Reply to Please explain Southern-style communication to a clueless Yankee

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]I feel Southern men do more of the things such as:  holding a door open for a female, letting a female step forward onto an elevator first, opening a female's car door, etc. Also:  letting older people walk in front of you (such as exiting an elevator first, or stepping onto an elevator first), or giving up a seat for an elderly person (basically, anyone older than you) or for females.  I never really paid attention to these things before, thinking them the natural order of the universe ;) [/b], but when I went to college (Midwest, but drew people from every region of the US, so what I am mentioning next is not targeting Midwesterners), I found myself pretty shocked and actually hurt or offended if people did not do these things!  I know it sounds silly now, but I did feel like these folks were being rude and were just generally a bit more clueless than the people I had been used to at home.  I had a boyfriend and a BFF from Calif. and I used to talk to each of them about this and they both thought, individually, that it was absolutley insane for me to pay attention to these things, and that they were so much more enlightened and easy-breezy to treat everyone, regardless of gender or age, etc., in the same egalitarian fashion.  However, I to thsi day still prefer to follow the "rules" I listed above, and I  must confess I do feel most comfortable around folks who do these things too!  ;)  So, this is all to say:  Northerners (and other regions), it's not that we consider you rude, but it's just we've had it so hammered into us -- and reinforced by the social norms around us -- that it IS what Polite Peole (with a capital P and P) DOOOO, that yeah, the first knee-jerk reaction, when you see someone NOT doing it is, "Bless your heart, so-and-so just stepped onto the elevator in front of me."  ;)  Or, what-have-you.  [/quote]

FWIW, my DH (born and raised in northern New Jersey) does all of these things...his mother insisted on it.  [/quote]

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