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Ours is a 'Kiwi/American' household with a big influence of Asia, just to confuse people here. Having lived in Asia and loved every aspect of it, I had collected quite a bit of furniture and ornaments which didn't quite succumb to the Texas/Cowboy image but did produce a few looks of initial surprise. Our house has double glazing which is unusual for me but this apparently is normal as are storm doors on external doors. Shingled roofs outweigh the tile, although I think the latter is becoming more popular. Guttering and downpipes are not usual accessories which meant the rain just runs straight off the roof into the garden/lawn (yard). Our house only had a small strip of guttering on one side which lead to the front door, the downpipe ran out into the garden rather than underground which of course swamped the garden bed in water. We did end up putting another guttering strip along the other side and across the garage but again the water just ran down the driveway. Solar screens are definitely needed on all windows to keep out the heat in the Texas summer or at very least fly screens to keep out all the pesky bugs (hornets, mosquitoes, flies etc.) Termites are a huge problem in Texas. We have ports all around our house which is monitored monthly by a pest control firm, this was after we found them swarming in our main bathroom (during their 'flying' season). We have had one hit in one of the ports outside (these are inground) but has since been cleared.
Laundry areas were a bit of a shock when I arrived. A laundry was set up in
a cupboard - no separate room. Ours is in one wall of the breakfast area. There
are 4 folding louvered doors which opened up to reveal the washing machine
and dryer. There is a shelf for all our laundry products and an area along
the side to store the ironing board. It appears to be very unusual to have
a laundry tub for doing any soaking etc and I really miss that. Even searching
around at Home Depot, we mainly only found some small plastic tubs. There were
no complete units which included a cupboard underneath. To rinse or handwash
anything you have to use a bucket which in the case of jumpers etc, is too
small.
Clothes Lines are not very common here, in fact go to any Home Depot store and
see if you can even see any for sale - either rotary or an extend-a-line setups.
It seems that people are big on convenience and prefer to use clothes dryers
although why they would want to heat up the house in the height of summer was
beyond me. Actually a neighbour over the back did have a couple of lines strung
up between a shed and the fence but that was about all I saw anywhere around.
We have one of those retractable lines that we bought at Walmart (similar to
a travel line but longer) which we put up on the wall of the patio area and
stretched it out to the other wall when I want to hang something out to dry,
which in Summer, is all the time. Two sheets take up the whole line, an airing
rack takes care of the 'smalls' and then if necessary, I stretch an expandable
curtain rod between two outdoor chairs and drape a few extra things over that.
After living in a tiny apartment in Hong Kong and drying sheets draped over
two chairs in a squashed living area - this is nothing although I didn't expect
to be doing this in Texas.
Attics are also very common here. Not just the crawl space in the roof that
we are used. Other than the very old-style bungalow homes, the roof on a house
here has a very high pitch which allows a sizeable area for use as an attic.
It certainly helps for extra storage space for items not often in use but in
Summer, the temperatures get really hot, even with a ceiling vent. If you want
to make it into an extra room you would definitely need to add heating and
air-conditioning. I thought the fold down steps were really cool.
Power points are usually two straight pins or two straight and a round. I found
it wasn't common to have an on/off switch as part of the switch. While newer
style plugs are coming out with this facility, you have to buy a separate adapter
with an on/off switch if you want to be able to turn your appliance off without
unplugging it. Light switches are also back-to-front, up being on and down
being off. In the case in one of our rooms, the double switch actually goes
sideways, which completely threw me.
There
is a wonderful service that they have here and that is, your mailman will pick
up your letters for posting right
from your letterbox. Simply put your letters
in the box and raise your little red flag on the side and when he delivers,
he also will pick up (with stamps on of course). There are very few general
roadside
letterboxes because of this, mostly those at the post office itself. The mail
truck is pretty cool in itself. Every now and then you see the really old maroon
type one which is even smaller. They are also right hand drive so the mail
man can stay in his van to drop off/pickup your mail. There are still homes
that
have their boxes on the wall by their front doors. Those deliveries are for
the energetic 'posties'. Overseas postage seems to be the same to all countries
(except
Canada and Mexico). As for airmail stickers. What are they. I once asked at
the post office for some airmail stickers for my letters. The response was "I have seen them on letters that people bring in but we don't have any and I have no idea where you would get them from".
Was this a Post Office?? They finally provided some the following year. I believe
also with holidays, the post office is not allowed to be closed 3 days in a
row and therefore you also cannot go without mail delivery 3 days in a row.
