I grew up in DeRidder. Moved to Tennessee the summer between 8th and 9th grade. The first Mardi Gras rolls around and I finally learned it wasn't a national holiday. :dis: I didn't have crawfish for 12 years because I was never back in Louisiana during season. I was given constant hell for being an LSU fan because "THEY SUCK!" I am now lucky enough to live close enough to Louisiana to get the food, football, and culture.
We are leaving from Texas tomorrow morning at 10:00 to got to Lafayette for a family "big ass Cajun wedding". I can't wait for the family warmth, the food and the good time. We have 9 LSU graduates in our family and 1 Alabama (my brother messed up, he shouldn't have said he would pay his tuition) graduate. I love Louisiana with my whole heart, but I love where we have retired in Texas.
Not a writer professionally but I do enjoy writing. Thank you for the compliments! I guess I am in the minority that dislikes Texas but it has grown on me more and more.
I can't stand Texas anywhere outside of Austin. I don't know how people can live in Houston or Dallas.
I live in the DFW Metroplex, and I like Houston and could live there. The suburb where I live is clean, offers every possible amenity and convenience, and has great schools/low crime. Austin is also great. All of that being said, I really miss Louisiana.
Why don't you spit in my chereos too, I like Austin from the few times I have been there was a great city. You are throwing Dallas and Houston under the buss with one big swoop, there are nice places in both. There are bad places in both. There are benifits of all three places.
I used to be a consultant and a lot of my work was in Dallas and Houston. I'm sure there are some nice places in the suburbs, but I think the inner city of both suck. Ft. Worth is the only place other than Austin that I thought had a nice downtown area with a real culture (It's the western/cowboy thing, though, which is not my kind of thing). San Antonio has a decent downtown, but the whole Riverwalk area is just corporate and contrived to me. I am very picky, though. Outside of Austin, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, there are really very few places I'd live. Possibly a few cities in Florida, and a few cities in the Carolinas. That's just my opinion. Obviously plenty of people disagree with me, since there are like 5 million people between Dallas and Houston.
There's no place like home. The food, the culture, the people, the way of life. Louisiana- there is no place on earth like it. Thanks Mackey, you reminded me of why I am so proud of my heritage. And SATURDAY NITES IN TIGER STADIUM. Where anything and every dream can be made possible.
I will always have a soft spot for Houston. I'm a huge foodie and when I lived in Houston I was introduced to authentic dim sum, Indian food prepared by a native Indian, awesome Tex-Mex (and the margaritas to go with it), excellent Mexican (different than Tex-Mex), great -- and I mean great -- fried chicken (Frenchy's on Scott Street, run by native New Orleanians) and bar b que out of this world (The Bush Plate at Otto's on Memorial just outside of downtown). Oh and one of the most creative dishes I have ever tasted -- shrimp and lobster enchiladas at a now closed restaurant. But as far as Louisiana food? Papadeaux's worked in a pinch, but not much else. I also had a huge health scare while we lived there and I'm convinced that one of the main reasons I'm still walking among the rest of you is because of a world class facility in the Medical Center. Not to mention that the little dude to the left was born in Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital. But my biggest problem with Houston, other than the fact that it just wasn't home, was that buildings there were considered old at 20 and torn down at 30. Because there are so few natives there (in relative terms) there is a very limited sense of history, IMO. So you end up with places in Houston that could be anywhere. Sort of like the opening sequences of the first couple of years of Weeds: "Little boxes, on the the hillside, and they all look the same." I can't explain why we left more than to say that we realized that no matter how long we lived in Houston, it wouldn't be home. Maybe others are right; maybe the air here is different. :geauxtige:geauxtige:geauxtige
Oh, and my favorite Houston joke (if you don't live in, or are familiar with, Houston you probably won't really get it) comes from the week or two after Hurricane Rita: It was announced that Gov. Rick Perry has decided on specified evacuation routes to cut down on the chaos of evacuating Houston in the event of another hurricane. It is imperative the following groups remain on the following highways. 1) Those of Mexican descent take I 10 West to San Antoinio 2) Yankees take US 59 to wherever it is y'all came from 3) Cajuns take I 10 East back to the homeland 4) UT alums take 290 (or is it 280? I can never remember) to Austin 5) Dallas transplants take I 45 North 6) Aggies evacuate on 610 :geauxtige:geauxtige:geauxtige
