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<p>It’s also the difference between - in the North, Catholics who wanted their children to be exposed to religion created and sent their children to parochial / Catholic schools - as opposed to in other places, where Christians who want their children to be exposed to religion try to insert it in the public schools (prayer before the football game and things of that nature). It’s a huge difference in mentality, IMO.</p>
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<p>Ha! Did you live in Beverly, by any chance? Was Notre Dame the school spoken of with reverence?</p>
<p>^ No, Beverly is on the Southside, a different world.
I’m Westside—Austin, then Oak Park. But Notre Dame received its due reverence among many of my peers.</p>
<p>Fish/seafood lunch of choice:</p>
<p>Maine: lobster roll, clam chowder
Maryland: crab cakes (with cole slaw)
Massachusetts: fried whole-belly clams (with french fries)
Michigan: grilled Lake Superior whitefish sandwich
Minnesota: grilled or fried walleye sandwich (with wild rice soup)
Mississippi: fried catfish (with hush puppies)
Miami: grilled grouper sandwich, conch chowder
New Orleans: oyster po’ boy
Seattle: grilled salmon or grilled halibut sandwich, clam chowder</p>
<p>Chicago Region (NW Indiana): Lake Perch
Maine: lobster roll, clam chowder
Maryland: crab cakes (with cole slaw)
Massachusetts: fried whole-belly clams (with french fries)
Michigan: grilled Lake Superior whitefish sandwich
Minnesota: grilled or fried walleye sandwich (with wild rice soup)
Mississippi: fried catfish (with hush puppies)
Miami: grilled grouper sandwich, conch chowder
New Orleans: oyster po’ boy
San Francisco: Dungeness crab, Cioppino
Seattle: grilled salmon or grilled halibut sandwich, clam chowder</p>
<p>Maryland: i couldn’t decide between the crab cakes or the muskrat. I went with the safe choice. :)</p>
<p>It wasn’t too long ago that the Catholics and Lutherans in many small midwest towns didn’t ‘socialize". My parent’s generation saw a lot of that. My mom went back for the town festival in the tiny (under 500 people) town that she grew up in and after the Catholic Mass the “kids” were all going to go to the Lutheran service. One of the "kids’" mom wouldn’t let him go :D. This “kid” is a leading neurosurgeon now :D. The younger generations don’t care.</p>
<p>I’ve NEVER heard that Catholics don’t see other Christian religions as Christian.</p>
<p>regarding speed of talking. My grandfather was from ‘the old country’ (ie/ Ireland) and I was raised in our local Irish community, the center of which was our large Irish dancing group. Most of my dance companion’s parents were born in Ireland and spoke a mile a minute. My husband coudn’t understand most of them when he met them when we were in high school!</p>
<p>I’ve known Catholics who don’t believe that Protestants are “true” Christians – and some who pride themselves on never having stepped inside a Protestant church. I’ve also known Protestants who have the same feeling about Catholics. Fortunately, as far as I can tell, those divisive beliefs are in the minority and getting more and more rare.</p>
<p>The South has not had many Catholic churches until recently, and most Catholics here are immigrants – either from Mexico and Central America or from Northern states. Interestingly, however, there is a long tradition of Judaism in the South. There are some very old congregations, mainly in port cities like Charleston and Wilmington, and a number of very well-respected legislators in Southern states have been Jewish. I’ve known a number Jewish people who moved to the South because they were impressed by the cooperation among Christian and Jewish congregations. I would encourage Jewish students to consider schools like the College of Charleston and UNC-Wilmington, as well as UNC and NC State – all of which are in or near communities with large, active (mostly Reform, I believe) Jewish congregations.</p>
<p>I don’t know if its been mentioned but don’t bring up the movie Fargo in Minnesota! We hate it! Fargo may have been filmed in MN but the city its self is in ND and we don’t sound like that at all!! If you bring it up people will look at you like youre stupid</p>
<p>I have found that many people are using the term “bag” rather than pocketbook or purse. Is this a regional thing or a newer trend?</p>
<p>I think the bag thing has grown in conjunction with the designer “bag” craze. A purse is a more generic thing, but a “bag” is more high end and special. It is short for “handbag” which is the term that my mom always used.</p>
