Things I learned growing up in Texas!

14 years ago

This came to my email IN-box this morning, and I always have to read it, although it makes us seem not quite bright sometimes.

I got to thinking about it, and for the most part, these things are true. (Well, an armadillo sleeping in the middle of the road is either dead, or soon to be dead.)

I have lived all over the world, and all over this country, so I know we Texans are not the only ones with strange habits, customs, language and such. I know there are people from everywhere who post here, including Canada, Spain, the UK and the USA. Do you all have such funny things happen every day, so that it is a custom or a habit, and nobody thinks twice about it?

We don't usually pay the slightest bit of attention to these things, but they are funny to other people. Well, to us, too, but not while we are doin'em/sayin'em.

This is my list from my email.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

THINGS I LEARNED FROM BEING RAISED IN TEXAS

Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road

with their feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes on earth and 4,998 live in Texas.

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000

live in Texas, plus a couple no one's seen before.

If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

'Twiced' is a word.

People actually grow and eat okra

'Fixinto' is one word.

There is no such thing as 'lunch.'

There is only dinner and then supper.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you

start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

'Backwards and forwards' means I know

everything about you!

Djeet is actually a phrase meaning 'Did you eat?'

You don't have to wear a watch because it

doesn't ma tter what time it is. You work until you're done

or it's too dark to see.

You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

You measure distance in hours. Like its 6 hours from Houston to Dallas .

You'll probably have to switch from 'heat' to

'A/C' in the same day.

'Fix' is a verb. Example: 'I'm fixing to go to

the store.'

You install security lights on your house and

garage and leave both unlocked.

Yes, Friday night high school football games is serious football!

You carry jumper cables in your car . . .

for your OWN car.

There are only four spices: salt, pepper,

Tabasco and ketchup.

The local papers cover national and

international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

100 degrees Fahrenheit is 'a little warm.'

We have four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer,

still Summer and Christmas.

Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time

known as 'goin' to Wally-World.'

A cool snap (below 70 degrees) is good

pinto-bean weather.

A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or

pop. .. . . it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example:

'What kind a coke you want?'

Fried catfish is the other white meat.

We don't need no stinking driver's ed . .. .

if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

We think being in Texas is a gift from God! (Doesn't everybody feel that way about 'home'?)

And the most important thing we learn growing up in TEXAS is...IN GOD WE TRUST.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Janie, from hot old Texas

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Comments (24)

little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Never mind.
plantmaven
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Maybe only Texans think that is funny.

k
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little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
For me, it is not a bad thing to laugh at yourself.

You are probably right.

Janie
plantmaven
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I was born in McAllen and have lived 57 of my 65 years in TX.

My ancestors came in at Indiola in 1847, so fixin to laugh at our "Texanese". LOL!
PattiOH
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I enjoyed your list, Janie!
I'm trying to figure out in what context one would use "Fixinto". Could you put it in a sentence for me?
Mash the button. Love that one!

We have a few things in Massachusetts that set us apart from the rest of the country too:

You're From Massachusetts if...

When ordering a tonic, you mean a Coke...not quinine water.

You know what they sell at a packie.(slang for Package Store where they sell liquor)

You can actually find your way around Boston even though someone always steals the street signs.

Something good is "wicked good".
Something bad is "wicked pissa".

Letter "R" at the end of words is always silent.

The curse of the Bambino is taught in public schools.

You own a "Yankees Suck" shirt or hat.

You know how to make a frappe (milkshake).

You actually know how to merge from 6 lanes of traffic down to one.

You never go to "Cape Cod", you go "down the Cape".

You order "ice coffee" year'round

You think coffee ice cream is the greatest flavor ever, and wonder when the rest of the USA is going to figure that out

You keep an ice scraper and can of de-icer on the floor of your car...year round

You know what they sell in a grinder shop (sub sandwiches).
plantmaven
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Fixin to, as in I am going to, about to start,,,,,

Here in San Antonio, they say I am going to the coast. Growing up near the coast, we always said "going to the beach", which was about 7 miles from Grandmother's.

Then of course, there's Janie, who lives at the coast.

