#*texas

[grandmafc]

my other half returned home from war* last night and this skank ho, who I bottle fed for a week and let out every two hours around the clock and bathed and let sleep on the people bed for a month now, has not even looked at me since. smh.

[agreatandhonorablesoldier]

because @salemfrogtrials and @brabe encouraged it here are some things about growing up in texas that don’t come up in media as texas things from someone who grew up in Texas since so much of the fandom headcanons Hangman as from texas (myself included, thank you glen for your twang)

Disclaimer: these swing wildly from serious shit to “are you shitting my dick” levels of ridiculous. Welcome to Texas

Texas is not a monolith. This, specifically, extends to accents. I know a lot of media likes to portray it as there is One Texas Accent but honestly some places have more of accent than others. I grew up in Houston and have a very generic to non existent accent (i get asked all the time why I don’t twang), someone who grew up somewhere else might have a stronger accent but by and large, we do not all sound like McConaughey. (I personally sound a lot closer to Matt B.omer, who is from 20 minutes up the road from where I lived)

I’m putting the rest under a cut because this is getting long

We don’t measure how long a trip is going to take in Miles. That shit is in hours or minutes. I have no idea the mileage between Houston and Austin or Houston and San Antonio but I know it’s four hours 

Getting out of Texas takes a ridiculously long time. When I would go to New Orleans, it was a six hour drive. Literally half of that drive was getting out of Texas, the other half was crossing the WIDEST part of Lousiana. 

Most Texas do not live on ranches. If someone lives in a city, they’ve most likely never even been on a ranch.

We refer to highways by their numbers. (example, if I’m going to Galveston I would say I took 45 the whole way).

Texas History is taught seventh grade year. The entire year we learn about parts of the state history. (parts because they definitely gloss over the whole confederacy is one of the ‘six flags over texas’ thing, among other shit.)

texas has it’s own pledge of allegiance, don’t ask me it, I don’t remember. I just remember having to say it. 

It is a pavlovian response to clap three times if someone says in any kind of sing songy way “The stars at night are big and bright.” because of the song deep in the heart of texas.

The rivalry in Baseball between the (Houston) Astros and (Texas) Rangers is very real. The rivalry in Football is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger with College Football. (the A&M - UT Rivalry is real and intense)

Some colleges have beef simply because of who they’re named after (looking at you Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston Universities). SFA and Sam had real life beef back in the 1860s that was so strong, SFA moved the capital of Texas to Austin from Houston.  

The Alamo is a lot smaller in person than you expect it to be. It’s been built up around. There’s literally a Ripley’s museum like right across the street from it. 

It is super common to not travel that far from where you live. I grew up in Houston and have only been to Austin, San Antonio and Dallas once respectively. They’re all a four-five hour drive away and I would dead ass rather go to New Orleans. 

East Texas has a lot of Louisiana influence, West Texas has strong Mexico influence because -gestures at how close they are to the respective borders-

Rodeos! Houston has the Largest Livestock show and Rodeo in the world. It also offers the biggest payouts. The Rodeo events are televised. Other Rodeos in Texas are not as big but some places still have decent sized rodeos. (if you want me to ramble more about rodeo events, lemme know)

Texas has large population of BIPOC. As of the 2020 census, it was only 42.5% white (39.3% non-hispanic white). Contrary to popular belief! Smaller towns are likely to be predominately white but the big cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso are Minority-Majority areas. 

Speaking of, Austin is left leaning. Austin is the reason the state said cities can’t defund their police. Austin’s (unofficial ?) slogan is “Keep Austin Weird”. 

Houston is also a very democratic area.

Houston is the fourth largest city in the entire US and largest in the state. It’s also sprawled the fuck out and that makes Dallas try to claim the largest city but then again Dallas tries to claim Fort Worth’s population as it’s own. (There’s a rivalry here.)

It is very common for Texans (of long established families) to say that you are not a Texan unless you are born there. It doesn’t matter if you moved when you were four almost five and lived there for 27 years (-raises a hand-), it’s not enough to be considered Texan unless you were born there. The only exception most people give is military brats. 

