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Comment by freshyill

11 years ago

Here in Maryland (certainly not quite the South), it's conspicuous along the DC Beltway. It has definitely gone from "hey, is that kudzu?" to "holy crap, there's a lot of kudzu on the Beltway." Still, I've never seen it in one of our densely forested parks, or anywhere else but along the highways.

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freshyill

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moron4hire  11 years ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "certainly not quite the South". Maryland is the northernmost state of the South. The Mason-Dixon line, carving along the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, is almost universally considered the demarcation between the North and the South. There are still several places in Maryland flying the Confederate Battle Flag. It's most certainly a part of the South.

  • jacobwil  11 years ago

    Maryland (at least around Baltimore and DC, in my experience) often feels like a no-region's-land: many Southerners will claim it's the North and Northerners will claim that it's the South. Maryland definitely feels like it's where the lines blur.

    • freshyill  11 years ago

      Yeah, this is exactly what I meant. It's definitely straddling both the North and the South. So much of the state and its culture are very un-South. You won't find its deep blue politics on a large scale anywhere else below the Mason-Dixon Line. The fact that it was founded explicitly as a Catholic colony puts it at odds with most of the rest of the South. This resonates even today.

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  • freshyill  11 years ago

    Like I said, not quite the South. Geographically, it's below the Mason-Dixon Line, but's a pretty informal means of designating what's The South. Other than location, the state probably has more in common culturally with the northeastern states. And climate-wise, which is really the only thing that matters when it comes to kudzu, it's definitely not the South, even though summer here can be pretty oppressive.

  • jeffwass  11 years ago

    American North Vs South is cultural, and there's no one clear designation.

    Having lived in Maryland for 8 years, and 25 years north of the Mason Dizon line on the Northeast Corridor, and having travelled to all 48 contiguous states and visited the U.S. south extensively, I fully agree with the original posters assessment that it's not quite the south.

    You bring up the Mason-Dixon Line, but why not the Civil War, another very clear North/South divide? Most Maryland soldiers fought for the Union during the Civil War. But as you said there are still some state parks named after General Lee.

    Cuisine is another cultural aspect. Culinarily there's not much native Maryland cuisine that I'd associate with the south. Maryland is most famous for food associated with the Chesapeake Bay like crabs and seafood soups and stews. You'll find more places serving traditional southern foods like Chicken fried steak and BBQ, more than up North but not nearly as much as further South.

    Accent-wise, there is a slight twinge that some native Marglanders have but it is nowhere near the southern accent you'd hear as you go further south into Virginia.