I am a southerner, but.

[Blue_true]

I have always wondered why southern people like so much noise, i.e., loud vehicle mufflers, loud motor bikes, loud talk, ect. I grew up at the edge of a small city and the countryside, so eventhough I say that I was a country boy, I really wasn't. Is the noise a rural, small city thing? I don't see it in western or northern places, but I admit to only being in cities in those places.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Maybe because here in the North it's so freaking cold all the time

that people keep their windows shut and don't hear as much noise.

...I'm just bitter because it's snowing again...

[janx]

2. haha

Excellent reply!

[Scruffy1]

21. Expecting 10 more inches of sound deadener tomorrow.

Snow muffles a lot of noise. Honestly, though we have plenty of obnoxious noise in the north country. Snow plows, snow blowers, snow mobiles, ice crashing off of the roof and of course the sound of collisions at icy intersections.

[janx]

22. Great description.

I have lived in snowy places and loved that deadening of noise, but those noises are at least occasional and not constant.

[raven mad]

27. That was my thought, as well.

Excellent insulator for both noise and heat.

And the only loud crashes are the idiots on snow mobiles running into the other idiots in super-cranked up 4x4's.......... which makes my little Jeep giggle!

[BigmanPigman]

3. if it's all relative.

My sister just came back from Peru and she told us that everyone there is SO quiet. The people naturally speak and act in a more quiet way naturally. She said it was very obvious and almost embarrassing to be such a loud visitor. She has traveled all over the world and she said this was a new one for her.

She also noticed many dogs all over the place just walking around, sleeping, hanging out and all were ell fed and content.

[ProudLib72]

10. Check out the Peruvian Inca Orchid

Not sure if I want one, but they are very interesting looking.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. Not barking?

OMG! I might move to Peru.

I have gotten so I really hate dogs because of uncontrolled barking.

[BigmanPigman]

25. Maybe it's like the people, it's an unconscious

group behavior. Perhaps the environment has been quiet for so long it just became the norm for many living "animals". It was like this in large towns and small villages all over Peru.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. I suspect there's something more at work.

In this country people just assume dogs will bark. And far too many dog owners buy into that. They don't do anything to control their dogs barking: they leave them outside for hours on end and don't consider that the barking might be at all annoying to anyone else.

Really, this is why I more and more dislike dogs. I was already a cat person, but now that I'm assaulted with barking a lot more than I should be, I'm even more of a cat person. You never hear a cat meowing from half a block away. You don't walk into your back yard and have the cat in the neighbor's yard meowing fiercely at you.

I do wonder what the secret of the quiet dogs in Peru is.

[Mariana]

35. Dogs can learn not to bark

if they aren't ever rewarded for it. My next-door neighbors are deaf. They have this dog and it almost never barks at all, for anything. It must have learned a long time ago that barking is a waste of time and it just stopped doing it.

People unconsciously train their dogs to bark by responding to it over and over again. Dog is outside and barks at the door? Person gets up and lets the dog in. Dog stands by the empty food bowl and barks? Person gets up and feeds it. Dog needs to go outside to do its business? It barks and person goes to let it out. No wonder they bark for hours when they're lonely, or hungry, or bored or whatever. My neighbor's dog was never rewarded for barking, so it doesn't bark. It gets their attention in other ways.

[misanthrope]

4. it's a combination of ignorance, obnoxiousness and insecurity

It drives me crazy as well.

[mercuryblues]

5. Because it is so rural

in many areas that noise ordinances aren't enforced.

[janx]

6. I live in the Southwest,

and I don't like loud noises (except for music in my house or concerts). Some people here love to take mufflers off of vehicles and shoot guns and fireworks, and not just on holidays. Most sane people here hate it. So no, I don't think that noise pollution is limited to the South, meaning the South as a region.

[Laffy Kat]

7. I'm from the south too and I agree.

As a culture we tend to talk loudly(especially the women) and like noise around us. I have no idea why.

[XRubicon]

8. I grew up in the north east

loud talk... I am guessing we have you beat.

Don't feel alone on this stuff.

[Blue_true]

13. Northern people don't talk as loud, but seem more confident.

Here there seems to be some underlying insecurity. Way different from the north. West coast people are the quietest, IMO.

[smirkymonkey]

17. I am a northeasterner and I am very quiet. I am a native New Yorker, but I have

lived in Boston almost as long as I have lived in NY. I don't think we are very loud but I think a lot of it is cultural. It also has a lot to do with age. I can't stand loud people, but that is probably because I am very introverted and sensitive.

[XRubicon]

18. You are invited to my next family reunion...

[cwydro]

9. Ive lived in cities and in the country.

It’s much quieter in the country.

Love your generalization, btw.

[janx]

11. I don't think the OP is referencing the way people talk.

It has to do with noise pollution and explosions, things like that.

The volume of speech is also interesting though, and it does vary from place to place.

[SCantiGOP]

12. We like to blow things up

Remember the old SCTV show had a regular feature on blowing things up. The tag line was always, “It blowed up real good.”

And these were Canadians, but from south Canada.

[appalachiablue]

14. Maybe the whiskey and drugs, lack of the law? Ha!

It seems to me that the people and environments of large cities like LA and NY are pretty loud too.

Depends on what kind of noise maybe.

[Blue_true]

15. In cities, I hear regular car noise, occasional car horn honking.

Maybe guys on a street making noise for a few minutes. But nothing that is noise by design like purposeful loud mufflers, loud, high pitcher motor bikes, ect.