<p>Stradmom said: “When my son’s 8th grade class couldn’t travel to Israel after 9/11, the school chose to send them to the Southern US as the next best thing to a “foreign” experience. Nuff said?”</p>
<p>That is hilarious!</p>
<p>(sadly I still don’t know how to make a quote show up in that little box)</p>
<p>In my British Commonwealth childhood, a lady would have a handbag containing a purse. Males carried their money in wallets, females in purses only. So I like the present trend towards the term “bag” for a handbag, rather than “pocketbook” (strictly US English) or “purse” (due to my history, I still tend to think of this as a wallet).</p>
<p>On the religion point, I think it’s true that in the South people are more likely to talk about religious topics–including doctrinal disputes.</p>
<p>As for Catholic views of non-Catholics, this is the kind of thing I was talking about:
[Salvation</a> Outside the Church | Catholic Answers](<a href=“http://www.catholic.com/tracts/salvation-outside-the-church]Salvation”>http://www.catholic.com/tracts/salvation-outside-the-church)
Clearly, it’s something that has changed over time–and official views (of all these churches) probably is quite different from what rank-and-file members think.</p>
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<p>A major exception, of course, is southern Louisiana which has long been predominantly Catholic. Northern Louisiana is more like the heavily Protestant South. The large Hispanic populations of Florida and Texas are also predominantly Catholic, and at least in Texas, many Hispanic families have been there for centuries. Most of the rest of the South is still overwhelmingly Protestant. Arkansas is the least Catholic state in the nation (5%), followed closely by Alabama (6%), West Virginia and Tennessee (7% each), South Carolina (8%), and North Carolina and Mississippi (9% each). Georgia (12%) and Virginia (14%) are a bit higher but still well below the national average, and I suspect many of the Catholics in those states are immigrants from other parts of the country, likely concentrated in the Atlanta and DC metropolitan areas. </p>
<p>In contrast, most Northern and Western states are around or above the national average of 24% Catholic. Most Catholic: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island (43%), New Jersey (42%), and New York (39%). Illinois (31%), with Chicago’s large Irish, Italian, Polish, and Latino populations, and California (31%) with its large Latino population are also well above the national average, and higher than their surrounding regions, though cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis/St. Paul also have large Catholic populations, bringing their respective states up around the national average. Indiana (18%) is the least Catholic Northern state. The Pacific Northwest (OR & AK 14%, WA 16%, ID 18%) is the least Catholic part of the West. </p>
<p>[U.S</a>. Religion Map and Religious Populations - U.S. Religious Landscape Study - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life](<a href=“Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics | Pew Research Center”>http://religions.pewforum.org/maps)</p>
<p>No doubt it’s true that Catholics now feel welcome in most parts of the South. Historically that hasn’t always been the case. There’s often been a lot of discrimination against Catholics. In its most virulent form, the Ku Klux Klan was viciously anti-Catholic, especially in its second national incarnation in the 1920s when its hate was directed as much at Catholics and immigrants as at blacks. Although there was also some Klan activity in some Northern states, anti-Catholic discrimination in the North more often took the form of exclusion from jobs, housing, and educational opportunities, and was often hard to separate from discrimination against particular ethnic groups (Irish, Italians, Poles, etc.). </p>
<p>This is also consistent with Hunt’s earlier observation that ethnicity (as opposed to race) plays a much bigger role in the North. Immigrant populations in Northern cities used to be tightly clustered into distinct ethnic enclaves, with their own churches, stores, and social and economic networks. You still see that among newer immigrant groups. Many of the older immigrant groups have spread out, though you still find remnants of the old ethnic neighborhoods, and some older immigrant groups remain somewhat clustered. Some Chicago neighborhoods (West Rogers Park) and suburbs (Skokie, Wilmette) are heavily Jewish, for example, though these were not the old Jewish neighborhoods which were much closer to downtown. A lot of Poles moved out along Milwaukee Avenue from the old Polish neighborhoods on the near Northwest Side to the far Northwest Side of the city and out into the northwest suburbs. And so on. There was less late 19th and early 20th century immigration to the South, and the South remained less urbanized, so there’s a lot less of that ethnic clustering, and fewer people have strong ethnic ties, except among recent immigrant groups.</p>
