Texas is not the Fourteenth Circle of Hell.

And why is that?

BTW thats a cute little state you have there!

TM from AK.

If Alaska was cut in half, Texas would become the third largest state.

Lucky you, racinchikki. I lived in Texarakana for a few years and really enjoyed the whole East Texas, and four state area. I had some great times in Longview and Tyler, and have warm memories of the great folks I met there. Check out some of the Chili cook-offs. Good fun - great parties!

Just is darlin’. It’s not JUST the land, you see.

~J

Texas is so big, it contains all the circles of Hell.

Except for the one called California. :smiley:

I stopped overnight in Longview not too long ago. The woman at the motel desk was just DETERMINED to be helpful. She said, “I’m giving you the military discount.” I said, “We’re not military.” She said, “Your credit card is from Navy Federal Credit Union, that’s good enough for me!” Now THAT is Texas hospitality! :smiley:

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Longview is in the really pretty part of Texas – lots of rolling oak-covered hills, and in the spring the wildflowers are HEAVEN. You’re close enough to lots of big cities that you don’t have to feel isolated.

I still miss living in Texas. I’d move back in a heartbeat if I could figure out a way how to persuade someone in Papa Tiger’s company to give him a job there…

Permafrost and glaciers don’t count.

I always figured California was purgatory.

Let me repeat that. All the other drivers are bad.

We’re just evil. There’s a difference!

Don’t be silly :rolleyes:

California is Limbo! :smiley:

Ok,
From Here

Dont mess with Texas PFFT!

Cite?

While I was out jogging tonight, I found two of them crawling around on the sidewalk, engaging in some kind of pre-coital ritual.

~CRUNCH~

If anyone’s curious, PoorYorick’s telling the gospel about drinking while driving in Louisiana. Eight states allow passengers to drink in moving vehicles.

racinchikki, Gen. William Sherman once said “If I owned both Hell and Texas, I’d live in Hell and rent out Texas.” :smiley:

Say, oliversarmy, Gunslinger works at the paper.

What department? I work there now (photographer). Want me to say hi to anybody for you? :slight_smile:

racinchikki, find out when the bluebonnets will next be in bloom (it’s a tad late for them this year, of course). It will be worth any drive to go and see them–they are simply breathtaking!

And take a picture for us fellow Dopers who haven’t seen them in years! I moved from Texas in 1983 and haven’t seen a field of them since then. It’s one of the few things I miss (hey it ain’t the state I hated, it’s the town I lived in. If Texas ever needs an enema, the hose will be inserted in THAT place!). I lived in the coastal bend area so you won’t be anywhere near that. I am vaguely familiar with the area you are moving to, since years ago my family spent about a week each year in Big Sandy till I was about 12. The last time I was there, it was 1981 and I was 15, so I don’t remember much about it!

This much is for certain. You will develop a new perspective on distance! 20 miles is considered a hike and 100 miles is “just a few miles down the road.” I suffered this in reverse when we moved to Mississippi when I was 17. No one there wanted to go very far to do anything (“That’s 15 miles away! We can’t go that far!”) I used to go 15 miles to high school everyday, so I was shocked that people could think it was such a long way off!

Mayflower, I’m actually used to further distances than Gun is. Longview’s got everything right there in town, you see - I don’t think it’d take more than five minutes to get to anyplace commercial from where my apartment is - while when I, here in New York, run out of milk or bread I have to pop in to the nearest convenience store/gas station… ten minutes away. Going grocery shopping is a half hour’s drive each way, in the town which also has the nearest Walmart and the store where I work right now. The mall is an hour away, where all the restaurants are, along with any specialty stores you may wish to visit and the hospitals. (I might have to adjust if things are normally measured in miles, not minutes, down there… but the distances won’t bother me, at any rate.)

Racinchikki, Gunslinger:

I worked in the editorial department. Although most of the reporters have moved on, I still know a few of the editors, but we haven’t talked in a while.

So, yes, you can say hi for me. Martha G. and my wife are close friends. Heck, Martha and I are close friends. Also say hey to Mike H., Ana, Les, Sherry, Mike E., Bob and Joe. Darlene will probably remember me. She had a different hyphenated name back then. Robin G. and I worked on the news desk together a long, long time ago. I was gone when she returned to the paper.

Outside of the newsroom, Bob in production was and is a great friend. Also, Walter K., if he’s still around.

Martha will know who I am. Tell her I live in Allen.

Racinchikki,

As someone from New York (notthecity) who lived in both Tyler and Longview (as well as Temple, and Bryan-College Station) I can tell you that no, Texas is not the 14th circle of hell, but Longview IS, and Tyler’s not too far behind it. The “southern hospitality” we hear so much about in the north apparently didn’t reach East Texas, unless of course you’re already FROM East Texas, and then they’ll be plenty nice to you. Otherwise, be prepared to realize you can’t possibly know a damn thing, and that happiness is you on a one-way bus heading north. Oh, and also be prepared to have anything you say ignored in lieu of HOW you say it (which will be wrong, of course). And, if you and a man are approached by an East Texan, you will immediately cease to exist, because everyone knows you don’t know a damn thing, being a woman, and a yankee woman at that, so all conversation will be directed at the man. I’m not kidding.

The oil derricks? They STINK. You should be happy you don’t have to look at them… but might I suggest a water filter just for safety’s sake? The water tastes horrible anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate EVERYTHING about East Texas… it’s just the bad things totally outweigh anything good that happened there. My boss hated me because I talked like a yankee. He eventually fired me because I told him he didn’t get to fucking call me stupid anymore. My dog (a rottweiler – absolutely beautiful and unfortunately unfixed) was stolen from my yard. My landlord, shortly after renting us a house on a hundred acres of land, decided it would be a great idea to open up an RV park right next door (hmmmm where could my dog have gone?), and a trailer park across the so-called private road, which turned my view from beautiful green trees and a field into a doublewide and 3 cars that had to be towed there and never left their original spots. Again, I’m not kidding.

Finally, please be very very very very careful about the drivers there. They are very aggressive and I saw fatal accidents on a regular basis. The speed limits are too high in many places, especially on two lane country roads with no shoulders (70 mph with no place to put your car if someone screws up? Niiiiiice), and people feel it is necessary to drive up to within an inch of your bumper before they pass you. Even if the passing lane is clear.

We couldn’t get out of Longview (aka Hell itself) fast enough… and oh yeah, we got hit the day we were leaving. Good luck to you, I mean that!

BTW, I know this post will piss some people off, and I’m ok with that. There ARE some very nice people in East Texas, even in Longview. I met a few. But this is my honest impression of East Texas and I wouldn’t wish it on any fellow former New Yorker.

Jess

Oh yeah, one more thing… I would move back to Texas in a heartbeat… Austin, San Antonio, OMG Galveston is FABULOUS. But I will never, ever, ever set foot in East Texas (Tyler, Longview, Palestine, etc) again.

Jess

Jess,

tell us how you really feel

LOL

Eilsel
(a native Californian
but now an Easterner)