LOL*I was once assigned to buy genuine Texas gifts as souveniers for a foreign exchange in HS. I bought her a “Resident of the Republic of Texas” certificate and had her name calligriphed on it as well as a teeshirt with a ten-gallon-hat wearin,spur-heeled,gun-totin’ cowboy on it that read 'Smile When You Say Texas".
**Just because Texas might not have joined the Union with full gusto doesn’t mean we can’t brag about being better. ** My friends say I am inordinately proud of the fact that at any time,Texas could secede and we’d be our own nation again.
I also looooove going to the State Fair and look forward to it every year. I drag CG along even if he doesn’t want to go because there is a multitude of things displayed at the fair, crafts, foods,etc that you just don’t FIND anywhere else. Plus…where else in the world can you see a statue made out of 1000 pounds of butter??? Or learn how a cow gets milked? Or see a giant talking, waving cowboy? Texas is truly a unique place and I am proud wipes away tears to be a Texan.
IDBB
The stars at night are big and bright…clap clap clapdeep in the heart of Texas!
I don’t like Texas. It has nothing to do with the people, just the scenery and the weather. I know, I know, it has a lot of different scenery and weather depending on where you are, but none of it is what I like. I think my ideal location would be… Massachusetts. I like lots of snow, relatively mild summers, lots of woods, etc. I grew up in Arizona and developed a good, healthy loathing of deserts, heat, and lots of other stuff.
I have met plenty of people from Texas and I have nothing against them. I just don’t like it geographically. I did like travelling there when I was a dancer to make the big bucks, though ;D
…however I have to confess that I don’t like Texan or southern accents. I’m sorry if that sounds bad, but I can’t help what I like or don’t like. I just don’t like the way they sound, and if they’re strong, they kinda get on my nerves. Of course, Massachusetts accents sometimes make me giggle. Please don’t hate me for this. I don’t judge people by their accents, I just don’t like the way they sound. I also don’t like the color of my carpet, but I still like my house.
As for the OP… I doubt you can “sum up Texas” in any way whatsoever. …though I have been to a Wal-Mart there
I visited TX (actually Dallas) for the first time a couple of years ago. It’s true – it’s a whole 'nother country.
First, the flatness. I was sitting there wide-eyed-with-mouth-hanging-open in a car travelling on one of the highways around the airport. I had never seen so much sky in my entire life! Up here it’s punctuated by hills, office buildings, and perpetual haze. And no hills! Not even a little rise or dip in any of the roads I travelled…
Second, the vastness…it takes, what 5-6, hours to go from Dallas to Houston by car?!? Cripes, I’d be minimum two states away if I did that here. From one end of the Metroplex to the other is, I remember, about 40 miles…I’d be in another state if I went 40 miles north or south from where I live! Talk about being boggled…
I was shocked by all the malls and national franchises I saw. We’ve got them too, but in no way as many as there. Some of them (like Schlotsky’s) I had never heard of. Granted, this is just Dallas I’m talking about – I’m sure there must be parts where it’s not as built up, isn’t there?
And I’ll refrain from the Texas drawl…suffice to say that I had to keep asking everyone to repeat themselves. On the flip side, they kept guffawing over my accent!
I heard that and guessed that’s what this thread was referring to. How funny… and sad.
I don’t get some of the responses to the OP. No one made fun of the rancher or called him an ignorant redneck. The OP did make a stab at Texas, but you Texans must be used to that by now. And are you really saying that there aren’t a large number of towns in Texas that pretty much fit that description?
OK, I’ll give you the drawl thing. But, I didn’t choose it. It chose me.
Want woods? Try the east Texas Piney Woods forrest.
Think it’s all flat? Go to Big Bend.
Dry wilderness? It’s got that. (far west and north central) It’s also got semi-tropical wetlands (Gulf Coast)
Want snowy, cold winters? Panhandle. “Nut’n between us and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence. And it got blown down!”
Lots of lakes and rivers for fish’n and play’n. Messy, murky beaches (Galveston), white sand beaches with sort of ok waves (South Padre Island). Swamps? Born in one (from Houston east to state line)
And Dopers… there ain’t nothing like the Texas Hill Country. That’s where God lives.
I have lived in Houston, Texas for almost twenty years. I think many folks think of prisons when they think of Texas. WalMart would be a better fit for Arkansas, I suppose.
In many rural towns, WalMart is the happening place. I love to hear a good Texan drawl. But then, I like country living. When I moved out here my dad told me… “you can go farther and see less in Texas than anywhere”.
One of my favorite quotes from The Log of a Cowboy , “If I owned Texas and I owned Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell”.
Regardless of our fun with Texas, Houstonians are deeply connected to NASA and since all of the wreckage is scattered over parts of Texas, I guess Texans may be a little emotional and more sensitive today. This sad event has everyone upset… and understandably so.
Texas Hill Coutry gets another vote from me. If you have not had a chance to visit… you are missing out on something very special.
You’re not getting it. I’ve been to lots of places in Texas, and wouldn’t want to live in any of them. I’ve been in Ft. Worth when it snowed. Maybe a half an inch and everyone went totally insane :rolleyes: I’ve been in the northeast and I love it. I spend part of every summer in New Hampshire, and would love to live there. I find it hard to believe that anywhere in Texas has 3 feet of snow on the ground for most of the winter, forests of pine, oak, birch, and a dozen other trees, big lakes everywhere, and rarely gets over 85 in the summer. All in one place, mind you. I also like the architectural styles of the northeast much better. Stylisticly, I don’t like “western” anything. Not clothes, not buildings, not music. I grew up with it and hated it. I know that probably not all of Texas is like that, but a lot of it is. Plus, Texas is too remote. Takes too long to get anywhere. I grew up in Tucson and thought the 90 minute drive to Phoenix was bad enough. Oh, and I’m a vegetarian–I don’t fish.
