@Dutchess_III The definitions are a little variable, although I personally would never consider Texas part of the midwest, but I also kind of consider Texas all it’s own. I don’t usually think of it grouped in with the south, but it also makes sense that it is. It has more to do with how our country was settled with other stuff thrown in. I read up a little more on MO and since it was with the south on slavery it was aligned with the south, but they didn’t choose to secede so it is different than the other souther states. Kentucky also, a border state, and resisted secession, although to me Kentucky is much more southern than Missouri in terms of when I visit how it feels to me.
Back to how the country was settled, there was the original 13 colonies and you can and divide that into north and south. Then there was the old northwest, states like Michigan, that are now considered Midwest. During the Louisana purchase that territory as it was settled was west, but as we continued to settle even more west the old northwest states were midwest and then our western states and finally getting to the Pacific we have our west coast states. Our country is so huge we divide up the regions I think partly as a shorthand.
I have seen maps that divide the south from a very broad definition and then narrower, whoch some maps call the deep south.
Add in we all move around now, it gets more confusing. When my friends moved to Sunrise, Florida years ago, west of Ft. Lauderdale, they were questioning their move when their children came home singing Jesus Loves Me from public school. The northeast Jewish invasion had not quite taken a real hold yet out there. LOL. Boca Raton Hotel was a southern getaway and someone told me the used to not allow Jews, which I don’t know if that is true, but probably the idea that they were not wanted is true, and now Boca Raton, FL is 25% Jewish and supposedly one in every three households there has a Jew in it. Those Jews are from the northeast for the most part and Boca Raton is nothing like a southern city. But, drive one county up, just north of Palm Beach in places like Tequesta, Florida and it is Evangelical land. Many of the people there and further north and central have had families in Florida for generations, they are the original Florida “crackers.” A state like Florida, it is hard to classify it at this point in my opinion. But, more and more all states are becoming a big mix, especially states that are georgraphically in the southern part of our country because with the advent of airconditioning, people have been migrating down for a few generations now.
I guess it depends how you define what makes something or someone southern. Then you have to decide is it location or the people that southern up a state? Then it deoends how much you want to divide up the regions. Some New Englanders don’t consider themselves northeasterners, they are New England, and states like NY are northeast. People in the south probably would never bother making the distinction, even they were very knowledgable about which states are New England states.
None of it really matters. When it comes to mayo habits the midwest and the south are very similar in my mind. I have to worry about them putting it on my sandwich automatically in both places. Both also do things like put ketchup on a hot dog. Not everyone I realize, I am just talking about stereotypes and generalizations. It has to do with who settled where and how long ago. It’s like one is really better than the other. My husband puts ketchup and mustard on a hot dog, but he’s Mexican so what does he know.
