Beans and Peas - Texas terminology! (Abilene, Midland: how much, tenant, moving to)

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

This native West Texan ain't no southerner ....our cornbread always contained sugar......we never ate butterbeans.....and blackeyed peas weren't that common, even on NYD......

Oh lordy mercy, Cathy...my friend...and I mean that sincerely, the "average" West Texan (whatever that entails) may or may not consider themselves Southern! I cain't speak for them, individually, anymore than anybody else can. But as I have said before, all the sociological surveys I have seen say the majority DO!

Most talk Southern American English, The Southern Baptist Church is dominant, and I ain't NEVER met a West Texan who didn't eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day! "Y'all" is part of the speech, and they use "coke" as the generic for soft drink.

I don't think they eat pinto beans much in the typical south, do they? Where I lived and worked outside of Jackson, MS, they had mostly black-eyed peas/butterbeans....

They had mostly butter beans and black-eyed peas? Ditto! Don't we Texans share in the same?

But all that said...Texas is Texas. But heck, Tennessee ain't got the same features as south Mississippi. Virginia is Old Virginny...and different from Georgia. And Florida is full of yankees nowdays.

The South is a state of mind and attitude, not something that can be defined by a standard of Gone With the Wind. My Texas is Southern, and I understand that yours isn't. Mine is "Places In the Heart", not "Lonesome Dove".

BUT...cornbread aint got sugar in it, fer gosh sakes!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Oh lordy mercy, Cathy...my friend...and I mean that sincerely, the "average" West Texan (whatever that entails) may or may not consider themselves Southern! I cain't speak for them, individually, anymore than anybody else can. But as I have said before, all the sociological surveys I have seen say the majority DO!

Most talk Southern American English, The Southern Baptist Church is dominant, and I ain't NEVER met a West Texan who didn't eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day! "Y'all" is part of the speech, and they use "coke" as the generic for soft drink.




They had mostly butter beans and black-eyed peas? Ditto! Don't we Texans share in the same?

But all that said...Texas is Texas. But heck, Tennessee ain't got the same features as south Mississippi. Virginia is Old Virginny...and different from Georgia. And Florida is full of yankees nowdays.

The South is a state of mind and attitude, not something that can be defined by a standard of Gone With the Wind. My Texas is Southern, and I understand that yours isn't. Mine is "Places In the Heart", not "Lonesome Dove".

BUT...cornbread aint got sugar in it, fer gosh sakes!

Most talk Southern American English, The Southern Baptist Church is dominant, and I ain't NEVER met a West Texan who didn't eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day! "Y'all" is part of the speech, and they use "coke" as the generic for soft drink.

I'm not certain that most NATIVE (big difference as opposed to transplants, who bring their own culture and foods with them, and that is not meant as a putdown at all....) West Texans speak with that much of a drawl (even if I still struggle with *I*/ah....
Southern Baptist very prevalent, even though I was raised a Methodist.....black-eyed peas for NYD some years, some years not......y'all is definitely the norm, and "coke" is the generic term for soft drink!

They had mostly butter beans and black-eyed peas? Ditto! Don't we Texans share in the same?

For us (6th generation native Texan, as my great-whatever grandfather came to Texas with the De Zavala Colony in the 1830's)....butterbeans were non-existent, and black-eyed peas not very often.....but other Texans may have.

My Texas is much more "Lonesome Dove" than anything else, while yours appears to be more GWTW....and that is what makes the state of Texas so wonderful. I just know that I was SO glad to be back in Texas after MS/LA/VA.......

IF I ever return to TX to live, it will be far West Texas, once again.

As much as I love my home state, I prefer the Mexico/Spain/Western influence upon it....to the southern influence.

But......I am happy that we can each embrace what we love about our home state!!

[TexasReb]

But......I am happy that we can each embrace what we love about our home state!!

Here are just a couple of links...but by golly by gosh, We CAN can agree on that one, for sure!

