Reply #15: My answers

[LeftinOH]

1. Northern Ohio

2. Northern Ohio

3. Elementary school era (1970s). I saw it on stickers on cars, in pickup truck rear windows, on iron-patches that were put on kids' denim pants and jackets, etc.

4. Puzzling, because we were living nowhere near the South, and by then I was learning the fundamentals of the North vs South struggles in their historical context. Also, the ROOTS miniseries was all the rage, and all the kids were watching it and talking about it at school. I asked my parents why there were so many confederate flag images in our area, and the response was 'beause there are so many damn hillbillies around here.' As I grew up I began to realize that all too well.. especially when other kids would talk about "going UP to" Kentucky/Tennessee/West Virginia, etc to see their relatives. Yes- an alarming number of them always went 'up' South on their summer vacations. I clearly recall one kid in later elementary school who occasionally made comments like "the South's gawn' raahze agin"..which I found baffling, since I simply felt that, hey -you live here now, you're 11 years old.. get over it. Thing is, our relatives were also from those same areas, but I had no special affinity (nor antipathy) for the South, or for Southern culture in general. Maybe it depends on the parents.