Do you consider yourself/county/area to be Appalachian?

Submitted by thepennsyltuckyin t3_10b5m8i in Pennsylvania

Incase anyone is unaware most of PA is by ARC(Appalachian Regional Commission) definition Northern Appalachia.

Having grown up in Perry County I consider myself to be appalachian, but I'm curious what others opinions are. Pennsylvania is mostly in the mountains so as a central PA native it's always annoyed me that the south east is usually what outsiders think of when they think PA. I personally think we have more in common culturally and historically with the rest of appalachia than we do with the SE. The ridge and valley section of PA, while poverty does exist, it economically benefits from being able to have farming to some degree just like the Shenandoah Valley. But when you get into the rolling hills it becomes harder to find work and a lot of local economies struggling because coal, natural gas or lumbering moved or is moving out of the region. We also tend to form tight communities and there are families who have been in these hills for hundreds of years which created a lot of the same self reliance. My dad grew up on a farm in Schuylkill County and he acts very appalachian but doesn't consider himself one. His reasoning was because it came with such a negative stereotype he didn't want the label. And because no one thinks appalachian when they think PA you can get away with it. I'm not claiming we are one for one with the other states, but appalachia is a region like any other because regions have subregions. New England is New England to people not from there. Someone from Maine is a little different then someone from Vermontand someone from Kentucky is a little different than someone from Northern Georgia. I also think PA can be broken up into loads of different subregions if you want to get picky. But dammit we are more than germans and amish. So I'm curious if people agree or disagree because I am one man who can not speak for the entire state. Any Perry County folks disagree I'd love to hear why!

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big_hoagie_eater t1_j49s7b3 wrote

I grew up near Johnstown. I didn’t have much interaction with anyone from the eastern half of the state when I was growing up. I visited Philadelphia for the first time when I was 20. I joked with my friends how it was crazy that I’d been to 24 states by that time and I had never been to Philly. I didn’t notice the stark contrast that exists between those from eastern PA and those from western PA until my first year at Penn State. It’s more than just the Sheetz vs. Wawa feud. Pennsylvania is truly like two different states on a cultural level. To your point about the accents, many people also guessed that I was from the South when I was at school. Texas was the most common guess. Little did they know I grew up two hours away.

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LittleLight85 t1_j496iug wrote

>it's always annoyed me that the south east is usually what outsiders think of when they think PA.

As a SEPA resident, it’s what I think of too. Sorry but the rest of the state might as well be a completely different state to me lol.

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cvfdrghhhhhhhh t1_j49m67w wrote

Yep. People think of Philly and Pittsburgh because the cities and inner-ring suburbs are where the vast majority of the people in PA live. You can be annoyed at it all you want, but that’s reality.

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GraffitiTavern t1_j4d4xlh wrote

Gonna respond to this one because I see this repeated a lot, but that is not in fact reality.

Philly: 1.576 million

Bucks: 646k

Montco: 860k

Delco: 576k

Chester: 534k

Allegheny(Pittsburgh): 1.250 million

Total: 5.442 million / 13 million total state population = less than half

(even if you threw in the Lehigh Valley with 700k people it'd still be less than half)

I don't even care that people assume PA is like SEPA btw, I like Philly, it is still the most populated region of the state and has by far our largest city as well as largest media presence and economy. The rest of the state isn't just unpopulated tho, and that's a claim I see repeated quite often. The other subregions aren't especially similar to one another either, even the ARC parts, which is one place I will disagree with the OP.

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TwoMuchIsJustEnough t1_j4l8uoi wrote

Pittsburgh MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) is 2.37 million which brings the total Pittsburgh and Philadelphia pop to approximately half that of the state.

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Bella_Lunatic t1_j49fp5t wrote

Grew up in the Allegheny foothills. Definitely Appalachia north.

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Ct-5736-Bladez t1_j49u47b wrote

I live within 10 minutes of the foot of one of the blue ridge mountains which are part of the Appalachian mountains. So yes to a degree

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thepennsyltuckyin OP t1_j48b6jf wrote

Something I forgot to add was accent. I've been told by a doctor in Maine and my gf that they thought I was from the south because of my accent. Certain parts of PA definitely have what I would call an "accent lite." It's there, but other people definitely have it thicker.

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GraffitiTavern t1_j4d5cbq wrote

yknow, growing up in the woods I could always differentiate a 'backwoods/redneck' accent from a southern accent, didnt think until now that someone not from the region wouldn't hear that difference. i mean the southerners would call me a yankee because how much I bite into hard 'A' sounds (appa-lay-cha, crayfish, etc)

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RhydianMarai t1_j4ax626 wrote

I'm from Berks but I have a specific memory from high school regarding accents. We were at a statewide competition and got identified as being from Berks due to sounding "a mix of hick and South" whatever that means.

I have more a PA Dutch accent than anything due to my grandmothers and family friends speaking it(parents have a slightly heavier accent than me).

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rlittle120 t1_j49hkzl wrote

My dad grew up in the Skook, too. Definitely Appalachia, hard to delineate from central WV geographically. I am proud as hell my family is from there with a mining background. Despite how backward the area may be, that region built America, period.

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aught4naught t1_j4b2uya wrote

They don't call it Pennsyltuckey for nuthin'.

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nachobitxh t1_j4ak9qc wrote

Nope. Lake Erie region

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Dispatcher12 t1_j4cyd7k wrote

Delco born, then lived in SNJ from age 9-25, then ten years in Chester County, now 15 in Tioga. Is this Appalachia? Overall, yeah. I learned this the week I moved here when, after I finally found the Radio Shack hard by a dairy farm on a dirt road, I discovered that it was also an RV dealer, a piano and organ dealer, and had an impressive array of taxidermy courtesy of the couple who ran the whole thing.

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GraffitiTavern t1_j4czdv9 wrote

This is interesting to me since I grew up south of you in western Adams county, in the South Mountain area, which is the northern tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains in MD and a bit of PA. The Appalachian connection was definitely there, we listened to bluegrass, lot of Western PA cultural influence, everyone had a small plot farm on the side, and a lot of people had family in the other parts of Appalachia. The Trail was only 20 minutes away. But we were also in Dutch Country, there weren't buggies around us or the big rolling farms because of how hilly and forested it was, but there were quite a few Mennonites and we had much of the same food you could find throughout South Central PA.

In short, we considered the area Appalachian, but not as Appalachian as WV, KY, or SWPA. We were kinda like the Appalachian foothills, with Mid-Atlantic, PA Dutch, and Appalachian culture, a unique mix to our little corner in South Mountain and the Cumberland Valley. Some joke about the East-West divide but I've lived in like 4 different parts of the state and each subregion has it's own unique thing. Western PA has far more Midwest influence that you get in Central PA in my experience. Love the geography of this state.

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Alternative-Flan2869 t1_j49hd1z wrote

Never did until mastriano, perry and those folks entered leadership positions.

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michaelscarn1313 t1_j49oq4o wrote

I live in Chester county and grew up in Bucks county. So honestly I did think of PA as Philly and the counties around it + Pittsburgh. Although as the years progressed I recognize that the Lehigh Valley and parts of the Harrisburg area are good places to raise a family. Otherwise unfortunately I do consider much of the state as beautiful but basically Appalachia and places were people want to move away from as they grow up.

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Allemaengel t1_j4buwg3 wrote

No, the Poconos represents its own weird little world.

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swissmtndog398 t1_j4ghoz8 wrote

I live in Perry now and consider it Appalachia. I'm from berks originally...I do not consider that Appalachia.

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artisanrox t1_j4gxjgo wrote

No, to me that's a Virginia/Carolinas thing.

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