out.
Forgot I made this a few years ago. Seems fitting. One county is missing for the purpose of the previous thread.
It is, seriously. A guy in MS told me he was my Mexican half brother. He wasn't Mexican. Boom. Done. I returned North and played squash at the club
Oh I know. I was using my generalities brush because this topic gets brought up once a year and it's fun to get people worked up. I take this stance in all of these threads.
Gen-X but tail end, so you're close.
I'm sure there's rednecks everywhere. There's tons in my own family and they are mostly nice people, but willful ignorance/lack of education and being proud to be a moron is something I don't deal with very well. That's a flaw I have. I'll admit it. I also know it's not limited to the south, but you're full of it if you think it's not more prevalent down there.
However, in my personal observations - completely free of facebook and twitter - the people who give a **** about being southern to the point of taking offense if someone knocks it are typically rednecks. Clearly I struck a nerve and I do it in all the southern threads. And I knew I would this time and any other time by posting something not "yee haw SOUTH, y'all" on a UK message board.
Mason Dixon line ends in Maryland. Until the 70's, largest city in the South was Baltimore not Atlanta. I would say KY fits pretty snug as Southern state.
I would say there are more hillbilly jack asses in Indiana that I have run across. They are the worst, they want to look down upon the so called Southern neighbors to the South but most are John Cougar red necks. A very different dynamic.
I would say there are more hillbilly jack asses in Indiana that I have run across. They are the worst, they want to look down upon the so called Southern neighbors to the South but most are John Cougar red necks. A very different dynamic.
Have u been to Jessamine f@&king County KY? I swear I saw a dude having sex with a banjo.
Leave Lex and Louisville out of your sick fantasy cuz we are sophisticated ******.
That is not a good example of a Southern man. That is a good example of a dumbazz.