<p>Battles over prohibition of alcohol were also fought largely along religious lines. Most (but not all) of the “dries” were Protestant; many (but not all) of the “wets” were Catholics. To this day you’ll find some heavily white protestant “dry counties” in Southern states; I’m not aware of that phenomenon in the North or West. But some Northern states still join probably the majority of Southern states in prohibiting or sharply limiting off-premises sales of alcoholic beverages on Sundays; such “blue laws” are much less prevalent in the West. I’d rate that a major regional difference.</p>
<p>When I was young, our neighbor (in Midwest) was from Long Island. I used to babysit for her and thought it was odd that she called her purse a “pocketbook.” Her little kids said “pockabook” and what sounded to me like “arn juice” (orange juice). And they also pronounced my name differently. I got the impression that pocketbook was an east coat, or at least Long Island, thing. We always called it a purse. Money was kept in a wallet inside the purse. </p>
<p>Never heard of Catholics saying Protestants aren’t Christian, but I have heard them called “Our Separated Brethren” many times. I, a Catholic, lived in strongly Baptist areas (including small towns) in the south (in the “least Catholic state”) for many years with no problem–just a few of those “Whore of Babylon” and “Catholics Worship Mary” tracts. Many times people would ask: Are you a Christian–“Yes.” Have you been born again? “Well, yes, I’ve been baptized. . .” Have you found a church home? “Yes, I go to SAINT X”–end of conversation! H is a southern Catholic–almost all of his childhood friends were Catholic and Jewish–the minority groups would stick together. </p>
<p>PG RE: “. . .as opposed to other places, where Christians who want their children to be exposed to religion try to insert it in the public schools (prayer before the football game and things of that nature).”</p>
<p>That’s not exactly it. In many places, especially in the south, in smaller cities and towns, they would never see themselves as “trying to insert religion into public schools.” These are their local schools and they are all Christians, so they see it as living their faith in their daily lives. Their kids are “exposed to religion” in every part of their lives, and school is just another part of it. It is their culture and the prayers have always been there. That is, until an outsider complains and tries to “take Christianity out of their schools.” At my kids’ elementary school, the (Baptist) principal would quote the Bible at parent meetings and everyone (including all the Hispanics–about 1/2 the school) would say “Amen!” to that. She reflected the community’s values, no one complained. (There was nothing “denominational” in what she said.) Personally, I thought it was a good thing. But I wondered if she would last a day in the university town down the road.<br>
No one ever complained about religious Christmas displays–the bigger nativity scene, the better!
Another thing I noticed in the south is that MANY people are opposed to Halloween celebrations. Even the Catholic churches in my area preached against it.</p>
<p>atomom is right–I can remember an elementary school where they did the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer before assemblies–it’s very possible that nobody at all complained about it. In lots of parts of the country, small towns in particular used to be very homogeneous. I think this is less true everywhere now, and it’s certainly not going to be the case in most college towns.</p>
<p>atomom – The anti-Halloween sentiment among some people is a fairly recent (past twenty years or so) thing. When I was growing up in the rural South, trick or treating was very common and I never heard of any opposition to it. Now it is preached against by some fundamentalist churches, but where I live trick or treating is still a big deal.</p>
<p>Grew up in small NE town, mostly Catholic…most folks thought Catholicism was the most popular religion in the US by far…they lived in a bubble.</p>
<p>edit…and I definitely got the vibe of superiority from them</p>