[appalachiablue]

16. True about lower level city noise vs. louder country vehicle noise,

and the car/vehicle a la NASCAR culture. Perhaps more fitting for the lifestyle and more rural, longer drives.

[GulfCoast66]

19. Totally disagree with your entire premise

My wife’s family live in he rural Midwest. At least as loud as he South with their trucks, tractors and seems like more motorcycles.

And ever been in a southern restaurant with a group from Jersey, NY or anywhere on the mid Atlantic or New England coast? Guess who dominates the decibel level?

Of all the boo Southerners posts I have seen on DU, this ranks as the most petty.

[XRubicon]

20. Pretty sure you have this right.

[Blue_true]

24. In my OP, I wondered if the issue was a rural, small city one.

I live in a small city, less than 180,000. The WestCoast, eastcoast, and northern cities that I visit are no less than 640,000 population. I honestly spend little time in rural areas, I don't like camping, fishing or hunting, so I have no reason to go into rural spots other than occasionally drive through them, or ride through them with family.

I was recounting what I have observed. BTW, I am a southerner, born and raised. But I travel and analyze cultures during those times.

[rusty quoin]

28. I know what you are saying, and

some of the things said are not necessary true.

I know Massachusetts and Boston, and let’s just say the Northeast. Nothing is low key about the working class there. “Hey Mahty. Come heah. Hey come oveah heah,” someone may yell right next to you. I hated it. It could be too crude, too loud, and too rough depending where you came from. I don’t like noise also.

Take my wife. She is from Ohio and her people don’t like that. It is too much. She moved to Mass post college and it was like culture shock to her. People were more friendly and looked at each other where she grew up, unlike the subway in Boston. I’m not saying anything against Boston except what I just said, because it is great. But some like a quite life.

After we married, we lived in several places in the USA, but none were as harsh as the northeast. They drive faster, talk faster, end another’s sentence. But one thing they don’t or didn’t like was NASCAR.

That was something about the south, at least back then. About your original question, I think you probably would know best. I think the history of home stills and the distrust of the federal government post civil war had created an environment for loud fast cars. It is like “Smokey and the Bandit” stuff. That is the South.

You like me maybe were born in the wrong place, but it is sure easy for us to adapt to other surroundings.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

32. Another theory..based on seeing my husbands

Family here in Texas..many ranchers and farmers and they all talk loud...maybe because they had to talk over loud tractors and farm equipment. And out in the middle of nowhere there was nothing to do so siblings had to out-project to get attention.

[quickesst]

29. Yep....

"Of all the boo Southerners posts I have seen on DU, this ranks as the most petty."

When I read the OP, my first thought was

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. Or petty to point out that someone else's thoughts are petty?

[quickesst]

36. So you agree....

..... that the "someone else's" thoughts are petty. I don't know if petty is the right word. I think pointless would be a better description.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. Touche!

[quickesst]

40. Here's to you....

.....Laura PourMeADrink!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. Have lived in north and south...you are so right!

In my experience anyway. Connecticut and Texas.

People in CT...much more reserved..Maybe Puritan background? There are many people who are two or three generations close to immigrant parents...I happen to think that the closer you are to being from somewhere else, the more reserved and mannered you are and the more tolerant you are.

Gross generalizations and of course exceptions to this I know...just my own observations sorry.

Here in Texas, I see people as much less mannered. Men completely dominating conversations by talking louder. People talking at once. Men and women typically separated in group settings. People having no discussion about anything except their own little world and never big ideas. Children the focus of all activities to a fault...they are spoiled and self centered and care little about the world. People constantly talking about other people's lives...even people they don't know.

[kentuck]

33. NASCAR

I consider myself a Southerner but I do not like loud cars or loud people. I prefer peace and silence to almost everything.

[panader0]

34. Well hush my mouth!

[applegrove]

37. I'm from Canada and we find all Americans louder than us. Maybe

Last edited Sun Apr 15, 2018, 05:02 PM - Edit history (3)

it is a race thing. More outwardly emotional because of shared history with Latinos and African Americans. USA was out extravertedly creating democracy and demanding rights 240 years ago while we in Canada were cutting down any 'tall poppy' until quite recently. An example is a cocktail Party in Winnipeg in the 1950s. A phone call comes that tells the host that a canadian diplomat has just won the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the idea of peacekeepers in the Suez. The hosts announces it to the guests. One matron immediately pipes up 'well who the he'll does he think he is!!!". Suppress, sublimate and be polite. Point is you got much from your shared history that was not available to other English speaking countries till immigration laws became less racist in the last 50 years, because diversity rocks. And the US has been a more diverse country, despite Jim crow, slavery and other heinous history (Canada is not immune from heinous history itself, just that it was different). Would explain the differences between North and South in the US as the different cultures developed.

[akbacchus_BC]

38. I am from Canada, originally from the West Indies, and we play our music really loud!

We Canadians are also loud but not as much as our counterparts from the US. Have seen a lot of guys thrown out of bars in Barbados for not adhering to the rules of the bar. Not all Americans are loud, my daughter in-laws are from Nebraska and they are very quiet spoken. Never visited the South, so I cannot compare.

[scarytomcat]

41. I have lived in many places big cities and small towns noise is everywhere.

bikers are very loud
cities and towns both have old cars with defective mufflers
children are always screaming dogs will bark
the thing to me is rural places usually have more space between people so less problems
cats rule dogs drool

[Codeine]

42. The booming bass stereos,

unmuffled lowriders, “performance exhaust” rice burner boy racer cars, leaf blowers, and Harley-motherfucking-Davidsons that plague the streets of Southern California would like to have a very loud word with your premise.