Southern American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

But to make something clear, Cathy, my Texas is NOT Gone With The Wind. I never grew up or heard stories about the old plantation home or anything. And likely, neither did most in Tennessee or North Carolina. What my people were were hard-working cotton pickin' people, of Southern decent, who settled Texas. Places in the Heart most typlified the existence of the average Texan from after the War up until at least the Depression era.

Anyway, it IS fun to talk about all this!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Here are just a couple of links...but by golly by gosh, We CAN can agree on that one, for sure!

Southern American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

But to make something clear, Cathy, my Texas is NOT Gone With The Wind. I never grew up or heard stories about the old plantation home or anything. And likely, neither did most in Tennessee or North Carolina. What my people were were hard-working cotton pickin' people, of Southern decent, who settled Texas. Places in the Heart most typlified the existence of the average Texan from after the War up until at least the Depression era.

Anyway, it IS fun to talk about all this!

Yes, it is fun, isn't it? I have never seen Places in the Heart, so I don't see the connection there right now.

From the War Between the States (1861-1865) to the end of the great Depression (1929-1940 or so??) is a very long time.

From what I know, one grandparent came to Texas in the 1830s, and the other to West Texas around 1918...so we have been in that area a very long time. It was just so different from East Texas/LA, that it seemed like another world.

What I know as the very deep South (MS, LA, VA, et al...) is so far removed from WT that it, again, seems like another world. I have visited all of those states....and the southern culture is so different from what it is in WT.

VERY interesting map on the soft drink debate!! I noticed that WT where I grew up...and where I now live (Southern NM, not far from EP)....the map is red....LOL!!! It is also red in NW New Mexico, near the Four Corners area, where I may very well end up, LOL!!

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

Yes, it is fun, isn't it? I have never seen Places in the Heart, so I don't see the connection there right now.

From the War Between the States (1861-1865) to the end of the great Depression (1929-1940 or so??) is a very long time.

VERY interesting map on the soft drink debate!! I noticed that WT where I grew up...and where I now live (Southern NM, not far from EP)....the map is red....LOL!!! It is also red in NW New Mexico, near the Four Corners area, where I may very well end up, LOL!!

You ought to watch that movie sometime (heck, anybody from Texas who hasn't seen it should!). A VERY good flick depicting life in Depression era Texas and the cotton culture and all. In fact, if I remember correctly, the guy who wrote and produced it, based a lot of it on things he remembered his grandmother telling him.

Here is a little link, with a couple of reviews about it, by the way: Places in the Heart (1984)

Also, I should probably clarify a bit what I said in an earlier post that it portrayed the life of the "average Texan" during a certain era. That is, admittedly, a pretty broad statement, and like saying Gone With the Wind replicated the life of the average Georgian! LOL What I meant was, that the cotton culture (tenant farming, whole families making a lot of their income on picking, chopping, ginning, etc) was a dominant feature of Texas life and agriculture and I venture to say most native Texans over 35 or so are very familiar with stories from their grandparents and all describing how cotton played a role in their growing up and young adult years. In fact, we had a thread on it once: http://www.city-data.com/forum/texas...on-pickin.html

One more thing on the cotton culture, that is a reason why West Texas is (along with the Mississippi Delta area) the largest cotton producing area in the world. That is to say, because most of the folks who originally settled out that way were very familiar with it.

Yeah, I always thought that "coke" map was interesting too!

[loves2read]

on new years they eat whatever they want--usually ham and sweet potatoes
or something ethnic depending on their background
they certainly don't believe in eating peas to guarantee money in the next year...

green beans have many variesties that can be grown in the garden and then either eaten fresh or in the old days canned
you have to "string" them or "snap" them depending on what type and how mature they are--
green beans can be POLE beans where you have to plant a pole for them to wrap around as they grow taller and taller--or BUSH beans which is pretty self explanitory--and they take more room in the garden
the Indians of the Eastern states and some others would plant what they called the 3 sisters--corn (for the pole) beans, and squash--in the same hole (after planting in some small fish for fertilizer to help enrich the soil for good growth)
corn grew tall, beans wrapped around the corn, and squash grew along the ground--

Kentucky Wonder is a type of green bean as are Blue Lake (and you see that name sometimes on cans of green beans because they grow fairly narrow and have few beans inside the shells) or Derby or variations like Kentucky Blue...

