Texas....Love it or Whatever!

The previous message was brought to you by the Texas State Anti-Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board of the organization, Orchidflower also holds the positions of President, CEO and is currently serving as EVP of Marketing while "W" is on temporary assignment in Washington. :)
 
From someone living in TX (originally from MN...geez, those 20 below winters that last 6 months and giant mosquitos in the summer sure are nice!!!), I'm so happy that Texas is coming across so badly here...we already have too many people here in Dallas and don't want anymore...the traffic will only get worse if you move here, so stay away (kidding, of course). :)
 
And our bridges will collapse at any moment.

And I'm so glad there's no flooding anywhere else, like Wisconsin or Ohio.

BTW, I grew up in Wisconsin. WE never had any state history ejacashun. That's why I left.

;-)
 
Orchidflower said:
Texas public schools give...what? Something like 1 or 2 full years of a Texas history course to brainwash kids into believing they are in the Holy Land of States. No wonder native born Texans will never leave. Who would leave the "best" State in the country in their minds?
Click to expand...

That brainwashing works, too. A former co-worker was transplanted to Texas while she was in high school and got to observe this "from the inside." She told me the state loyalty ran so high, that when her school's marching band was invited to a competition in Oklahoma, a few kids quit the band because they didn't want to set foot outside of Texas. :eek:
 
Now hold on a minute Orchid...this is one Texas boy who is gonna high tail it outta here as soon as I retire. and I can tell you Laredo is gotten no better. It is really part of Mexico and the Mexicans there don't like the Gringo's even though the border still says it is in the United States. The Wal-Mart is run like a Mexican street market. If you go to any fast food place you better Habla or they won't understand you. Oh and you wanna talk horror stories I was treed by a pack of coyotes on our ranch. And I had no gun! I have seen hordes of illegals walking through our ranch. They have broken into our house and stole of all things beer and vodka. Oh yes I love this great state. Texas 1000 miles from anywhere 2 miles form hell. I love it. NOT!

2
 
Texas Love it or Whatever

As a Texan I agree with a lot of what you say. For those of us that came back it was a choice.

Yes the mosquitos are big and life can be a little difficult in some parts of TEXAS. But the only thing that is see wrong with TEXAS is that we have/had 2 varmits Old George W and karl rove as part of our landscape

>:D
 
I'm with Wags.

My wife and I have lived in seven states (from the Virginia suburbs of D.C. to Southern California), and we've liked them all. Having grown up in Texas (hot as it is with mosquitoes, fire ants, et al) and even having been brainwashed by Texas history classes and a course in "Literature of the Southwest" at UT taught by a New Englander who thought J. Frank Dobie was "third rate," it's still home. Texas' "red-state mentality" can be a put-off for those of us who've actually lived elsewhere and seen the world, but no state has a monopoly on bigots and just-plain prejudiced folks.

My wife and I will be back there next month to start looking for a place to retire. And, we're leaning toward the Hill Country (Fredericksburg in particular) or an "active adult" community near Austin or San Antonio. Why? Because we really like Fredericksburg, and we have friends and relatives in the other two cities.

I like the fact that I can buy a house in Texas for a fraction of what it would cost where I live now (San Diego) and use the savings to spend summers where it's cool. And, so what if some of the major cities have traffic problems approaching those of California! I'll be retired (or traveling) and not worrying about my having to commute in rush hour traffic.

Texas isn't perfect by a long shot, but few places are.
 
playaman said:
My wife and I will be back there next month to start looking for a place to retire. And, we're leaning toward the Hill Country (Fredericksburg in particular)...
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Sorry Playaman, but the Hill Country (and Freddyville in particular) are both full - No Vacancy. This is due primarily to all the Californians who've already managed to make it across our porous borders. :)
 
Thanks for the 'warm' welcome REWahoo.

Most of my friends and relatives in Texas feel they same way. Fortunately, they consider my wife's and my 20+ year absence from the Lone Star State merely visiting with the "Yankees and all."
 
Thank you all for not bashing me, and actually backing me up on what I observed in Texas culture. Texans, especially, get crazy when you say anything even slightly negative about the State--especially when it is true.
True story: When I was 15, my parents took a vacation without me (whoopie!) and I stayed at my Grandmothers near the Texas/Arkansas border. The boys around that age started hanging out around her house then. I thought it was because I was so cute....until one of the boys' mothers came to visit at my Grandma's and said, "I just KNOW all the boys love coming to see Orchidflower...because she talks so FUNNY!" Talk about shooting down your ego.....I still chuckle about that. Guess my Midwestern accent was funny to their really hick one (it's really hick sounding in that neck of the woods).
 
Orchidflower said:
Guess my Midwestern accent was funny to their really hick one (it's really hick sounding in that neck of the woods).
Click to expand...

Orchidflower, that ain't nice! We kain't hep it if'n we tawk funny.

(BTW, that's one more reason "normal" people should shy away from moving here...:))
 
Laredo is...different. You can't really describe it to people and expect them to understand. It is a place that has to be experienced.

When I was first working along the border I would occasionally suffer from some culture shock and grouse and complain a little bit about whatever town we were in. The experienced border hands with me would agree that it could sometimes be hard to get used to, but then one of them would say

At least it's not Laredo
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And all the others would agreed with a couple of "Thanks God"s thrown in.

