Meager1 said:
I don't know if I'll ever talk like they do, but I wouldn't mind it.
As long as you drive a carr instead of a cah, grow your trees in the yard and not yahd, and refer to our state as Floorida instead of Flar'da, you'll do fine :P What most people from the North don't realize is that they have literally destroyed the southern half of the state, except for maybe a few holdouts along the north side of Lake Okeechobee, with their overpriced real estate scams and foisting their big city "superior" way of doing things upon us. Anyone who moves into these gated communities where you can be fined for sneezing in the wrong direction and plops down their Mediterranean villa is complicit in this travesty somewhere along the line. The lands that we used to play in are gone, and it's all from this overwhelming "invasion" from the North. That is literally how it is viewed, and families that have lived in Florida 100 years or more are livid about it, though we will rarely tell you to your face. Furthermore, those in the N FL where you are have seen what has happened in the south and are very wary of it spreading to where they are.
Generally the "Yankees" live in their own segregated neighborhoods, go shopping at their own special venues, and only converse with their "yankee" friends because they are the only ones who can tolerate them; they have no ties to the community. We are merely servants for them because they did the honor of parking some of their money in our town, therefore we owe them.
Where I work, being somewhat of a backwater area, though not quite as far out in the boonies as you, pretty much all of the rank and file are native Floridians. When somebody with a New York plate pulls up and that accent comes out of their mouth...the yankee Defcon alarm goes off and you immediately go on the hitlist :P I'm only exaggerating a little. If you're still culturally Western I think you will be seen as more of an exotic curiosity than an "enemy." I remember this guy from Kansas who came to work with us for awhile, sweet kid, and we all basically considered him an "interesting foreigner." As long as you respect the land, and don't try to civilize the locals with your superior way of doing things, they will like you. And there are some of them out there that really are redneck hillbillies that will make you go "OMG."
This was kind of ranty, very politically incorrect post, but that is the backdrop you've moved into, and while a lot of it is probably that ponerogenesis divide and conquer stuff, there are some genuine reasons for the animosity in my opinion. Just be aware.