How I Became a Texan
Jan. 10th, 2016 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebPart I: My Parents
My parents were born and raised in suburbs of Chicago. But my dad joined the Air Force, so I was born in Oklahoma then moved to Guam, Louisiana, and California before he got out.
Then we joined my parents' best friends from high school (they were each other's best man and maid/matron of honor) in Florida. My Dad worked on Apollo 11 while we were there. (The rest of us went outside into the yard to watch the launch--the rocket looked like an upside-down lightbulb to me.) Then he got laid off and we moved back to Chicago suburbs for a year and a half (two winters and one summer).
The second winter the high temperature never went above zero degrees Farenheit for thirty days in a row and my mom declared that she never wanted to live anyplace where that could happen again.
[I just learned that on my trip home last week. I remember it being cold. I remember having bare legs with my dresses and snow boots, but that must have been the first winter. I also remember having "leggings" (ski pants) and having on so many clothes that I couldn't hang my arms down straight (like a body builder). But I didn't remember it being "To Build A Fire" cold.]
So we moved back to Florida, then Dad followed a job to Houston (where it snowed twice the first year!). Later, when both my mom's brothers moved to the Dallas area, they moved there, too, and they're still there today.
Part II: Me
I went to college in Boston. I wanted a good small liberal arts college. I now know that I would have been perfectly happy at the large state university, but oh well.
I moved back home while I was job hunting and then applied to grad school. My top two schools (in Boston and California) rejected me, but my third choice (in Austin) accepted me AND they gave me fellowships and TA-ships AND my best friend moved from Houston to Austin, so I moved to Austin.
My boyfriend at the time graduated just before I did and found a job in Georgia. I followed him there until we broke up. Then moved back in with my parents.
By this time I had opinions about where I liked living:
a) Any place with good people is a good place to live. I learned this working at summer camp in Conroe, Texas, almost the middle of nowhere. And again in the world's second biggest dorm.
b) I do not like the cold. Even though I never had to shovel (in Chicago or Boston) and even though the three years I spent in Boston were milder than average.
c) I like college towns. They are full of smart people and have good libraries.
And so I moved to Austin to stay. A bunch of my friends from grad school were still here. It freezes only a couple times a year and rarely drops below 20, perhaps never below zero. Certainly the high temperature is never below zero! And UT used to have the second biggest academic library in the US. Plus there are three other other colleges and a big community college system.
Now some of my friends and relatives have moved away, but I've made more friends. In spite of global warming, it still doesn't get seriously cold. And the university library's not keeping up the way it used to, but we now have the internet.
And now another thing I appreciate is the very casual atmosphere. I am not expected to wear make-up or high heels (though with sandals, I think I'm expected to wear nail polish).
And I like that this town basically gets that gay people are made out of real people and that racism and segregation are bad even though we still have it.
An added bonus is that we have wild flowers. Boston has better dandelions - they only have the sunny yellow kind and not the lemon yellow kind. But we have more wild flowers. I only ever saw three kinds of wild flowers in Georgia (tiny white ones, yellow ones, and fuzzy maroon ones).
Another added bonus is Tex Mex food. I think it's ubiquitous now, but I sure missed it in 1980's Boston. (Though I did enjoy listening to someone's Mom say "nachos" with a Jewish/Yiddish accent.)
And so that's why I'm a Texan.
My parents were born and raised in suburbs of Chicago. But my dad joined the Air Force, so I was born in Oklahoma then moved to Guam, Louisiana, and California before he got out.
Then we joined my parents' best friends from high school (they were each other's best man and maid/matron of honor) in Florida. My Dad worked on Apollo 11 while we were there. (The rest of us went outside into the yard to watch the launch--the rocket looked like an upside-down lightbulb to me.) Then he got laid off and we moved back to Chicago suburbs for a year and a half (two winters and one summer).
The second winter the high temperature never went above zero degrees Farenheit for thirty days in a row and my mom declared that she never wanted to live anyplace where that could happen again.
[I just learned that on my trip home last week. I remember it being cold. I remember having bare legs with my dresses and snow boots, but that must have been the first winter. I also remember having "leggings" (ski pants) and having on so many clothes that I couldn't hang my arms down straight (like a body builder). But I didn't remember it being "To Build A Fire" cold.]
So we moved back to Florida, then Dad followed a job to Houston (where it snowed twice the first year!). Later, when both my mom's brothers moved to the Dallas area, they moved there, too, and they're still there today.
Part II: Me
I went to college in Boston. I wanted a good small liberal arts college. I now know that I would have been perfectly happy at the large state university, but oh well.
I moved back home while I was job hunting and then applied to grad school. My top two schools (in Boston and California) rejected me, but my third choice (in Austin) accepted me AND they gave me fellowships and TA-ships AND my best friend moved from Houston to Austin, so I moved to Austin.
My boyfriend at the time graduated just before I did and found a job in Georgia. I followed him there until we broke up. Then moved back in with my parents.
By this time I had opinions about where I liked living:
a) Any place with good people is a good place to live. I learned this working at summer camp in Conroe, Texas, almost the middle of nowhere. And again in the world's second biggest dorm.
b) I do not like the cold. Even though I never had to shovel (in Chicago or Boston) and even though the three years I spent in Boston were milder than average.
c) I like college towns. They are full of smart people and have good libraries.
And so I moved to Austin to stay. A bunch of my friends from grad school were still here. It freezes only a couple times a year and rarely drops below 20, perhaps never below zero. Certainly the high temperature is never below zero! And UT used to have the second biggest academic library in the US. Plus there are three other other colleges and a big community college system.
Now some of my friends and relatives have moved away, but I've made more friends. In spite of global warming, it still doesn't get seriously cold. And the university library's not keeping up the way it used to, but we now have the internet.
And now another thing I appreciate is the very casual atmosphere. I am not expected to wear make-up or high heels (though with sandals, I think I'm expected to wear nail polish).
And I like that this town basically gets that gay people are made out of real people and that racism and segregation are bad even though we still have it.
An added bonus is that we have wild flowers. Boston has better dandelions - they only have the sunny yellow kind and not the lemon yellow kind. But we have more wild flowers. I only ever saw three kinds of wild flowers in Georgia (tiny white ones, yellow ones, and fuzzy maroon ones).
Another added bonus is Tex Mex food. I think it's ubiquitous now, but I sure missed it in 1980's Boston. (Though I did enjoy listening to someone's Mom say "nachos" with a Jewish/Yiddish accent.)
And so that's why I'm a Texan.