Texan?

Discussion in 'Quackenbush's' started by Vol Horn 4 Life, Sep 12, 2012.

  1. Vol Horn 4 Life

    Vol Horn 4 Life Good Bye To All The Rest!

    Being from Tennessee I still sometimes feel like I'm not really from Texas. I see native Texan everything displayed with pride. My wife is a 7th generation Texan and definitely has an air about her when she proudly proclaims it.

    Since I was old enough to remember I had some sort of calling to be in Texas. Maybe it had something to do with early history classes talking about the Tennessee Volunteers at the Alamo. My best friend was from Ft Worth, but moved to Tn in 4th grade and introduced me to some Texas culture and mexican food. I have been a Cowboys fan since the dropped endzone pass in the Super Bowl. I always wanted my family to come here on vacation, but my dad always chose the beaches of Florida instead. Then Uncle Sam brought me here 25 years ago by chance to Ft Hood, I fell in love and never left. Since I can remember I've always wanted to be here and I'm still here and have no intentions of ever leaving.

    In 1990 I fell in love with everything UT and have probably been to more UT functions athletically and academically than probably 99% of those that live here and call themselves Texas fans. Through the years I've attended at least 200 sporting events from just about every bowl game, every home game and many away games for almost a decade, baseball, basketball, football, volleyball and even a rugby match. Academically I've attended, probably illegally, regular class lectures(I know I'm a geek), speaking engagements, graduations etc probably numbering in the 50's to my best count. I never attended the university because I just couldn't afford it on my $4hr job and no one would give me a student loan at the time. Then my career got in the way. Some would say I didn't want it bad enough an you may be right. I'm no Rudy!

    I came within a split second of getting into a fist fight with my brother because while he was stationed at Ft Hood in the late 90's all he could say is how arrogant Texans were. I'd have nothing to do with that crap!

    With all this being said the reason I am posting this is because I still feel like an outsider (insecurity maybe?). Not a Texan nor a Longhorn becuase I'm not from here nor did I attend the school.

    Is there any time someone can be a Texan when they're not a Texan?
     
  2. OldHippie

    OldHippie 2,500+ Posts

    I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and my family moved to Texas when I was 6. I've lived in Dallas, Ft. Worth, El Paso, Austin, Houston, Kerrville, Lake Worth and Red Rock and have never lived outside of Texas since the family moved here. The only time I don't consider myself fully Texan is when I look at my passport and it says place of birth "Tennessee", or when someone asks where I was born. Then I think it's kind of exotic to be able to say "Memphis". I think Texas is more of a state of mind than how long you've been here. If you've found a home where you fit, then I think you are fully a Texan.
     
  3. SunBurntOrange

    SunBurntOrange 500+ Posts


     
  4. tallgrant

    tallgrant 250+ Posts

    Sad I have to cite King of the Hill, but it's really appropriate. They had an episode called "Yankee Hankee" where Hank learned he had been born in New York, not Texas. He went through a lot of anxiety over it. He eventually ended up in the Alamo and saw the flags of the birthplaces of the Alamo defenders. He reads that they were born in many places, but died Texas heroes. At the end of the episode, his wife goes through something convoluted to rationalize him being a native Texan. He cuts her off and says- "No, I'm not a native Texan. I'm just a Texan."

    That moral stuck with me- I wasn't born here, but this is my state. [​IMG]
     
  5. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    My mama used to say that if you could stand to live here through five consecutive Texas summers, you're as Texan as the rest of us.

    Y'all are Texans in my book.
     
  6. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    What is a Texan? What does it mean to identify oneself with a geography — is it the culture we’re talking about, or the history? What if we don’t fully conform to the culture as it’s commonly perceived? I don’t understand the “pride” aspect of it all — one’s place of birth is random. Would you be ashamed if you were born and raised somewhere else?

    I was born here and have lived in Texas all my life, and I have had people tell me I “don’t seem like a Texan” because I don’t like hunting, fishing, country music, BBQ or beer.

    Am I a bad Texan if I don’t care about which state people lived or grew up in?
     
  7. S.A.Diva

    S.A.Diva 250+ Posts


     
  8. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin


     
  9. biganakhanhda

    biganakhanhda 500+ Posts


     
  10. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    I despise hunting and fishing and only listen to classic country (I think contemporary country music is from the devil or Taylor Swift, which are probably the same thing). I love barbecue and beer.

    I don't care what other people like or dislike, except that I want to thank Dionysus for leaving more BBQ and beer for me.
     
