Texas-please Tell All (Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth: movies, high school, tornado)

[arizona_chic]

Well I know the first thing about this post is it's going to be a wide subject. I don't know what part of Texas I'm talking about, nor exactly what part I want to know about. I'm in NY and was just wondering about this state-maybe one day I'll visit or maybe even live. What is The UT in Austin like? What is texas itself like? is it all rodeos and cowboys? what kind of sceneray can you find and in what areas. Some movies i've seen consist Texas in a wide sprawl area with people with guns and others in tornado areas (tornadoes?) and others in quaint little suburban towns. I was hoping to find out more from a person who lives in Texas what is their outlook on life in Texas...the landscape, the wildlife, the people, etc. I know this is a wide range question. I just want to know more about the Lone Star State.
Do people honestly ride horses and wear cowboy hats and say "howdy ya'll" or is that just hollywood's point of view?

all comments appreciated

[i_catch_tree_bass]

The first thing you'll have to understand is this: Texas is huge. Three quick points that might bore you, but will help illustrate this point: Orange, Texas is closer to Jacksonville, Florida than it is to El Paso, Texas. El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Orange. Texarkana, Texas is closer to Chicago than it is to Brownsville, Texas.

Why do I point this out? Because Texas covers vast expanses of geography, terrain, culture, personality and lifestyle. Texas is neither South, nor West, though parts of it share similarities with either or both, even parts of the Panhandle share certain characteristics with the Midwest, though we do it all with a Texan twist.

In most parts of rural Texas, rodeos and high school football are going to be the primary form of entertainment. In and around the major cities, they're going to be more of an anomaly, though Fort Worth hosts a rodeo at the Cowtown Coliseum weekly (and other major cities have frequent rodeo events). Tornadoes occur in Texas, but their danger is vastly overrated. So much so, and this question is asked so frequently, that we should probably have a single post dedicated to this topic to direct newbies to. Texas has plenty of oil and natural gas, but we're not all filthy rich oil men. Texas has lots of cattle, but we don't have a couple of them in the backyard as pets.

There are plenty of stereotypes out there about Texas, and stereotypes typically come from some grain of truth, but that doesn't mean they apply to each of the 25 million folks that call Texas home.

There is more to Texas than can be explained in a post on this forum. Texas IS a state of mind.