To understand Texas, especially Texas politicians, there are 10 things you should know about Texans. These 10 facts will explain a lot.
- Image via Wikipedia
1. Many of the people who moved to what is now Texas in the 1820s and 1830s were illegal aliens from the United States who sneaked into what was then the northernmost state of Mexico. That includes some of my ancestors.
2. Texas was originally much bigger. Right after the Texas Revolution (1836) it included parts of several other future states and extended all the way up to Idaho. Texans have never forgotten!
3. For 9 years Texans had our own independent country, the Republic of Texas. One of the first things they did was expel the Indians. How mean was that?!
4. The Republic of Texas legally reserved the right to secede when it joined the United States in 1845. Our, uh, esteemed (or steamed?) governor apparently remembers that—if nothing else. He does not seem to remember how badly things turned out when we last tested that theory in 1861. (Hint: Civil War. Confederacy. ‘nough said.)
5. People like guns here—even non-Texans who just live here. I mean, people really, really like guns here. So be real careful who you get mad at you.
6. Hunting is sort of a sacrament—right after football and pickup trucks. A lot of people just plain like to kill things. They consider hunting and killing things a God-given right.
7. Right up through the Viet Nam war, Texas had contributed the most soldiers to every single U.S. war since the Texas Revolution. We might still hold that record; I just haven’t checked lately.
8. Texans love to drive—fast—and consider it a God-given right to do so, like…well, like hunting and like carrying a gun.
9. We love our state, consider it unique, and take great pride in being Texans. “Don’t mess with Texas!” Yes, that phrase was coined to stop littering, but it stuck around because it expressed something primal about us.
10. There are a lot of smart people, a lot of dumb people, a lot of mean people, and a lot of crazy people in Texas. Unfortunately some of the folks in charge fall into all four groups. Doesn’t that just explain a whole lot about certain political events in recent years? Yeah, I thought so, too.
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Posted in History and Geography, Texas Attitude, Texas Talk.
Tagged with 10 things about Texas, 1845, Civil War, Confederacy, driving fast, dumb people, fighting, fishing, football as a sacrament, guns, hunting, illegal aliens, killing things, pickup trucks, Republic of Texas, smart people, texans.
By TalkTexan
– June 13, 2010
Image by nicolemperle via Flickr
What do you call it when everyone cooks something and brings it a gathering to share? When I was a child that was called a “covered dish” dinner—or lunch or supper. We used to have those at church a lot, as I recall.
Covered Dish Meals
They were called covered-dish meals because naturally whatever you cooked had to be covered so that you could transport it. Women collected cooking and serving dishes and utensils just so they could contribute nicely to covered dish meals. They also collected and refined special recipes.
People loved those dinners, where all the cooks brought their specialty dishes. Certain dishes were so popular that you had to get in line early, or there would not be any left for you. Running out, of course, was a great compliment to the cook.
Potluck Meals
On the other hand, if you were at somebody’s house and stayed till kind of near lunch or supper time, you were likely to be invited to “take pot luck.” That meant to share in just whatever the family was having anyway, no matter how scrappy. Continued…
Posted in Texas English, Texas Food, Texas Manners.
Tagged with covered dish dinner, potluck supper.
By TalkTexan
– April 27, 2010
Texas population map. Image via Wikipedia
As a Texan with roots in East Texas, I am well aware that many Texas expressions originate in other parts of the South. Some of our sayings are used elsewhere in America, too.
Some of those sayings we use the same way. Others we have our own slightly different meaning for.
For example, awhile back I wrote about getting the hell out of Dodge, which is generally used (in other places) to mean quickly leaving a place where you are unwelcome or that you find very unpleasant. Around Houston, at least, we use it to mean getting away on a vacation or even just getting out of the office for awhile.
Recently I wrote about an old Texas expression my grandmother used to use that I had not heard in a long time, “butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.” I was not sure whether it was a general Southern expression, and I didn’t bother to look it up, but I wondered. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, East Texas.
By TalkTexan
– January 20, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
“Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth,” is one of those old-fashioned Texas expressions that is hard to define for people today, because the context has changed so much. It is still a useful expression, though, and an interesting one, so I will try.
Before the word cool came to mean hip, or up to date, or whatever, it was used in a couple of different ways in social situations. Cool could mean standoffish and unwelcoming, as in “Expecting a warm welcome, the visitors were greeted coolly.” (Think of “lukewarm enthusiasm” or worse.)
Or cool could mean calm, unfazed, not angry. For example, “While Bubba was red-faced, screaming and yelling and stomping his boots on the porch, Lila remained cool and just stared at him.” Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with Butter, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, how to talk like a texan, old-fashioned sayings, Texas English, Texas expressions.
By TalkTexan
– January 1, 2010
Image by telwink via Flickr
Texans and others sometimes forget how much the way we talk is shaped by our rural roots. To hear us talk, you might sometimes get the impression that most of us live on ranches or farms, but that is no longer true.