Kathy
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
lol. Don't get me started!!! One of our locals, here in Ottawa, moved to Chicago. Several years ago. Here, in winter, we plug our outdoor vehicles into a Block Heater. This keeps the oil, etc., warm enough to start in the am. He enquired about where to plug his car into....they all thought he was going to get power from the plug in....we just get heat!!!

Nancy.
little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Nancy, when we first went to Michigan UP, I was astonished to find out that I had to "plug the car in". We kept survival gear in the trunk of the car year'round, and I do to this day. Not the same kind of gear, but survival gear nontheless.

LOL, "Yankees Suck" and the Curse of the Bambino!

Here on the coast, I say I am fixinto git me a glass of sweet tea and set under the fan! Hit's Hot here, at 8:06am, about 90 degrees. I already cut the grass, takin' advantage of the cool morning temps.

Janie
downeastwaves
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Interesting! Took us a while to figure out some of the saying as we traveled across the country. Mike wrote down several of the more unusual--to us--ones.
Around here if some one asks for directions and you do not know....you say:
You can't get theyah (there) from heeyah (here).....

Moxie
Fiddleheads
Spuds
little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Leasa

From your page, I see that you are from Maine. I have never been there- well, I haven't been there yet. I'm going to try to go a lot of places before I get really old.

Do you eat the fiddlehead or make music with it?

I read that you are growing some grapefruit, oranges and lemons from seed. I love to grow citrus. On the oranges, you have a 50/50 chance that the tree will be like the parent plant and produce good oranges. The odds are much better with grapefruit, about 95% in your favor. I am not sure what the chances are on a lemon, but you can grow lemons from cuttings (the only citrus that will propagate from cuttings)and the new plant will produce fruit almost immediately. I just thought I would share that, since I am a seed person too.....

What part of the South did you travel through?

Janie
downeastwaves
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey Janie! You HAVE to visit Maine!

Fiddleheads are yummy spring time food. Today I canned some, made pickled fiddleheads and froze some. My grandfather used to joke and call the violin craniums.....

I have some lovely fruit trees looking for a home in FL! the grapefruits are doing the best! The lemon kicked the bucket, lots of the oranges are growing but not to nearly like the grapefruits. One kumquat lived, it is wimpy in the stem though, I will end up buying one at a nursery I'm sure when the time comes.

HEHEHE! !!! I love collecting seeds, I took a bunch of seedlings to MA last week to Granny's service and then up to Northern Maine the other day for our visit up there. They will be sturdy by the time they get in the ground.

We hit all the South from FL to CA. We were Winter Texans for a couple of years.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pix of grapefruit tree in one of these shots
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Leasa fiddleheads are more of an east coast thing, at least I think they are. I don't know if anyone collects them around here. Which fern produces fiddleheads or is there more than one and finally what do they taste like and how do you cook yours. On a rare occasion you'll find them at the supermarket along with dulse that I know I don't care for.

Annette
gldno1
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Janie, I enjoyed your list! They sound very similar to some Ozark colloquialisms. I don't think it would seem strange if I were in Texas...I would understand the language! We don't do sweet tea though.

Now up north.............that would be another story.
skibby (zone 4 Vermont)
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Fiddleheads are delicious! They have a very mild flavor. Hard to describe the taste - they taste green. Nice texture too, depending on how you cook them. I usually saute them in butter/olive oil. They are really good on a pizza, or just blanched in a green salad. Sadly, our season here was less then two weeks and I missed the entire thing. I may have some in the freezer.
little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The only fiddleheads I know of are ferns! You eat those? I have heard of it, but never witnessed it.

Is any kind of fern o.k. or are some not so good?

I see a fiddlehead, I see a new beautiful frond on my fern. We are not going to be harvesting my ferns for lunch. lol

Janie
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Mmmm, I must have forgot to hit the send button, I enjoyed reading your list Janie, when we lived in Ocean Falls a little community up the coast on the mainland we referred to going to Vancouver as going down town. I grew up with a lot of english terms like boot/car trunk, fortnight/2 weeks, garage/pronounced like carriage, elevenses/snack in the morning similar to afternoon tea and many more like these but these are all that comes to mind at the moment.

Annette
thinman
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
One of you cottagers posted a list of Michigan strange items a while back, so I'll try not to repeat that, but here are a few terms you might hear around here.

