Submitted by JayhawkInMaine t3_xxwbay in Maine
I bought a house outside of Lincoln a few days ago. After living in the land of “southern hospitality” for the last decade, I’ve been blown away by the kindness of everyone I’ve met so far.
Sure, every place will have those that are hard to get along with, but I have to hand it to Mainers. They sure know how to make a new guy feel welcome. It really puts the southern hospitality bit to shame. 😂
Edit: spelling
In New York they are neither kind nor nice
Good thing NY isn’t New England
I thank god for it every day
Not in my expereince. Witty, funny cynical and very helpful.
"Fuck outta here" is just a term of endearment when riding the subway and you've got to deal with someone's shenanigans. 👍🏻
Native Mainer here. I lived in Georgia for ten years. I found southerners to be friendly, but neither nice or kind.
The difference I noticed in New England hospitality vs Southern (born+raised in ME, college in GA, 6mo in TX, now in VT) is that in New England we seem rough on the outside but we'll genuinely help anyone with anything. Southerners are more focused on manners than actual kindness or be neighborly. NE holds genuine hospitality above politeness and in the South it's the other way around. Lots of fake smiles and not a lot of real kindness. That said, I still loved my time in GA and the people that are genuinely kind beyond the Southern polite facade are wonderful!
Definitely feel the point on manners vs kindness. A buddy of mine grew up in Texas and when I went to visit him he said "everyone will act super nice but are underhanded AF," and "if someone says "bless your heart" you break their jaw".
TX was the absolute worst. I never felt more unwanted and out of place as I did there. Everyone was so fake nice, if they bothered to fake it at all, it was awful. This is a sweeping generalization, but they were legitimately some of the worst people I've ever had contact with.
I told my buddy the phrase "don't mess with Texas" was incomplete because the full phrase should be "don't mess with Texas, it isn't worth your time"
Another one is "I love her to death but - " which means "I hate this person but am trying not to sound mean about it".
Summed up beautifully. I spent the last 10 years in south central GA.
This sums up our experience of moving to maine after spending decades in the south perfectly!
Moved to Maine 2 years ago. Was gassing up at the local store , still had my NH plates on the truck and the music on the player was Grateful Dead. Another car pulled up and the driver got out and started filling up, heard the music and nodded to me in appreciation. Saw the plates and asked "first time in Maine"?. I nodded yes and he reached in his pocket, pulled out a nice big Fatty and handed it to me with a hearty WELCOME TO MAINE!
Mainers are extremely generous and proud to be that way,
Jerry is always the answer.
r/thathappened
You underestimate deadheads.
And Mainers.
r/nothingeverhappens
And everyone clapped?
Proud to be generous—so true but I never realized it before
I lived in Tennessee for 20 years. I can count on my right hand the amount of "Southern Hospitality" I experienced.
Day 2 of moving into my house, my neighbor here gave me his AC unit to use.
I love Maine and Mainers (even the jerks)
I found Southern hospitality to be conditional.
Oh, they will be very friendly but the moment they find out that you, say, aren't Christian, that hospitality can change at the drop of a dime.
I don't feel that about Mainers. No one has yet asked me about my religion since I moved here... and I appreciate that.
My best friend lives in Kansas and I was shocked when she told me it’s normal to be asked what church you go to in casual conversation. Maine is incredibly secular, that’s just not done here. (And welcome, belatedly!)
Maine is the least religious state in the country. One of the many reasons I like it here.
I think maybe I've just lucked out, but that hasn't been my experience at all.
I moved to the South from Maine. All of my friends and neighbors down here are super religious - like, "my dad is a preacher" and "my family owns a church" kind of religious. I'm not religious at all.
We've been down here for a couple of years now and nobody has tried converting us to be Southern Baptists haha. We get invited to and usually attend the post-church Sunday barbecue events. We invite them over for dinner, attend their kids' birthday parties, have beers/bourbon together, etc.
Honestly, living here is the first time I've ever experienced anything close to a sense of community. I know and like almost all of my neighbors, and I've become good friends with many of their family members. We help each other out with lawn stuff, dog/house/short babysitting requests, checking to see if someone left their garage door open for them, etc.
Welcome to Maine!
Sunday will be a month for my family and I moving here from south Florida and the people here are AMAZING! These are my people. People in SF are so nasty. I love it here. Its amazing to see the fall foliage and will be mine and the kids 1st time for snow 😲 I'm looking forward to it.
Welcome home! ❤️
Thank you!💚
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I wish everyone who moved here from Massachusetts’s, New York, and Connecticut during the pandemic were as appreciative as you are lol.
