Tuesday, June 19, 2007

North vs. South -- Part I

I returned from my long weekend in South Carolina, most of it spent at ASLE or at a post-ASLE trip (for acronym, scroll down to 2 blog posts ago). And I have to say that many of my misconceptions about the South have been both challenged and upheld during the 3+ years that I've lived in my Southern State. And one of the things that people have said to me is that there is a difference between North Carolina and South Carolina--that the two are quite different, with an emphasis on North Carolina being "better" (and by this it is generally or literally stated as less conservative/more liberal/less backwards/more tolerant/less redneck/more cosmopolitan). Of course most of the people telling me that NC is better, more tolerant than SC are either native North Carolinians or South Carolinians who now live in NC.

But I have to say, I think it's true. At least in my brief experience in the Southern of the Carolinas, it is true. I'll save the details for later, when I have more time, but for now, I'll just say that among other things that were said either directly to me or directly to the group I was with, were a reference to "the war of Northern Aggression" and shooting "tree huggers" and someone who "loved watching Fox News in the morning."

Welcome to Dixie! Thank goodness I'm now home in the comfort and safety of my liberal college town.

3 comments:

jo(e) said...

Another ASLE blogger! I wonder how many bloggers there were at that conference altogether ....

Jennifer said...

Well, I know there's an ASLE blog, and I also met someone at the Post-conference Penn Center trip, Tom Wilson, who has a blog, http://www.tmwilson.org/welcome
so I suspect that there are quite a few ASLE people out there. Anyway, thanks for finding me and would love to know what you thought of the conference, so feel free to post more comments after I finish my "North vs South" series.

Paul said...

Glad you survived South Carolina. Should've e-mailed you but am still working on this chapter and will send it to you, tail between legs, this Friday.