  11. Crockett

    Crockett 5,000+ Posts

    I'm not a native Texan and there are still aspects of my native New Mexico I long for even though I left before starting the 4th grade. But I'm more Texan than anything else. I love beer, barbeque (not that sweet KC or Carolina kind neither) and the look of a pasture full of bluebonnets. But I love my green chile, flat enchiladas, cool to cold July nights and being able to look 20 miles down the highway and see only two other cars.
     
  12. SunBurntOrange

    SunBurntOrange 500+ Posts


     
  13. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    I would like to visit New Mexico, I have heard it is nice. I love Northern California as well, and Washington except for all the rain. San Diego is fantastic. Don’t care for the northeast (Boston, NY, Philly, etc) at all, except to visit for some of the culture/entertainment, no way would I live there. Winters there and the midwest are the suck. I hear Nebraska is classy this time of year.
     
  14. BurntOrangeOnly

    BurntOrangeOnly 500+ Posts

    Texans by choice are just as good as Texans by birth. As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome in my birth state anytime and I'm glad you're a Longhorn by choice too.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. texas_ex2000

    texas_ex2000 2,500+ Posts

    Come on man...crazy you have to ask this question.

    Famous Texans and Place of Birth:
    Sam Houston - Born in Shenandoah, VA (also was The Governor of Tennessee)
    Stephen F. Austin - Virginia
    Davy Crockett - Greene County, Tennessee
    William Travis - South Carolina
    James Bowie - Kentucky
    Lorenzo de Zavala - Yucatan, Mexico
    Juan Seguín - Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
    James Bonham - South Carolina
    Bernando Galvez - Spain
    Charles Goodnight - Illinois
    Oliver Loving - Kentucky
    Bose Ikard - Tennessee
    Captain Richard King (King Ranch) - New York City
    Captain Bill McDonald (Texas Ranger) - Mississippi
    Col. John Coffee "Jack" Hays (Texas Ranger) - Tennessee
    Gene Kranz - Ohio
    Alan Shephard - New Hampshire
    GHWB - Mass/Connecticut
    GWB - Connecticut
    Darrell Royal - Oklahoma
    Mack Brown - Tennessee
    Ricky Williams - California
    Hakeem Olajuwon - Nigeria
    Roger Clemens - Ohio
    Priest Holmes - Arkansas
    Major Applewhite - Louisiana
    Colt McCoy - New Mexico
    Admiral William H. McRaven - North Carolina

    And finally, from the literary side:
    Captain Woodrow F. Call - Scotland
    Captain Augustus McCrae - Tennessee

    Considering you were born in Tennessee, I don't think you need to lose sleep over this.
     
  16. Bluff Horn

    Bluff Horn 250+ Posts

    Jerry Jeff Walker is from upstate New York, no?
     
  17. Y Sanchez

    Y Sanchez 250+ Posts

    7th Generation no ****
    My daughter and sons are 8th
    My Grandson is 9

    The first Sanchez walked to Texas from Alabama when he was twelve years old after he had been orphaned.

    If I can live long enough to see a 10th generation Native Texan Sanchez I will die a happy man.
     
  18. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin


     
  19. Vol Horn 4 Life

    Vol Horn 4 Life Good Bye To All The Rest!

    Thanks for the support and feedback all!


     
  20. LonghornCatholic

    LonghornCatholic Deo Gratias

    Smh, tee shirt Texans [​IMG]
     
  21. Giovanni Jones

    Giovanni Jones 2,500+ Posts

    Parents born in the Midwest; was born in Southern California (Inglewood), resided there until age 5 (Long Beach); forcibly relocated to the panhandle of Texas; attended K-12 in Texas, earned a BS at The School Formerly Known as West Texas State University and a MA at The University of Texas at Austin; and have lived here ever since. Been working in Houston for the last 20+ years (and when I was in college, I swore that Houston would be the one city that I would never, ever, reside or work in. LOL). Not a true Texan in the manner of my wife (whose family dates back many generations here); call me a quasi-Texan or a neo-Texan or a transplant, whatever.
     
  22. Giovanni Jones

    Giovanni Jones 2,500+ Posts


     
  23. The Eyes of Texas

    The Eyes of Texas 500+ Posts

    A person is a U.S. citizen if their parents are, regardless of where they are born. It is on that basis that I claim my right to be a Texan. My parents were native Texans, but my dad was a U.S. Marine....I was born on a military base in California....as soon as my Dad retired from the marines(I was 10), we moved back to Texas, and I've been here ever since, except for a 1 year sentence in Iowa (don't ask).
     

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