I did a quick search and what I found suggested this to be a phenomenon in the Houston area.

Just as so many consider my state derisively to be a place to find conduct and people that wouldn't be accepted in more "normal" places, I can suggest many feel the same way about Texas, about other things.

I remember about a thousand years ago taking a trip to Texas to visit a buddy from college who'd taken a job in the Metroplex area. He picked me up at DFW and we were enroute to his apartment. Along the way, he said he'd forgotten to get some beer and he got off of the freeway and went into the store at a gas station. He came back to the car with a 6-pack. He got in, and drove back onto the freeway. After a few minutes, he reached down, grabbed a beer and opened it for himself and took a gulp. Then he asked me if I wanted one. I said something like "Yeah, but not with such urgency that we need to take a chance getting pulled over for drinking beer while you're driving".

He started laughing, the joke was on me. He had plenty of beer at home, he'd stopped to get beer to shock me by demonstrating that Texas (at least at that time) had no prohibition of drinking alcohol while driving. Unbelievable. And that in a state that then and still to this day had and has dry counties (where alcohol prohibition still remains the law).

Remember the movie Ben Hur and the chariot race? Reminds me of that.

I just remembered another instance of Texas culture shock, on the same trip.

That night, we went to a steakhouse for dinner. The restaurant host was showing us to the table and my friend stopped and said "I have to go to the head and I'll meet you at the table. I'm having steak and I presume you are too, why not order some wine rather than wait for me."

"Sure", I said.

Shortly after being seated, the table server approached, welcomed me, and asked if I would like something to drink. I said "Yes", asked if they had a wine list, and the person left to get it. It was dropped off, I looked it over, and the server came back and asked if I wanted to order something. I said "Yes, a bottle of XYZ, please"

The server said "You need to display your membership card on the table before I can bring you wine". And pointed to a little box at the corner of the table.

"My membership card for what?" I asked.

The server said "Sir, this is a dry area. Public sales of alcoholic beverages are not allowed. However, we are a private club for the purposes of serving alcohol and what we offer is for members only".

I said "That's too bad. I'm just a visitor to the area and I'm not a member. Maybe my friend is, we can ask when he gets back".

The server said "Oh, that's no problem. Membership in our club is open to anyone. It costs $5 for a life membership, and we'll subtract the membership cost from your bill. There's just a short application for you to fill out if you want to join, and I can bring it with the bottle you want.".

My friend came back to the table laughing. He didn't really need to go to the restroom; he just walked away so that I could have the experience he knew would happen. It was another setup.

“Remember the movie Ben Hur and the chariot race?”

Exactly my first thought.

My first quick thought was that someone had forgotten a space.

You have ruined my vision of lovely graceful swans gliding in ponds.

I refuse to believe they pass gas, LOL.

donna, maybe they do and that's why the British Monarch owns them all. To make retaliation in anger an offense against the Crown.

Those look dangerous!

I'm from New Braunfels Texas. Hadn't heard about these....I showed them to DH....

Those would be totally illegal here. Apart from anything else, they’re a danger to others.

Elmer, I lived in the same area as your friend, and those laws were crazy. I worked in a hotel that was in a "dry area" (dry areas seemed to be willy nilly here and there). How it was managed in the hotel bar and restaurant seemed to be constantly reconsidered. Hotel guests got a membership card with their room key. other patrons could buy a membership for $1. or $5. and it included a free drink. Ooops, not free, but rather included with the membership.

Our honeymoon packages included a gift basket with things like chocolates or cookies, croissants and butter and jams, cheeses and crackers, and two champagne glasses. … … Does it include champagne? … … Can we get champagne with that? "oh, the General Manager will be happy to give a bottle of champagne as a gift to the newlyweds!" We couldn't offer it, but if they asked for it, the GM could give it. Of course, that advisory changed regularly.

On Sunday in a ”wet area” you had to wait till noon to buy beer; the lineup at the checkout after churches were out was long, especially when the Cowboys were playing. But you couldn’t buy liquor like vermouth or gin or vodka (as I learned when I was making a sauce for dinner that night and had to call my mom to ask about substitutes. Mom was as close to Google as you got in those days.)

(there were also the laws about things like, you can't buy pantyhose even if you are headed to church and your last pair has a big run in them. I can't remember if you could buy diapers or not, You could buy nails but not a hammer, or was it the other way around? things like that.)

I commuted for a few years from the university a bit north of the city. Occasionally, my carpool buddy and I would stop at the 7-11 and get a longneck each for the 40 minute drive home. I can really nurse a beer, I usually enjoyed the other half of my bottle when I got home. Don’t worry, the beer stayed cold in the university-branded Koozie. When the law changed, there was a big business in skins for the beer can that disguised it as a Dr Pepper.

But your friend missed the best thing: the drive-through Beer Barn! Yessirree! Not just a drive-up window like the Starbucks, no no no. This looked like a barn, and you drive right through the middle and tell the guy what you want, he puts it in yer car. I don't think they sold singles, though.

Colleen I have read that they are legal here as long as the point to point horizontal width is less than 8 feet, and the car is not driven in a zig zag/unsafe manner. However, the swanga culture seems conducive to unsafe driving as they zip around showing off.

The rule here is no attachments wider than the original width of the car.

I once went to a multi-day long conference in a suburban part of the same metro area, at a facility in a dry county - maybe it was where you worked, bpath?

We learned with a laugh that the county line was a small river. One evening, I and a few colleagues rented a car to drive to downtown Dallas for dinner and evening entertainment. Driving along the minor highway (not a freeway) we were told to take, we crossed a bridge over a river to find FOUR liquor stores along the highway on the far side of the bridge. Two on each side of the street. Apparently that bridge went over the river that was the county line and so 4 enterprising business people saw a good opportunity by being the closest available liquor stores along that highway for people living in the dry county. I guess there was enough business for 4 different stores to split amongst themselves. Their parking lots were full.

What nonsense that was.

Wow! Another toxic idea brought to you by macho headcases.

I think those wheels would fit under the red flag rules. If it sticks out from the vehicle a red flag needs to be attached.

How do you curbside park? Or park most places now that I think of it. Whose spots are wide enough. Seriously weird.

patriciae

I'm old enough to remember when 'curb feelers' (cats whiskers) were not entirely unusual although I don't think I ever drove anything that had them added. MANY years ago a BIL put them on his wife's new car without telling her and she was furious when she saw them - thought for old people only 😊 We seem to have so few reasons to parallel park any more - although I've found I can still do it if I have to.

Those pictured above look like weapons on a roman chariot. I'd never seen or heard of them. We're a long way from Texas.