Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Last time I was in San Angelo, Texas


The Last time I was in San Angelo, Texas

One does not know what culture shock is until they step a foot on the sidewalks of San Angelo Texas in the middle of the summer of 2005. It was a major blow to my mindset and I had to shake my head a times or two to come to realize I may have chosen the wrong town to relax a bit, eat a bite and shake the dust off my clothes. I had driven all the way across the huge state of Texas in my 2004 Corvette silver convertible with the top down and coming back from San Antonio. 

The trip down to the Alamo and riverwalk was a pleasure and ever so memorable as the ride down the Interstate got me there despite encountering some heavy rains along the way. The storms were close to the Mexican border and lasted for hours but the Chevy sports car handled it well and got me there safe and sound without any problems. 

Visiting the Alamo and the other traditional tourist sites for about the third time in 10 years I always loved coming to this city where the people are friendly and the food is delicious. I always thought of Texas as a great state to live until I took the back roads home and stopped at San Angelo. It was here where I was snake bit by the rude culture I experienced as I found a nice looking place to eat but not so nice people inside this fancy restaurant. 

The sign said welcome and come eat a Texas steak as well as other Texan beef menu items but when I walked inside the place, it was dark and the music was honky tonk. A blue eyed blonde waitress wearing a mini skirt and high cowboy boots came to greet me. I noticed the blue eyes because she was wearing a black Stetson hat. 

I was already kind of perturbed because I had been standing at the door for about 5 minutes and as I walked through this bar and grill I noticed a atmosphere that was Texan but not friendly Texan like San Antonio. In fact, it was sort of a rude awakening Texas feeling. The place was about half empty but I guess you could say it was about full as the noise level exceeded the number of customers in the place.

The waitress poured me a glass of water and served me some chips and dip Texas style and as I waited to take my order, she disappeared from sight. She was nowhere to be found and I was wondering if they had decided to close the place with me still sitting there waiting to order my food. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t rude but she wasn’t being Texas nice either.

I got the hint they didn’t want to serve me so I left a five dollar bill on the table for the glass of water. As I walked out of the door the blue eyed girl showed up and asked me where I was going and I replied “honey, it don’t take 20 minutes to tell me I ain’t welcome here” and walked out the door back into the sunlight.  

In somewhat the same light, I know that to them I was a total stranger as I do not know a soul who lives here. San Angelo had a population approaching 90,000. Roughly 41 percent is Hispanic, 55 percent is Anglo and 4 percent is black. As I move around town, I see very few people who look like me. Maybe that’s why I was treated that way. Maybe that’s why I was treated that way. I hope not and thinking maybe it was just one of those bad days we have in our life.

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