The Texas Flag is the only state flag that is flown at the same height as the US flag because it was a country (the Republic of Texas) from 1836-1845. Being able to fly the flag at the same height is one of the few things left in the post reconstruction constitution. 

Hurricanes! They suck if you live in coastal areas but aren’t as bad of problem further inland. Most hurricanes run out of steam before they it places like Dallas, Austin or San Antonio. Most. Particularly strong ones will barrel on through and dump a shitton of rain in those places. 

With Hurricanes comes flooding, Much bigger problem in areas like Houston that are basically swamp. 

Texas is very diverse in it’s geographical types. There are plains, mountains, plateaus, hills, swamps, bayous and deserts all in the same place. 

It snows in north texas but typically no anywhere else unless there’s a ~freak~ storm like that blizzard that blew through. 

Air Conditioning is in every public building. Most homes come equip with AC. 

After Hurricane Katrina, a lot of people from Louisiana moved to Texas. Katrina hit right at the start of my senior year of high school and my graduating class was 200+ people more than my cousin’s who graduated the year before (*coughs* y’all can keep Javy from NOLA and still have him in high school with Jake *cough*)

for clarification, my graduating class was 600+ people. 

Country music is a given. George Strait is King. Johnny Cash has all the respect. From there, opinions change based on where you’re at. In Houston, there’s a lot love for Clay Walker because he’s our local boy but that’s not necessarily true for everywhere. 

HOWEVER, Texas also has very large scenes for other genres. The Chop and Screwed style of Rap is from Houston, Tejano has a huge music base, Zydeco has a huge base. 

Selena is the Queen. We still will do anything from the Selenas. 

Tex-mex is not Mexican food but you will hear it refer to as such. We all know it’s fusion food. We frown on people who bitch about that. 

There is a healthy LGBTQIA+ Community in Texas. I promise. There’s still a lot of problems to be faced but I swear to god, we’re there. 

Speaking of problems, there are still sundown towns in Texas. 

That’s all I got for now but lemme know if you want more?

[tina-snow]

Texans voted for tr*mp. Hard pass, let them suffer like they wanted us to under the racism and fascism they so clearly wanted.

you’re generalizing an entire state of almost 30 million people including poc, lgbt+ people, and many other marginalized groups. Texas is not a monolith, most major cities voted blue and voter suppression is extremely prevalent here. we do not deserve the negative consequences of policies our oppressors have enacted and there are tons of progressives here who’ve been fighting for justice in this state.

the people most affected by shit like this are those in marginalized communities. people of color, people with lower incomes, people who are houseless, etc. etc. we are the ones who are suffering the most here and have to deal with the consequences of government officials who don’t give a single shit about us.

[lucjfer]

when in pedernales falls

[tina-snow]

There's racists and homophobes in Texas, and it's the place where they sent me to conversion therapy. I'm thinking let them all die.

I’m going to refer to you to this post.

there’s racists and homophobes everywhere, don’t use Texas as a scapegoat for deep rooted systemic issues that exist throughout this country. also hi I literally live in Texas and I’m a gay woman of color lmfao please tell me y’all don’t genuinely believe every single person here is white/racist/homophobic.

[octjimber]

so an hour and a half huh

[liache]

are you seriously telling me nowhere else besides texas spends hundreds of dollars on craft store explosion homecoming mums

i mean. around homecoming they literally do sell these ready-made in HEB, a huge texas-based grocery store chain, usually with the nearest school’s colors. the “small” ones are priced at $40 and only go up from there depending on how complex they are

people order custom ribbons and shit with school names or student names in school colors, they strap stuffed animals and plastic football helmets to them, you can spend as much as you want on making them as big and gaudy as you can. like my friend’s mom used to make these and sell them for $100+ for custom ones

homecoming week is rife with the sound of fluttering plastic and tinkling bells through school halls

also ive only ever saw mums, i never knew garters were even a thing. they get totally eclipsed by mums.