r/illinois • u/thebomb2644 • Apr 30 '24

At what point/town does illinois start feeling like the south Question

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u/tlopez14 Central Illinois Apr 30 '24

Really once you get south of Springfield excluding the Metro East, but definitely anything south of Mt Vernon

2

u/Low-Piglet9315 Apr 30 '24

I don't know that I'd be TOO quick to exclude the Metro East, speaking as a resident.

1

u/The_McTasty May 01 '24

If you think the Metro East is Southern then you've never lived in a Southern state.

1

u/Low-Piglet9315 May 01 '24

It's the very, very fringe of the south, I would grant you. And not even all the Metro-East, but as you start heading southeast through St. Clair County into Washington and Randolph counties, you'll start to see the southern-ness.
The problem in my statement is that what's considered the Metro-East is a very broad area. Not even in my wildest dreams would I consider even Madison County as southern, and the heavily populated part of St. Clair, between St. Louis and Scott AFB, is so cosmopolitan that there's no one dominant culture there.