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"Southern Hospitality" is fake as fuck. I spent quite awhile bouncing around and living down that way and the one thing that stuck was that for as sickly sweet as they come out of the gate they don't mean any of it. They are also real quick to turn on friends and family over things that my yankee ass took to be trivial shit based more on "What will people say!" than any real fucks to give.
Isn’t the traffic adorable?
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I get startled by cars in the oncoming lanes sometimes when I’m not expecting them lmao
I mean it is Lincoln--the Deep South of the Far North
The further north you go, the further south you get
grew up in downtown lincoln & can confirm their are great folks there & around. i don't drive so one day doing errands from citgo to machias savings i used the shuttle but had multiple offers for rides while waiting for it. as much as it can be suffocating i do miss the friendliness of the people now that i'm in the camden/thomaston area.
South is nice because they have to be, north is nice because they want to be.
I’ve never like southern hospitality. It all feels fake and disingenuous to me, especially compared to hospitality around here. Up here if someone is being nice you know most of the time that they are genuinely being nice and not just because it’s what’s expected.
I once heard it described as :
Northeast is kind but not nice
South and west are nice but not kind
Im from TX. Mainers blow that southern hospitality away for sure! They are one of a kind here and i love it
I didn't have that experience when I 1st moved here. My 1st experience was rudeness and cruelty. Behind my back where they thought I couldn't hear them they made fun of my Southern accent, called me a hillbilly And the whole bunch of other things and while I'm sure some people will read this and laugh, that wasn't the experience of someone who was in a state where they knew nobody, all alone trying to readjust to a life they wasn't used to 1600 miles from home needed to hear by people who pretended to her face to be kind people. I hated it here for my 1st year. I stayed away from everybody and everything. but in the last year I have met just as many kind people as I have met rude. So to be completely honest it's really no difference in the South. there are just as many douchebags in the North as there are in the South. Just as there are as many kind people in the North as there are in the South.
The concept of "Southern Hospitality" exists as a way for white people to flex on being slave holders. If you don't have to do any work, it frees up a lot of energy for stuff that otherwise doesn't need to be done.
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Yessssssss! Welcome buddy!
I’ve met very few friendly Mainers.
lol. Lincoln is definitely not Southern. Your talkin’ way up they-ah! I was born and raised here (62 years) and as far as I am concerned, anything above Augusta is Northern. I live in the Portland area. In fact. my ex husband (72) has many relatives who live in the Bangor area (his father was born I believe in Bradford) and he and his sister talk about going up and ‘visiting the Northern relatives’!
Psst: I think he lived in the southern US previously and move to Maine recently. At least that's what I got front he post. Not that he was calling Lincoln the south.
Exactly. Moved here from GA.
Georgia has great peaches….
My kiddo was born in GA!
The south just wasn't for me though. I gave it 4 years or so... My ex's family was fantastic and most of the people I met, but it never felt like home to me the way Maine does. Of course... I had to leave to figure that out lol
My puppy is from Georgia! She was a rescue they sent to the shelters up here from there when there was a disaster I think
Ah…gotcha
LOL, Lincoln is north central Maine. I'm from Caribou, anything not in Arostook county is southern Maine.
Southern here. In Maine right now. Southerners are kind and hospitable. Mainers are too. But damn they can't drive.
The guy who was handed a fatty wins. That's hysterical and wonderful.
Interesting, because I spent some time down south last year and was terrified for my life more than once because of the way you guys drive down there. Sorry, but northerners are definitely better drivers IMO.
Aw did someone honk at you for not turning right on red and hurt your feelings? Bless your soul
Nope. I turn right on red.
Y'all sure are ... sensitive...when someone calls out bad driving. Must have landed.
You southerners enjoy the sly remarks and acting nice only to throw an insult after every compliment. We're a little more straight forward around here.
I'm quite straightforward. There really are some awful drivers in Maine. Trucks and Subarus mostly.
The worst drivers on the planet are in Maryland. Atlanta is a close second.
Fun fact, statistically the safest drivers in the country are Massachusetts drivers. Massachusetts has the fewest road deaths per miles driven of any state.
You don't see a shred of r/thathappened in that story at all? Not one "and everyone clapped"?
Lol Mainers will die before they admit that they are shitty drivers. I guess it’s not really their fault though, usually highway hypnosis from the endless roads or drugs. Lots of people drive high up here.
petrified_eel4615 t1_ireclsj wrote
I've heard it said that New Englanders are kind but not nice, while Southerners are nice but not kind.
I also think a lot of it has to do with climate - Southerners don't know that winter is coming (winter is always coming) and even if you hate the guy next door you help him out because you never know when you might need the same.