There are yellow "green" beans--wax beans --which you usually see in 3 bean salads and I personally gag when tasting them--
and there are broad, flat green beans called "Italian" green beans--don't know if that is what they grow in Italy or not--but you can see that type labeled in canned green beans as well...

BUTTER beans and LIMA beans are different colors--butter beans are brown and limas are green and they have different tastes

Chick peas to me are really chalky and don't like them even just as garnish in salads
Canellini beans are used in lots of Italian dishes

but there are way more beans then these--especially dried beans--check out one of those packs for bean soup--like 43 different peas and beans ...

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

You ought to watch that movie sometime (heck, anybody from Texas who hasn't seen it should!). A VERY good flick depicting life in Depression era Texas and the cotton culture and all. In fact, if I remember correctly, the guy who wrote and produced it, based a lot of it on things he remembered his grandmother telling him.

Here is a little link, with a couple of reviews about it, by the way: Places in the Heart (1984)

Also, I should probably clarify a bit what I said in an earlier post that it portrayed the life of the "average Texan" during a certain era. That is, admittedly, a pretty broad statement, and like saying Gone With the Wind replicated the life of the average Georgian! LOL What I meant was, that the cotton culture (tenant farming, whole families making a lot of their income on picking, chopping, ginning, etc) was a dominant feature of Texas life and agriculture and I venture to say most native Texans over 35 or so are very familiar with stories from their grandparents and all describing how cotton played a role in their growing up and young adult years. In fact, we had a thread on it once: http://www.city-data.com/forum/texas...on-pickin.html

One more thing on the cotton culture, that is a reason why West Texas is (along with the Mississippi Delta area) the largest cotton producing area in the world. That is to say, because most of the folks who originally settled out that way were very familiar with it.

Yeah, I always thought that "coke" map was interesting too!

That's an old movie......maybe I'll rent it and watch it!

I suppose my maternal grandmother picked cotton, but I don't remember her ever talking about it. I know my parents didn't, because cotton was not grown in my home county (Crockett) at all.....major oil/gas/sheep/mohair/cattle production, rather than farming. The terrain isn't as suited for it, since it is not really rolling plains.

West Texas settlers who came from the south may have been familiar with cotton, but it was a whole new ballgame with dryland production and irrigation, as opposed to East Texas/points east of there. It had to have been pretty hardscrabble. Midland County has quite a bit of cotton, by contrast, and most of the major cotton production in Texas is north/north east of Midland county, on up into the Panhandle. All of that country is table-flat plains, broken up in places by mesas, etc.

Back-breaking labor, that....!!

[wade_word]

All these terms for legumes. They still look pretty damn good in my bowl right now. Let the debates rage on. Somebody please pass the cornbread!

[Lakewooder]

"Places in the Heart" just floored me -- it was as if all the stories I had heard came to life on the screen.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by blueskies49

Sorry, TexasReb, ol' buddy, ol' pal, but I have to agree with your Mississippi friend - pinto beans are NOT red beans. Having said that, the hubby does the same thing, he calls pintos red beans. I was just discussing this on another thread (don't remember which one now). In fact, I just saw - and bought - a package of "red" beans from the supermarket. That's what the package said and they are dark colored like small kidney beans only they're not shaped like kidneys.

Isn't another name for black-eyed peas "cow peas"? Or something? Northerners call it that maybe. I thought I read once that they aren't thought of as being fit to eat up there.

Agreed. Pinto beans are pinto beans and red beans are red beans..