Wendy came up with an idea for a blog post based on music in her iPod, then MCF did his own take on the same idea. I just happened to have made an iTunes playlist yesterday so that I’d have something to listen to on the road to and from Fredericksburg, Texas. Here are sample lyrics from each of the songs in the list. See if you can guess the songs and the artists before clicking the links for the answer. (I knew two of Wendy’s ten songs, and one of MCF’s 20.)

1. I bet there’s rich folk eatin’ in a fancy dining car.
   They’re prob’ly drinkin’ coffee and smokin’ big cigars
2. Oh his knees are-a gettin’ chilly
   But he feels no fear or pain
   ‘Cause he sees an angel peepin’
   Through a broken window-pane
3. I’d buy you some art
   (a Picasso or a Garfunkel)
4. Si tuvieras fe como grano de mostaza
   Eso lo dice el Senor
   Tu le dirias a la montana
   Muevete, muevete
   Esa montana se movera, se movera, se movera
   (Those are actually all the lyrics in the entire song, but it absolutely rocks. It’s one of the few songs in the world that makes me want to dance.)
5. At times life is wicked and I just can’t see the light
   A silver lining sometimes isn’t enough
   To make some wrongs seem right
6. Where’s the mini-skirt made of snake skin,
   and who’s the other guy singing in Van Halen?
7. All the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallen to idols of clay
   And I feel this empty place inside so afraid that Ive lost my faith
8. When they said you was high classed,
   Well, that was just a lie.
   You ain’t never caught a rabbit
   And you aint no friend of mine.
9. I thrill when I drill a bicuspid
   It’s swell though they tell me I’m maladjusted
10. When that love comes down
    Without devotion
    Well it takes a strong man baby
    But I’m showing you the door
11. God tells Gabriel behind the altar
    “Pick up your trumpet and begin to blow it”
    (I can’t find lyrics to this song anywhere, but here’s the album and here’s a sound clip.)
12. Did you ever feel unwanted
    Kicked around so much you’re taunted
    Heart cries out with so much pain
    Well that’s the way l feel
13. Blue! Blue! They sky is blue!
    The grass is green and your heart is true
    (Again, I find no lyrics for this online, but you can hear it on the band’s web site.)
14. Si el espiritu de Dios esta en mi corazon
    Yo danzo como David
    Oh Yo danzo, Yo danzo, Yo danzo
    como David
15. Wanna be ready, gotta be ready
    To fly away to my home
    My house is in order, my faith holdin’ steady
    I’ll fly away to my home
    (I’m starting to think I listen to some horribly obscure music, because I can’t find online lyrics for this, either. You can see the album, and listen to a Real Media clip.)
16. D’ja hear ’bout Louie Miller? He done disappeared, dear
    After drawin’ out all his hard-earned cash
    And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor
    Could it be our boy’s done somethin’ rash?
    (And yes, I’m listening to that artist’s version rather than the original.)
17. In tales of ancient glory,
    Every knight and maiden fair
    shall be joined when the quest is over,
    And a kiss is the oath that they swear.

I lived the first fifteen years of my life in Texas. I didn’t realize until I moved to another state how much people and customs vary from region to region. I have lived in four U.S. states in my life, and they all have a distinct culture. I’ve had to adjust to each one in turn, but the funny thing is that I have to readjust every time I return to Texas. Old, familiar things can surprise me by feeling old and familiar and resurrecting memories from days that seem lifetimes removed from the present.

I have loved everywhere I have lived, but I think I love Texas best. And though I did not live in Central Texas until adulthood, it feels more like home than anywhere else. Even so, I had to readjust my attitudes and expectations when I moved back from New York.

When I lived in New York, I had a pretty strong sense of identity: I was the guy from Texas. I was the one with the University of Texas Longhorns baseball cap. I was the one who sneered at the stuff that passed for Tex-Mex cuisine on Long Island. I was the one who said y’all so naturally that hardly anyone noticed. I was, at any given time, the most patient person in the room by far. I was the one who knew what a sky full of stars looks like. I was the one who had driven a tractor, ridden a horse, milked a goat, and eaten truly fresh beef.

I guess I’m still all or most of those things, but it doesn’t mean as much here. Everyone in Austin is from Texas, or at least lives in Texas. My UT cap is one of a million that grace the heads in this city, and it gets lost in the sea of burnt orange paraphernalia that has grown even larger since we beat USC 41–38 in the final minute of the national championship. People here actually have a lifetime of experience with authentic Tex-Mex food. Everyone says y’all except for the transplanted northerners, and even some of them say it. I am no longer even in the running for the most patient or slowest-talking person in the room.

New Yorkers, and probably the rest of the country as well, make fun of Texans for all those things. I think they don’t realize that Texans make fun of them for their irrationally hectic pace of life, the weird things they say (like you guys even when they’re not talking to guys), and their tendency to prefer concrete over grass and their $1,500-a-month efficiency apartments over affordable acreage.

Mrs. Happy and I attended the university-wide graduation ceremony at UT this past weekend. The orchestra played a medley called Songs of Texas. One of the songs in the medley was Deep in the Heart of Texas. In the old movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Pee-wee Herman phones his girlfriend while in San Antonio and proves to her that he’s in Texas by leaning out of the phone booth and singing “The stars at niiight Are big and briiight…”. Everyone within earshot of the phone booth claps four times in rhythm and sings “Deep in the Heaaart of Texas.” I would not be surprised if that worked in real life. Nearly everyone in the graduation audience (including me) clapped at the appropriate times, though we didn’t sing back at the orchestra. That would never happen in New York. I would be the only one clapping, and people would look at me like I had ten heads, but at least I would have a more distinct identity.