The truth is lots of us live in cities and always have: Houston (fourth largest in the nation), the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso. Many of us, even in small towns, live in apartments. And for whatever reason, sometimes we need to find a new one. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas Talk.
Tagged with apartment locator, Houston, Texas, trees.
By TalkTexan
– October 3, 2009
Image via Wikipedia The area shown in red is East Texas.
I’m fixin’ to tell you a little Texas secret: I was brought up not saying “fixin’ to.” My maternal grandfather came from a family of “preachers and teachers.” He brought my mother up to speak properly, grammatically and correctly. He was very strict.
We did not say “fixin’ to” at my house. In fact, I did not even have a Texas accent until I was 10 and decided to talk like my friends at school. Sad but true.
So when I went up to East Texas to go to college, it was a full four years before I found myself, one fine May day, telling someone I was “fixin’ to go class.” As we used to say in those days, I about swallowed my teeth.
In case you are unfamiliar with the phrase, “fixing to,” pronounced “fixin’ to,” is kind of interesting. It means “getting ready to” or “about to” do something.
I wonder if it is possibly a parallel usage to the Spanish “acaba de” which means exactly the same thing. At least that may be why the use of “fixin’ to” lingers here in Texas. It just sounds right to lots of Texans.
I’m not sure about anywhere else, though. But I’m fixin’ to find out.
Posted in Definitions, Pronunciation, Texas English.
Tagged with acaba de, East Texas, fixin' to, fixing to, Texas English.
By TalkTexan
– September 25, 2009
Image via Wikipedia
Hosting and hostessing in Texas is a big, big thing. As the host or hostess you are completely responsible for the welfare and happiness of your guests for the duration. You do not leave people stranded even if it is a public meeting and you have the flu.
So the other night a sick friend asked me to lead a meeting for him. It is a regular meeting of a group of usually about 10 or 15 like-minded people at a nearby restaurant. It is mostly social, and I always go anyway.
I have hosted that meeting for him several times before, and it was no big deal. But this time it was different. It was a Stella Dallas party!
What’s that, you ask? Well, I’m fixin’ to tell you. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas Manners.
Tagged with Soap opera, Stella Dallas, Stella Dallas party, Television, Texas hostess.
By TalkTexan
– June 25, 2009
Even though your eyes adjust as the light declines during twilight, there comes a point when you just cannot see anymore. That’s what we Texans call dark-thirty.
Texans who work from can till cain’t and Texans who love outdoor activities know about dark-thirty. Sometimes we are glad, and sometimes we are sad when dark-thirty comes along.
“How late did y’all play last night?”
“It was about dark-thirty when we finally stopped. Travis liked to never let us quit. Man, I was hungry! It was way past time to go back to the house.”
Posted in Definitions, Texas Talk, Texas Time Telling.
Tagged with can till can't, dark-thirty, telling time in texas, Texas English, Texas Time Telling.
By TalkTexan
– May 13, 2009
Blowin’ and goin’ is an old-fashioned East Texas expression. I wasn’t sure people still used that fine old Texas phrase till Sunday, when two middle-aged couples sitting behind me at the ballet were talking about their various pleasure trips:
“Speaking of shopping, on our trips to Europe we’re always just blowin’ and goin’. We never have time for buying trinkets to bring home,” said a man.
“Well, we were blowin’ and goin’ on this trip, for sure,” said the woman from the other couple.
In Texas English, blowin’ and goin’ means dashing around, all busy busy busy, almost without stopping to take a breath.
Strange as it seems, to say that someone has been just blowin’ and goin’ is generally considered a compliment. The implication is that they have been working hard and getting a lot done—even if what they achieved, as in this case, was apparently just having a really good time.
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk.
Tagged with blowin' and goin', blowing and going, Texas English, Texas expressions.
By TalkTexan
– April 16, 2009
Dogs are a big thing in Texas, especially in the country, where everybody tends to have at least one dog as a watchdog. And often there are two or three, because some are hunting dogs.
The first dog I ever had was a solid brown medium-size mutt with a black stripe down his back. I named him Tippy.
The name came from the first puppy I picked from his litter, a light brown and white spotted puppy with a white tip on his tail. The first Tippy got run over by a car before he was old enough to leave his mother, so Daddy picked another pup, but we still called him Tippy.
Tippy must have had a wide variety of ancestors. His mother appeared to be all or mostly leopard, a breed of hunting dog with gray fur and pale blue eyes. Sort of rare.
None of the puppies looked like her, though, and none of them looked like any other particular breed. Daddy used to say that Tippy was “leopard and Heinz” (after the food brand Heinz, which used to claim to have “57 varieties”).
Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with dogs, don't tease 'em, hunting dogs, leopard, texans, Texas, watchdog.
By admin
– March 25, 2009
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