Junk mail is usually delivered by the mail man with your mail and fortunately
not often.
Churches here seem to get on the junk mail racquet too and there is enough of
them. Then you get the odd
landscaper, air-conditioning guy, or whatever peddling
their businesses - tying pamphlets to your door handle with a rubber band or
cards wedged in the opening and the worst, using cellotape and sticking them
on your nicely cleaned glass storm door. There is also the odd meat seller
with supposedly left-over meat from deliveries. He comes knocking at the door
now and then, claiming that they had an excess in their deliveries and were
willing to sell off their surplus at a discount 'just to you'. My answer to
them is 'we are vegetarian in this household'. That stops them in their tracks
with no where to go and they make a hasty departure. For the 'dropping off'
crowd, I found a notice on the web (it was a law from another State) which
I have adapted and taped to the front door. It states "No Handlers, No Peddlers, No Advertising, No Trespassing, No Unsolicited Papers". This does the trick with most. The odd one that either can't read English or simply ignores it, I either rang up and told off, or we saw them doing it and chased them next door to hand their 'rubbish' back to them. Most of the time we don't seem to have much of a problem now and it has certainly stopped the collection of papers around the front door.
There are many accident and work injury places in Texas with many lawyers advertising on TV to assist you with claims. This is a 'sue you' society and everyone gets a piece of the action. If you win your case then it's a 3-way split on the settlement. You, the Lawyer and the Medical people all get your piece.
Should you call an ambulance (MCIU - Medical Intensive Care Unit), to your home and depending on the problem, a fire truck may automatically be sent as a first responder. This happens when the call is for a Heart Attack, Unconscious Person, or a Major Accident type call. Also if the assigned MICU is further away than 6 minutes, an engine will be assigned as a first responder. The fire department personnel are trained to administer advanced first aid until the arrival of the MICU. This happened a couple of times to our elderly neighbour. The first time they turned up I got quite a fright to see both units there.
You
won't see all Texans going around in 10 gallon hats although the boots are
pretty much standard issue for the guys. You do see them though and even on
little
kids, which are almost bigger than they are. They neighbours are not all cowboys..
although maybe some are in a different sense of the word. If you're looking
for the cowboy look, go to a Rodeo or to Fort Worth stockyards - the western
look
is out in force. Texans are certainly incredibly polite people. The men in
particular are generally more polite to women than the good old Aussie/kiwi/pommy
bloke.
Even the roughest Redneck will say excuse me if they bump you, pass in front
of you or whatever. Most kids are usually very polite in excusing themselves
as well, which I find a nice change. Usually Ma'am is added and 'sir' is used
more frequently when addressing someone. Generally I think Americans are more
open with their display of affections. At times though, some of their mannerisms/habits
can seem rude compared to what I am used to but I doubt they are intended that
way. Wearing hats/caps inside to me is rude and we once sat for over an hour
in a meeting with a guy in his office who wore his baseball cap the entire
time. In my opinion that lessened the importance of the meeting. Chewing… now don't get me started but Americans generally have a disgusting habit of chewing in a noisy slapping fashion with their mouths open. Sometimes their eating is displayed in the same way so that you get a very clear vision of what they are ingesting… somewhat
like the Asians. It seems to be a contradiction of their polite upbringing,
not to have the everyday manners to go with it.. a difficult one to explain. When I first arrived I found myself clipping my words now and then like they do - kind of a lazy way of talking and then saying 'uh huh' in acknowledgement. The typical Redneck accent is a very strong drawl and sometimes I have trouble understanding it all. I also find that I have to be careful with my sense of humour (strange as it is), I have a feeling that everything I say is being taken seriously and maybe I that I am being insulting in some cases when really, that's just my way of joking/teasing. I haven't quite worked out the level or type of sense of humour here yet and I keep reading (from other expats) that there isn't any. I still have trouble on the home front with my own Cajun/Texan interpreting my sense of humour.
People in general are definitely large here - some terribly overweight and worse,
they don't appear to care judging by the type of food they consume. They eat
big meals and certainly live up to the everything's 'Big' in Texas image. I
believe that 50% of American women are over a size 14. The amount of overweight
children I see is disappointing, knowing exactly where they are headed to in
adult life. Fast, fried or overly sweet food is the typical diet so the result
isn't surprising. There is certainly no shortage of Plus Size clothing in the
stores. I tend to go to the children's department as trying to find certain
things in a small size is sometimes impossible. There is also the 'big hair'
syndrome. The puffed up, over-styled, heavily lacquered look of the females
hairstyles. The African American styles really have me captivated with their
creativity. The most amazing 'designs' I have ever seen, all slicked with some
kind of magical gel to secure it all in place. They also have the most original
and creative names.
