Comments on: Face it, Northern VA - there’s nothing northern about you

By: Meade

Meade — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:45:59 +0000

I really liked your post! I grew up in Loudoun County, and I consider myself a Southerner and a Virginian. My family has been in Virginia for generations- mostly in the Richmond area, and I also have ancestors from the Deeper South

But many people I knew in the area were from some place else, and would not even call themselves Virginians, let alone Southerners. Its really a shame they dont want to admit they live in the South. I know its the northern edge of Dixie, but its still South- and the history of Northern Virginia is culturally identical to Tidewater Virginia and the Carolinas.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:53:09 +0000

I’ve lived in Maryland all my life and let’s face it Dr. Dzoe, the only reason the great State of Maryland didn’t go with the confederacy was because the Union Army was sitting outside the state house in Annapolis. We’re also south of the Mason-Dixon line, which makes us southern.

While NoVa isn’t a state in it’s own right, the whole DC suburbs area is out of place with the surrounding area in both states and both act and vote more like northern than southern states. That doesn’t change geography, unless you plan on bribing someone to make a map with our area taken out and mysteriously reappearing above the Mason-Dixon line.

That being said the problem most Marylanders have with Virginians is that they come into our state and drive funny. I know I do this too though when I go into an area of VA I don’t know but still, Virginia is an evil place full of bad drivers that never know where they’re going and at least when I’m confused and someone lets me in I always give them a thank you wave.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:02:15 +0000

Hey! I’m northern Virginian and I agree with you completely!!! I was born in Fairfax and raised in Loudoun County.

Most of the people here are from other parts of the country, like my grandparents came from Minnesota, NJ, CO and PA. Pure north. But I was born here, even if I have northern roots I still consider myself southern, like many other people from NOVA. We really do need to respect our southern brethren before they get too pissed off at us and then we’ll be completely broken off from any region in the US.

By: Sharon Stapleton

Sharon Stapleton — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:44:21 +0000

This is sooo Funny! And, dead on target! I just moved from Fairfax, VA (Northern Virginia) and always made it clear that I was from Northern Virginia too. I’m a native New Yorker (Upstate, not Downstate, we have our “wars” as well), so the thought of admitting to living in the “South” was just too much to bear. I’ve told many people that Northern Virginia really was NOT part of the South anymore but part of the North since there were just so many damn Yankees there anyway. But, let’s face it - Fairfax and Arlington Virginia ARE part of the South and will for ever be part of the South. Like it or not, Damn Yankees. In Northern Virginia they have roads named after the “losing Generals” of the South (Lee-Jackson Highway), which amazed me at first when I got to NOVA. Why name a highway or road after a losing general on the losing side of a terrible war that the Southerners should be ashamed of? Well, the Southerners ARE NOT ashamed of their past. They are not ashamed of their brilliant Generals. They are proud of their past and they will let you know that in quick fashion.
I now live in North Carolina. The REAL South, or it is to me anyway. I admit, I do so love being away from my Northern Nasties. The local folk are gentle, kind and oh so pleasant to deal with. I don’t have to put up with “Attitude” like I did in NOVA or in NY. Being around nicer people makes me be nicer too. And that makes me feel better and happier. Just like the song, The South Will Rise Again - Well, the South HAS risen! And this New Yorker LOVES IT here in the South!!!

Viva la South! Wish those damn Yankee Carpetbaggers would stay the heck up in the North and not come down here and wreck it for the good Southern folk or the fed-up Northern folk who just want to be left alone and not have to fight over everything - from the parking space to the comma placement in a sentence - to anything and everything no matter what.

So, your assessment on Northern Virginia and West Virginia were right on target! I hate to admit it, but I too have made my share of West Virginia comments. And I also hated Maryland. I hated Maryland so much that I think I stepped foot in that state about 8 times in 25 years. Why go there??? I have no clue why there is such a division between Maryland and Virginia but I do know that if you live in Maryland you hate Virginia and if you live in Virginia you hate Maryland and the twain never meet. Why this is I just don’t know…

Keep writing!!! You are funny and so correct!!!!! Sharon Stapleton.

By: Dossy Shiobara

Dossy Shiobara — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:07:48 +0000

Holy crap, I’m still laughing … this is some of the best writing I’ve read on the intertubes in a while.

Funny, being from New Jersey (yeah, shut up you), I’ve always thought “Northern” Virginia was just Southern DC. Hell, anything south of Newark, NJ is considered “the south.” Viriginia (and that includes “Northern” Virginia) is “the Deep South.”

Every time I drive down Waxpool Road, I think I faintly hear that Deliverance music in the distance.

By: Dr Dzoe

Dr Dzoe — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:53:41 +0000

No, we’re northern! After all, we were on the Union side in the Civil War. Well, okay, we were occupied by the Union army. But it still counts, right? And maybe I do have a Billy Bass, but it was a gift, so it doesn’t count, right? And we’ve got to be northerners, because we’ve got the traffic jams to prove it. Yeah, take that, you West Virginian yahoo. We’ve got bad traffic and you don’t, so we’re ever so much more sophisticated than you. So there!

And don’t forget: Virginia (NOT West Virginia, but the good state) has had more presidents than any other state. And that means sophistication - why, a president can’t be an ignorant boob…

I think I’ll go away now.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:01:49 +0000

This post made me laugh. I’m a native of Northern Virginia and tell anyone that asks I’m from Northern Virginia or the DC Area. When I was in school in the mid-west I’d say I was from Virginia and I’d get the “But you don’t have a southern accent” and various other questions about traditions and customs of the south that I know nothing about. You drive an hour south of here and start to enter another world — the pace slows, people are more polite, nascar becomes a sport, sweet tea can be found in every restaurant, … I don’t have anything against virginias from further south, but I don’t necessarily relate on many things.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:41:03 +0000

Great observations! But you’re pretty new here, eh? It’s already far too late for Northern Virginia to be accepted back into the great state of Virginia. The “DC Area” got the boot generations ago for its pretentiousness. Ever since the earliest Beltway Bandits bought their first import cars, the children sprung from those back seats have earned their reputation as some of the most spoiled and overprivileged people this side of Beverly Hills. When I was doing the college party circuit between Blacksburg, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Farmville, and Fredericksburg nearly 20 years ago, I frequently heard the exclamation “please don’t tell me (s)he is from NORTHERN Virginia!?!” This mockery usually occurred over a keg of Wisconsin beer, a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, and some fine southern home grown. Yes, Bill, there most certainly is a distinction, but not for any of the merits a Northern Virginian will claim.

- a hillbilly Upstate New Yorker turned Southern Virginian

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:41:25 +0000

Northern Virginia could try to separate itself from the rest of Virginia because most people living there are transplants from other parts of the country. But, most of those transplants have historically been from the South while northerners tend to move to the Maryland suburbs that surround DC. Of course Maryland was also part of the Confederacy. :-)

I don’t think Northern Virginians call it “Northern” to deny they are from the South. I think it is the classic hatred between urban and rural areas. I grew up in Central New York and much of the population there would love to have nothing to do with NYC.