I would ask "what's the deal with Laredo", and the only reply was "You'll understand after you've been there."
 
Laredo was just a great place to go for a third world experience and a true blast before 9/11. I loved it there, frankly, as did my son.
That darn 9/11 stopped people from coming there as they tightened the drug laws (meaning, you could only bring a small amount of prescription drugs over the border, which was bad for cancer and other sufferers who bought the same drugs sold over here cheap on the Mexican side = why bother to go all the way to the border).
After that, all the drug wars at that particular spot in the border stopped Americans from going thru Laredo to the Mexican side. I mean, who wants to go thru the Mexican border at Laredo, Tx. and Nuevo Laredo, Mexican side, when gangster drug cartels are actually shooting at each other on the streets. No exaggeration either. Sad, sad, sad. It was so fun before....
REWahoo, I know you may think you are kidding...but that is exactly like most of my Tx-Arkansas relatives tawk....yeeee hawwwww! No DANCING in the high schools yet in 2007!!! And dry counties all over!!!
Dallas is going to be one of the fastest growing areas in the next 10 years according to my doing the stats with the US Census Bureau predictions. If there is no tornado that tears it apart, it just may well be. Seems alot of retirees are moving there from other States. It's alot more Texan than Houston, but also alot more sophisticated as Houston is considered a blue collar town in general.
 
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Orchidflower said:
REWahoo, I know you may think you are kidding...but that is exactly like most of my Tx-Arkansas relatives tawk....yeeee hawwwww! And most are schoolteachers with a Master's...yes! Some teach college level even...yikes! But, by golly! I don't care how much education they get, they still are the same ignorant people they were when my great-great grandparents settled in that area...
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Ouch.

Orchidflower, no matter how much I've bashed Texas and Texans, I've attempted to keep my posts good natured. I've also tried to post in a manner that would not be construed as an insult to anyone. Obviously you don't play by those same rules.
 
I've never been anywhere where there wasn't a local contingent the equivalent of "rednecks"...
 
I love this thread!! I don't think anyone has mentioned "Chicharrones" (cheech-a-roanes)?? I was in El Paso waiting for a late flight and went to a neighborhood bar for the 4 hour wait. In comes a Mexican fellow and just wandered around the bar saying "Chicharrones..Chicharrones..Chicharrones". I asked the guy next to me at the bar and he said they were mmmm good. He comes back with a bag the size of a trashcan for $7 with the largest fried pigskins I have ever seen in my life. I proceeded to eat them as I drank my beer. Long story short - I ending up drinking tequila shots, missed the flight, and woke the next morning with my gums cut to pieces.

Beware of Chicharrones!!

Peace
 
REWahoo: I deleted that post pretty quickly as I realized that I should not say what I really felt here. You must have caught it before I deleted it.
Yes, I realized it was not politically correct at all soon after I wrote it. It should be deleted totally.
I will put on my politically correct face again, and attempt to not make the same error again.
Didn't mean to offend...but you would understand if you met the relatives.
 
Yep, I checked. It was deleted. You must be quick to have even caught it.
Dang it, REWahoo...quit dragging the dirty laundry up...but I will forgive you, because you are so cute normally.
 
And I REALLY was not talking about the people in the Tx/Arkansas border--but my own darned relatives...who would drive you crazy, too, if you met them.

APOLOGIES to those who are from the Texas/Arkansas border. I did NOT mean YOU. I was--whether it read that way or not--talking about my OWN relatives who drive me nuts.
 
Texas Love it or Whatever.

cmonkjr said:
REWahoo, I found another critter to add to your list! Looks like we got us an infestation of Chupacabras:eek:!!! Chupacabra caught in South Texas? | News for Austin, Texas | kvue.com | Top Stories

ABC News: Texas' Blood-Sucking Monster
Click to expand...

I beleive that the Chupacabra might have been that varmint Karl Rove, he just left D.C.

And I believe there might still be more of those dirty varmints Chupacabras in Washington D.C, they were rumored to have migrated from TEXAS to D.C

Yes those varmints are probably in positions of power.

:rant:
 
Don't forget the nutria.

There's nothing quite like sitting on the back porch at a Texas lake house, sipping a cold Lone Star beer. As nice as that is, it always makes for extra special memories if you can spot a pack of these majestic rodents crawling up out of the water...

This description only partially describes the beast: "Weighing in at 15 to 20 pounds, the nutria has the head and coat of a beaver, but with a long, rounded, scaly, ratlike tail; hind feet webbed; incisors orange-colored; female with mammae along each side of back, not on belly; upperparts reddish brown; the underfur dark slaty; tip of muzzle and chin white."

They left out handsome! :eek:
http://www.animalcapture.com/images/nutria_front.JPG
nutria_front.JPG


Newspapers in the highly-cultured Dallas area occasionally run holiday recipes suggesting that the nutria is good eatin' when properly prepared, but we're not buying it down here in blue-collar Houston. :D


 
For 21 years all I heard was "Houston is really a blue collar town," but, personally, I found many really intelligent/intellectual types in Houston. Alot of the cream of the crop came down here in the 80's and stayed, and, of course, Houston grows it's own intellectual crop, too. Lots of cultural activities in Houston, I felt, don't you?
Both cities have their plus and minus points; but, one thing all should agree on, both cities can get awfully hot and humid in summer.
 
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