Texans are extremely patriotic - probably more so than in
any other State in the country with immense pride not only their country but
their State. Americans
on a whole, came out in force after 9/11 to display their patriotism , putting
their flags and stickers everywhere - on cars and homes, wearing patriotic
pins, there was red, white and blue everything. This was not a new ritual to
Texans who show their pride on a daily basis even in the best of times. You
either see the American flag airborne from yard poles and frantically flapping
from car windows or the Texan flag being draped around - sometimes both together.
American flag stickers can be found in all sizes and on anything imaginable.
There is a fine line between an overabundance of confidence and downright bragging and they are not shy when it comes to the latter… as their saying goes, "It ain't bragging, if it's true!" They are not short of a few tall tales along the way as well, after all, everything is big in Texas and so are the stories. The more excited they get about something, the louder they get, and they already have a head start in decibels over everyone else.
Here I feel I have to go into a little of what sort of neighbours we have especially over the back. They are a breed unto their own - certainly not like our other 'normal' neighbours. To explain first - properties here usually have a front and a back entrance. The back entrance being off a lane between two rows of properties. In our case we have no such lane but a large storm water drain which runs behind our fence (taking off several feet off our property) and divides us from the neighbours over the back and their fences. The neighbours over the back have been a real pain in the neck. We have a 6ft fence but unfortunately the yard slopes down towards it so in actual fact the fence is about 5ft inline with our patio level. The neighbours over the back (and I won't go so far as to calling them 'Rednecks' as my other half does but... a lot of their lifestyle fits the perception) sit outside every day, most of the day, all year round, sitting at their plastic cup infested table, just staring over in our direction (well in general anyway). In winter, they just rug up and still continued to sit outside. The only reprieve is rain, but then we don't want to be outside either. We have named them the 'periscope people' because of they way they react whenever we go outside and most of the time we wait until they go inside to venture out the back to do anything - God knows if they ever cook a meal. They have teenage kids but it seems like the kids probably fend for themselves inside while the parents continue to sit outside.
This couple smoke non-stop, often with a phone glued to their ear (even extremely
early in the morning) and drink copious amounts of fluid. Now to give them
the benefit of the doubt, I don't presume to know exactly what they glug down
all
day
but lets just suffice to say that at odd times late afternoon/evening, the
volume of their voices intensifies and the articulation of their conversations
takes a wayward turn for the worst. Knowing that Texans are exuberant anyway,
you can understand my subtle meaning here. They have a couple of tables, outdoor
umbrellas and endless supply of plastic cups, plastic containers and God knows
what else scattered about their 'outdoor living area'. There was even a ladder
propped up against the back of the house, going nowhere, until the wind blew
it down. Now its just propped horizontally, still going nowhere. In summer,
we see tops of corn plants pushing up against their back fence, and wilting
sunflowers propping up the side fence. We only wish they covered the whole
of the fence if only to give a little more privacy. At one point, the fire
brigade pulled up outside our place. Our next door neighbours had called them
out. Over the back, a fire had started against the 'periscope people's' back
fence. It seems that they had been dumping their grass clippings over the fence,
possibly tossed a cigarette butt over the fence and, pure genius, had started
a little fire going right up their fence. I don't know who put it out in the
end but we were glad that the fence didn't totally burn down and expose any
more of them and their yard. Periodically part of the fence will fall off and
the gap would be tacked up with some make-shift piece of wood. Any privacy
I want while sitting out in the sun, comes from hanging a sheet on my make-shift
clothes line and being able to hide behind it. My ultimate desire is a 10ft
fence!
Update: These poor unfortunate folks ended up suffering a fire in their house. The back door was open for some 6 weeks so goodness knows what took up residence there. There was a huge dumpster in the drive, slowly being filled, for about 2 months until I think the house was most likely sold. We didn't see them again. The new owner has really put a lot of work into the house and with a new fence and a coat of pain, the property is looking very respectable.
'Rednecks' is a term you will hear a lot of (and not only in the south). This is a term for a back-woods kind of person with an extreme country accent and mannerisms and it is assumed, with a limited education, vocabulary, not too bright and light on a the few basic refinements in life. Some say that a 'Redneck' is not a term of derision but a state of mind. For the Do's and Don'ts see Rednecks humour
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