From: ljhr@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu
Newsgroups: alt.appalachian
Subject: Yankees (was hats and carbonated beverages)
Date: 26 Jan 93 22:29:26 GMT

In article <C1FG31.118@hpuerca.atl.hp.com>, mhr@hpuerca.atl.hp.com (Mike Reaser) writes:
> In <1993Jan25.192832.3298@mlb.semi.harris.com> luoni@jasper.mlb.semi.harris.com (Perry Luoni) writes:
> 
>>In article <25JAN199312293827@lims02.lerc.nasa.gov> afallen@lims02.lerc.nasa.gov (E. Allen Arrington) writes:
>>>
>>>Down home (southern W.Va, Wyoning Co.) we call pop...pop ;-)  And yes, I 
>>>always put peanuts in my Coke!!!!  These poor yankees don't know what's 
>>>good.  I have even managed to convert my wife (native of Pittsburgh Pa.) 
>>>into a coke and peanuts lover.
>>So what is exactly the definition of a yankee?  I mean all of these WV people
>>talking as if they aren't yankees.   WV fought with the North during the
>                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>Civil War so that would make them (us, I'm from St. Albans WV) yankees 
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>wouldn't it.  Anyway Civil War seems like an oxymoron to me, how can
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>a war be civil?  And when southerners say that the south is going to
>>do it again what does that mean? Lose?
> 
> 
> WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> My great-great-grandfather was born in what is now Monroe County, WV,
> lived his entire life in Monroe and Greenbrier Counties, but _NEVER_,
> _NEVER_, _NEVER_ considered himself a "Yankee".  He fought in the War
> of Northern Agression on the side of the South, and I have the service
> records to prove it (as well as the rifle, shotpouch, and powder horn
> he used in the war).
> 
> Before you make such broad generalizations, you better get your facts
> straight.  There were many, many border counties included in the state
> when West Virginia was formed which were included simply because the
> U.S. Congress said they would -- these counties never had any "say" in
> the matter beforehand.
> 
> That's the reason there is a clause in the West Virginia constitution
> which allows any county to secede from West Virginia and return to the
> state of Virginia, simply by a majority vote.  In 1984 Mercer County
> held such a vote, and the return to Virginia was defeated by only 
> 54% to 46%.  (This is from memory.  I was born in Princeton, my dad's
> parents and sister still live there, and there was even some limited
> national news coverage about it.)

Indeed, one must get one's facts straight.  Although popular opinion and the
prevailing public educational system portray the War Between the States
(neutral enough term?) as strictly a North vs. South issue, this isn't totally
correct.  West Virginia was indeed a state divided, but so were Kentucky and
Missouri.  There were troops on the Union side from many of the Confederate
States.  Much of eastern Tennessee was pro-Union territory.  Virginia also had
quite a few troops on the Union side.  On the other hand, there were many from
Union states who rode south and joined the Confederate Army, especially from
Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Much of Maryland was under martial law to prevent
seccession.  I bet the war would have been over much quicker had Maryland done
so and Washington D.C. been surrounded by hostile armies.  Arizona (at the time
a U.S. territory) tried to join the CSA as a state, but this was late enough in
the war that the Confederate government had more to worry about than whether or
not to admit Arizona.

Speaking of states which never were, there was an attempt to organize a state
of Franklin in what is now eastern Tennessee.  I think that the War of 1812 got
in the way of this attempt.  I think there was also a state of Deseret
organized out west (maybe where Utah is now) that also didn't get off the
ground, so to speak.

When I was living in Knoxville, TN, I read of a county in northcentral
Tennessee that had seceeded from Tennessee during the 1860's over allegiance
questions, and had only formally rejoined the state in the early 1980's.  They
made a little bit of a deal of it in the papers.

Who is a Yankee?  I read this definition in Reader's Digest a few years ago:

In the world, a Yankee is a citizen of the United States.
In the United States, a Yankee is a resident of a state north of the
Mason-Dixon Line.
North of the Mason-Dixon Line, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England.
In New England, a Yankee is someone who lives in Vermont.
In Vermont, a Yankee is someone who eats meat pies for breakfast.

The National Lampoon, some years ago, had this definition:

The entire population north and east of wherever you happen to have been born.

Have fun with this, kiddies!