The state is divided into two peninsulas, the upper one is the U.P. and the good folks who live there are yoopers. The peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge which crosses the Straits of Mackinac and has one end in MackinawCity. Nearby is MackinawIsland. All are pronounced the same way, courtesy of the French. People who live in the L.P. are called trolls, because, of course, they live below the bridge. The Mackinac Bridge is almost always called just the bridge. If we are going to the U.P. we say we are going up across.

A U.P. city straddling the border to Canada is Sault Ste. Marie, pronounced Soo Saint Marie (French again). If we are heading that way, we say we are going to the Soo, and while we're there we may take a look at the locks.

Tourists on Mackinaw Island (and now everywhere in the state) are called fudgies, due to the boxes of fudge many of them carry around after they have been enticed inside one of the many fudge shops by the irresistible aroma of boiling chocolate.

Lots of Michiganders enjoy a meal of pasties (that's pass - tees), courtesy of the Cornish miners that came to live in the U.P. They are like a folded-over pie-crust with meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, and often rutabagas inside. (My mom always used to say rutabeggies.) They're very good, if a little on the dry side. A little gravy helps a lot. If you get too thirsty while eating one, you can always have a pop ( not a soda - you have to go to a soda fountain for those, which you can't hardly find anymore)

Hope you learned something fun.

ThinMan
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
TM we enjoy (pass-tee's) too, how about Ecckles cakes do you like them, DH loves them but I find them messy to eat. We also refer to soda's as pop and yes, soda fountains have disappeared, sad. I used to love the soda fountain gingerale it had a real zip to it.

Annette
little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I did learn something TM. I would probably not have pronounced (pass-tees) exactly that way, and my DH looking over my shoulder would probably say "What is THAT conversation all about?" LOL

I lived on the UP, and enjoyed it very much, except for the cold. I am a warm blooded creature, and -60 degrees for the day's high temp was hard for me to deal with. We had to learn a lot to live there. I was impressed (to this day!) that Lake Superior was still frozen the end of June! It didn't slow the natives down, tho. Very hardy people. My kids loved it, all that snow!

I suppose that our extreme summer heat would be hard on those not used to it.

Where do you stand TM? Are you a troll or a yooper?

Is a pop a Coke or Pepsi? And, Annette, what is dulse?

Janie
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Janie, dulse is a type of seaweed, I think more east coasters than west costers eat it. Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Orange Crush, 7-Up, Gingerale etc. are all pop in my neck of the woods.

Annette
thinman
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Janie, where I stand is about thirty miles into troll territory. Ice in June? That's pretty wild, even for Lake Superior. Are you sure you didn't wander north of the Arctic Circle? :-)

All those beverages Annette named are called pop here too.

TM
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
TM and Annette - you've made me hungry, except for the dulse - eewwwww!!! Here is in Ontario the fiddle heads grow wild, at roadside - they were in full swing about a week ago!!! Now they are ferns. At a restaurant I worked at about 100 years ago, our Spring special was Alaskan crab and fiddle heads with drawn butter, and if you actually had room, a baked potato. Yummy!!!! I would compare fiddle heads with Spring Asparagus - mild and fleeting!!
I love Cornish Pasties, and Eccles Cakes - is it raisins or currants - can't remember.

Soft drink is the formal term - pop is the regular word!!!

Nancy.
little_dani
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
TM, I lived at K.I. Sawyer AFB, up by Marquette. I thought ice in June in anything but a glass of tea was pretty wild! But no, it was the lake, and it was iced! We were on motorcycles. I will never forget that day.

Janie
downeastwaves
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Here is a link with lots of info and some nice photos of fiddleheads and some recipes.

I made up a recipe so I will not post it until I taste it

I like them just plain, some folks put butter or vinegar on them. They get boiled for cooking. I do LOVE them pickled. They are yummy for sure.

Now Dulse--that is another Maine treat. actually the dulse we get around here comes from Grand Manan Island, Canada. It is the BEST! Now this takes some getting used to if you did not grow up on it. It is a seaweed. It may take a few times to like it if you have never had it.Here is a link with info http://www.grandmanannb.com/dulse.htm#Dulse

Here is a link that might be useful: fiddleheads

Things I learned growing up in Texas!

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