You’d be surprised how many Sooner fans are on this side of the Red River! My step-BIL lives in Plano and hangs a gigantic OU flag on the front of his house every game day.
I like to torment my co-workers by displaying my OU car flag on football Fridays, and during the NCAA tourney.
You can start looking at what businesses are in and around Longview by going to Yellow Pages on the Internet like
Yahoo’s yp.yahoo.com,
changing your location to Longview, Texas
and typing in whatever…restaurants, Blockbusters, utility companies…
Then you can check www.mapquest.com (or map site of your choice) for fun.
TXU Energy (Texas Utilities) is the big utility company down here, although utilities were deregulated in Texas last year(?).
East Texas is pretty. I think it’s the Piney Woods part of the state & the terrain does change from region to region in Texas.
The trees are tall & the weather’s a mite cooler, IMO, than central Texas or the muggy Houston area.
Yeah, here it is in my old World Book, “The northeastern part of the [Gulf Coastal] plain is a timberland with thick forests of oak, pine, sweet gum, and other trees.”
East Texas & the Austin hill country can be fairly picturesque.
People also drive into Louisiana to go gambling in Bossier City.
And don’t forget to check out distance learning classes. You can take more and more classes over the Internet. There’s quite a few DFW univs. that offer entire degree plans over the 'net: “Be on campus for just one hour!”
Gunslinger lives there in Longview; I’ve been there several times and I’m slightly familiar with it. It’s in the piney woods, on the oil field. Lots of trees. Much flatter than I’m used to, and with less visible water (but many lakes within driving distance). My apartment is in the middle of everything, with a putt-putt course, a strip mall and a grocery store nearby. (However, it’s not in the real commercial area, so it’s not too bad a place to live.) Longview is much, much bigger than my hometown. Much. Much. Did I mention that Longview seems absolutely huge to me?
Expect me to fall down in a faint when I visit Dallas for the first time.
Gregg’s a wet county. I ran into the wet/dry county confusion in Mississippi, too. The county my university was in seemed to be… neither, really. I guess it was just a “damp” county. You could buy beer and stuff in the supermarkets, and there were liquor stores in town, but you couldn’t buy cold beer at the convenience stores - just room-temp, and put it in the fridge yourself. 
Longview’s “normal” - you can pick up an ice-cold beer at the gas station, and there are liquor stores and the like.
One of the great things about Texas is the ubiquity of Dr Pepper (and the ready availability of soft drinks in glass bottles). That’ll almost make up for the lack of Tastykakes.
Oh my - I am of the opinion that Longview is OK for a smaller town! Down the road is Athens and Henderson, really small towns. Can I come with you on your first visit to Deep Ellum? I just want to see your expressions!
Deep Ellum is a artist-y, hippish part of Dallas with great clubs, performance artists, etc.
Seriously, I hope you come to love Texas as much as I have these past few years. It’s a huge state, with just about anything you could want or need. People here are very proud of their state and heritage.
You want a really small town? Go to Gladewater! (And even that is bigger than my hometown. We have a population of maybe 1,000 - MAYBE - the people are outnumbered by the cows.)
Maybe it’s just a Houston thing, but one big difference I’ve noticed between driving in Texas vs New York is yellow lights. In Texas, apparently, a yellow light means “hurry up, it’ll be turning red soon”. For that matter, the first second or two of a red light also means “you can still make it.” A driver with NY reflexes will end up either getting rear ended when he slows down at a yellow light or t-boned when the light turns green and he drives out into the still moving cross traffic.
Repeat after me: “Ya’ll.”
racinchikki, when you go to the county tax assessor-collector’s office ( see http://www.co.gregg.tx.us/government/tax_office/overview.asp) to register your car you will need to have your car’s saftey inspection certificate and proof of insurance. And, you need proof of insurance to get the safety inspection, so the insurance stuff is the first thing to finalize.
If you like Dr. Pepper, you’ve got to take advantage of getting some that’s still made w/ REAL sugar. The only bottler that’s allowed to use the good stuff is SW of Ft. Worth (in Dublin). And it’s even available online http://www.dublintexas.com/dr_pepper.html & http://www.dublindrpepper.com/
And, re: sales tax, it varies by location - I think Longview is the same as here in Plano (8.25%), but, as mentioned, no state income tax…
Have you decided yet where you’ll go to school?
Sorry to hear that. He will regret it for the rest of his life. Aggies are special.
Which is reflected in the type of education they receive.
Tell everyone that now that you’re from Texas, you’re embarrassed that President Bush also is from Texas. That seems to go over real well…
Well, I’m not at all embarrassed. 
Welcome racinchikki! Now you’ll be close enough to come to a HouDope Fest.
JohnCocktoasten, I’ll be getting an associate’s degree in journalism from Kilgore College. (Best college newspaper in the state.) After that, I may go on to get a bachelor’s somewhere, but I won’t be ready for that until after at least two semesters of school, so I’m putting off worrying about where to go for it. And thanks for explaining the order of insurance/inspection/registration for me.
Ringo, I look forward to it!
Violet, I do that already. And get looked at oddly for it up here. I’ve explained “all y’all” to my Yankee friends, too. They still think I’m weird. (“You were born and raised in New York! You have no reason to say y’all!”)
Little Nemo, your description of Texas yellow light behavior sounds like Massachusetts drivers. (Which is why we New Yorkers call 'em Massholes. ;))
(I’m trying very hard to be polite and respond to everybody. If I missed you, please don’t feel bad! I appreciate everybody’s responses and help! :))