Pros and Cons of Being a Texan
Posted on 16 April 2008 by Lisa Pawlowski
The other day I was on the phone ordering something from a catalog. I gave the customer service rep on the other end my info and before I got to my address she asked, “Do you still live in Texas?” (I ordered from this place before.) I replied yes then she started asking what the weather was like here. She must have been bored because she sure was chatty.
Then she said she’d heard about the cult in West Texas and about those old guys that were having sex with children. (Kinda makes you proud to be a Texan, doesn’t it?) She asked if that was close to where I lived. Wanting to get back to the business at hand, I briskly answered that I’d heard something about the cult on the news, too and that those people she’d heard about were far away from where I lived. Then I said I just want to order my item, please.
That’s what outsiders can’t seem to grasp. Just because I live in the same state, doesn’t mean I’m affected by something. For instance, in Amarillo, they’re begging for water, yet in east Texas, they have to use boats to get around. But we’re still talking about the same state, right?
And when talking to relatives or friends who live in other parts of the country, they will always tell me about something they heard on the news that happened here. Because of its shear size and population, it seems like Texas has more than its fair share of lurid stories and always makes the national news. When I tell my phone buddies that I hadn’t heard what they are talking about, they oftentimes will say, “How could you not have heard about it? It happened where you live.”
Living in a smaller, more intimate place would have its advantages. Last summer when my family vacationed in Costa Rica, one of the guys who worked at a resort noticed my husband’s Texas ballcap on his head and asked us if we knew his friend so-and-so who lived in Houston. Costa Rica is such a small country that I’m sure it isn’t too unusual to meet someone who knows someone you know. But that’s not that way it is here and it’s hard to explain that to people, especially when there’s a language barrier. We just shrugged our shoulders and sadly told the man no, we didn’t know his friend.
On the other hand, telling someone you’re a Texan makes communication a little easier because everyone’s familiar with Texas. On another occasion on the same trip, we were “talking” to a local who asked where we were from. We told him, in our broken Spanish, that we were from “Los Estados Unidos en Tejas”. The man’s eyes lit up and he said, “Oh. Tejas.” Then he made his hands into the shape of a gun, pointed his index fingers in the air and said, “Bang-bang. Cowboys.” He laughed when he said this. He knew he was telling a joke.
When we flew home from Costa Rica, our heads numb and achy from translating all week, we stepped into Dallas-Ft. Worth airport and it was wonderful to hear Texas accents again. I was so glad to be home!
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April 18th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Great sum up of the Texan experience with the rest of the world. You tell people is whole nuther country yet they lack the thought on what that means. Texas being the largest continental United State has multiple environments besides the dusty west Texas prairies. We have rolling hills, mountains, flat lands, fertile farmland, humid and cool climates yet people still see one vision of Texas the Cowboy on a cactus covered ranch.
I was in the Reagan Washington DC Airport once and people behind me said “They don’t look like Texans” apparently I forgot to where my boots and my Stetson.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
That’s really funny, William. That reminds me of a trip to Seattle as a child. I met some kids playing and told them I was from Texas. They asked me if I rode a horse to school.
A horse? Really? Even for an eleven year old, that’s pretty lame.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Lisa:
I have been fortunate to visit 3 countries in my very young 33-years of life and I have worked or visited 20 other states. If there was one thing I found in common with every person, from every state or country or corner of the world I met along my travels, when they found out I was from Texas they all had something to say about it…some for good…and some for bad. I mean, how much conversation can you have with someone from North Dakota? Or Oregon? I found that most people wished they were from Texas or at least visited the state and secondly, those who hated it, probably lived in some part of the US where they had either one freeway or no NFL football team.
Many times while making my way home on Interstate 20, I would pray…driving in late at night or early in the morning and ask God…that if I should die on the road…make sure my body lands in Texas. I think I’d be too embarrassed to die anywhere else outside of my home.
Great article!
~Bobby Ozuna | author of PROUD SOULS
April 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I remember planning a trip to visit my boyfriend (now husband) in Denmark. When his new Danish friend heard I was coming he asked me to bring the largest Texas flag I could find. He hated the U.S., but he loved Texas. I don’t quite get how that adds up, but I’ve found it to be true more than once.