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[GlyphGryph]

My conceptions of the south: There food is delicious but makes me sick, probably because I ate too much and I know I'm going to gain five pounds from that meal along.  There's a lot more hardcore Christian religious, and even the moderately religious are more common. I'm pretty sure I've never even been in a class where everyone is Christian, for example.

People are really obsessed with cars driving around in circles instead of the local obsession of bring an object to within the opponents score area.

The division between the city and the country is much more stark, and rurally you should try to avoid looking like a cultural reject if you want to get along well with people (while in, say, Atlanta, looking like the right kind of cultural reject can be a good thing)

And finally, they are far more likely to be fat. The only southerners I know that aren't fat are the ones who haven't lived in south for 10+ years. But then again, I've had southern food - if I lived in the south, I'd be very very fat as well.

[Telgin]

I'm from the rural parts of South Carolina, so I've seen it all personally.  In general, the people vary here as much as anywhere else.  I know people who range from blowing up or shooting everything on sight to Ph.Ds in theoretical computer science (yes, in the rural areas).  So, as with anywhere, painting the south with a broad brush is a dangerous thing.

Now, if you want to go into generalizations, there are things about the south that I believe are... backward.  Particularly with the older generation, prejudices are frustratingly pronounced.  Less so with race these days and more on anything that you could consider liberal (speaking of gay marriage or socialized medicine will get you all but lynched by some people...).  Good and honest rednecks can range from mildly amusing to downright painful to observe.

Of course, those sorts exist everywhere.  Since I haven't really lived anywhere outside the southeast, I'm basing my expections of other regions being more open about these things on my preconceptions of those places. 

The food down here is pretty fantastic, I will vouch for that.  And I used to be quite obese, but I've lived here for 25 years, and I managed to get down to and maintain a weight of 160 lbs, so it's clearly doable.  There are quite a lot of fat people here though, I won't dispute that.

[i2amroy]

Now, if you want to go into generalizations, there are things about the south that I believe are... backward.  Particularly with the older generation, prejudices are frustratingly pronounced.  Less so with race these days and more on anything that you could consider liberal (speaking of gay marriage or socialized medicine will get you all but lynched by some people...).  Good and honest rednecks can range from mildly amusing to downright painful to observe.

Of course, those sorts exist everywhere.  Since I haven't really lived anywhere outside the southeast, I'm basing my expections of other regions being more open about these things on my preconceptions of those places. 

I think I've got to agree with you here, at least in terms of the Southwest and West coast as compared to "the South" (which I always personally think of as the "Southeast" ). I think one of the biggest differences is that we have a whole lot of diversity forced into our faces when we are young (especially the closer you get to California), ranging from different religions to different skin colors to different sexualities. I can say for a fact that I personally have never been in a class that was all one religion through all 16 years of my schooling so far. And even the religious private schools tend to be composed of a variety of different denominations for that religion, calling themselves "christian" schools or something similar rather then "methodist" or "catholic" schools. (Though with one notable exception in the Utah region with Mormonism. After all Salt Lake City is pretty much the mormon equivalent of the Vatican for the Catholics.) Basically all of the diversity just forces us to be more accepting.

Though if you think about it the Southwest has especially been accepting of other races over other regions, even before it was officially the Southwest. After all the Spanish had been marrying natives in the area and being accepting mixed blood long before the rest of Europe got there, and then when it was "the west" it didn't matter if somebody was black, yellow, blue, gay, or straight, as long as they could shoot well enough to keep the Indian war bands off of your homestead they were welcome to help.

[MaximumZero]

What are your preconceptions about the south? I don't mean like, Kentucky south, I mean like, semi-rural Georgia south.

It's too fuckin' hot in the summer. I'll stay up north, eh?

[ggamer]

What are your preconceptions about the south? I don't mean like, Kentucky south, I mean like, semi-rural Georgia south.

It's too fuckin' hot in the summer. I'll stay up north, eh?

Holy shit yes. Not this summer, but last summer I had to make up a new term (SATAN) for the heat it would hit most days (Over 100 degrees with wind chill).

A couple of weeks ago our football team played another small team from Sandersville. Holy shit, you want to talk about middle of nowhere? This school was down the road from the fucking kaolinite plant. Not only, but the assholes cut off the visitor's lockerroom AC and it was 110 degrees I'm certain.

That's the most miserable i've ever been before a game.

The food down here is pretty fantastic, I will vouch for that.  And I used to be quite obese, but I've lived here for 25 years, and I managed to get down to and maintain a weight of 160 lbs, so it's clearly doable.  There are quite a lot of fat people here though, I won't dispute that.

Try having a mom who makes the most fucking delicious food ever. I swear, I don't know where southern women learn how to cook, but wherever it is has probably crushed itself from food-based hedonism.

On that note, another things people aren't quite prepared for is how... big some southern people get. I've got a couple of friends (they're brothers) who work on their dad's land. One is kind of weasly and dumb, and the other is... hooooly fuck.

So I am like 6'5 and about 300 lbs. and this dude can fucking look down on me.

Yeah, there are a lot of people like that. I think my size is less work (Though I do contribute whenever my dad is working around the house) and more gene/food combo.

Anyway it's great to see that everyone is so accepting! Matter of fact, there are a lot more southern people on this forum than I thought previously. That's good to see, Cultural diversity is always a good thing.

[Thecard]

Yeah, I moved from California to Virginia.  Best choice I've ever made.  Of course, I live in a university town, so we're pretty much an isle of blue in a red sea.  It's real fun though, in the south, especially since I have a speech defect.  I can't pronounce some sounds, which kind of blends in with a southern accent.  The food too.  I've never ate this much in California (of course, I get much more exercise out in the country).
But yeah, you're bound to get horrible teachers.  Doesn't make it suck any less when you get 'em though, huh?

[Telgin]

Try having a mom who makes the most fucking delicious food ever.

I do.    There's a very good reason I once weighed just over 300 lbs. (and no, not the muscle type).  After I moved out I was able to get that under control, by cooking for myself.  Pretty much everything I make though, I think, "Man, mom could have done this soooo much better..."