I don’t want or need anyone to try to convince me that I’d love living in Texas–I wouldn’t. I’m a yankee, even though I was born in AZ. My parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc were all from Connecticut and New York. I love that part of the country. I feel drawn to that part of the country. It’s what I want.
Heck, I was gonna come into this thread guns a-blazin’, but everybody’s been so cool, calm, and nice, I’m just gonna sit in the corner over there and pop the top on a cold Lone Star.
That is… if I could get Lone Star here in exile.
(snif)… I shore miss you guys!
Couple of notes before I crawl into the corner:
North of I-10 is yankee? Hell, “yankee” Texas is everything East of the Pecos!
Flat? Like NoClueBoy suggested, you need to check out the Big Bend… mah home-sweet-home… I’m going to start crying again now, as I gaze out my window into the flatest, tree-iest swamp I’ve ever seen in my life (and I used to think that CENTRAL Texas was too cluttered with vegetation!).
They luv the Wal-Mart just as much here in North Carolina. Now, if only they could get the BBQ right.
We drove from Denver to Uston, Texas a few years back. IIRC, we left Denver and hit the Texas border in someting like 7 hours. Then spend the next HALF DAY crossing Texas.
I was on-shift and just flat HAD to pull the truck over. I’d never been somewhere where there was NOTHING to see. Plate-flat-nothing bisected by a ribbon of blacktop. It sure is hard to figure scale that way.
The GF’s mom asked me to go out in the field and take a look at the truck to see if I could get it started. There was this spider in a web on the fender. Not an American normal spider, mind you. A Texas spider. About the size of a half-dollar. Black with red and it turned to me and said “Don’t F*ck with me, whitebread.” I left it alone.
So you’ve got serious wide open spaces, insects/arachnids/critters on a whole nother level, and you’ve got the weather.
We saw a ‘light’ gulf storm and it was dumping water at TWICE the rate of anything I’d ever seen before. I’ve seen heavy rainfall before, I swear this stuff was being force fed downward.
And the Heat/Humidity? That’s really not bad. What’s bad is the temprature differential. 65/0% indoors, 95/100% outdoors, 65/0% in the car, 95/100% in the parkinglot, 65/0% in the grocery store. I really think it’s the DECOMPRESSION more than the heat that affects ya.
Oh yeah, and Uston (there’s no ‘H’ in Uston) may be modern, but travel out side the city about 15 miles and you go back in time about 45 years to a place that still ain’t quite segregated.
The worst possible way to see Texas is to drive I-10 from one side to the other. It goes across the widest part, and through the most boring parts as well. I’ve done this a number of times, as I’d drive from AZ to FL to visit my dad. TX was half the trip.
And I wasn’t trying to convince you, pal, just explaining my love for my home nation.
BTW, I can get Lone Star Long Necks, the National Beer of Texas at my liquor store. Granted, I’m in OKC (which is really North Texas), but still, check your local liquory.
The statement about traveling 15 miles outside of Houston and you go back 45 years and it is not segregated is not true.
Currently I live in a small town 25 miles outside of Houston and it is integrated. Texas is a melting pot of different cultures from Houston to Dallas.
I lived in a tiny town 75 miles away several years ago and there were many mixed races that had lived there for years.
I am not a person that is puffed up with pride just because I happened to be born here… but I do like the friendliness here and the “spirit” of the state.
But again, general statements are being made just like the OP. I do not think you can throw a blanket statement over any state.
I’m just speaking from my personal experience. I spent some time in Hempstead. I got used to happily waving to everybody and they just smiled and waved back, real friendly like.
The I happened to wave at a Black guy and he looked at me like I’d killed his grandmother. That and the comments made my my ex’s mother didn’t exactly celebrate diversity.
Looking down a sidestreet and seeing a bricked over doorway marked ‘colored’ was an eyeopener too.
So, based on my week’s experience, you’re probably right.
Sure, one shouldn’t generalize. Sorry I fell into it. But still, there are some very segregated towns there. Doesn’t mean there aren’t different races living in the same town. But, I’ve noticed that the races are fairly well “grouped” in a certain part of that town. They can all be friendly to each other even, but at night, they go home to “their” side of town. Jasper, Tx is a good example. Farther than 15 miles, but still.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my home state. But even where I was born, Baytown, very close to Houston, was still like this when I moved away in the late 80’s. Even a small town pretty much inside Houston, South Houston, was like that. Whites to about Ave K, Hispanic from Ave L on… It’s not neccessarily a bad thing, it just is. Granted, the increase of suburbia is changing alot of that. If where you live is different, great. But, I know what I saw, too.
And yes, for the most part, all Texans get along. Regardless of race, religion, social status, etc… It’s not without reason that Tejas means “friendly.”
FTR, I used Jasper because I had a girlfriend from there, and we went to see her parents alot. I’m not using Jasper because of the highly publicized hate crime. Those guys weren’t Texan, they were shits.
IMO, Texas’s only salvation is that it’s so big that it has many different climates. If Houston in August was all it had to offer, I’m afraid we would have forced it to seceed many moons ago.
Yes, but Houston has some of the best nights for amature astronomers. Except for the dew problem, which is easily fixed by dewcaps. But clear, clear nights. And eyepiece filters can ease the light pollution.
