The Great (Household) Debate

Tim and I are were both born and raised in the Midwest.  We've lived in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois only.  The other night, I was telling him how much I have grown to love country music (yes, you read that correctly), and how I have always felt like I should have lived in the South.  He looked at me, sort of dumbfounded and asked, "Then why aren't we moving to Austin??"  (Quick backstory - his company is moving to Austin - we can move if we'd like, but it's not necessary and he can keep his job in Chicago).

At that point, I returned the dumbfounded look to him.  I have always believed that Texas is not in "the south", but rather, that it was all on it's own - with it's own culture and norms, but very different from the traditional south.  We debated for awhile, and then I turned to social media.

I asked, "Name one state that you consider to be in the south" on both Facebook and Twitter.  Out of 100 responses, the results were:

42% Georgia
28% North Carolina
12% Alabama
11% Texas
7% combo of Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina and Florida

For the record, I told him that I thought the number one response would be Georgia.  At least I definitely won that debate.

Because neither of us have ever lived in any of the above places, it's hard for us to really debate this issue.  His territory for work is Dallas and every inch of Texas north of that, but besides that, neither of us have spent more than a vacation in any of the above places.

So help us out, do you consider Texas to be part of "the south"?  And not just by location, but by culture and way of life?  Bonus points if you are Texan - tell me your true feelings!  Is this accurate?

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