Some places still have knives chained to the wall, as a courtesy for the unprepared. Take a look at the local festivities on any given weekend, and you'll know you're not in Kansas. Menudo cookoffs can be found in almost every sizable town in the state. Every spring, at the Vernal Equinox, hundreds of local hippies gather to sing, beat congas, and sway like kelp, all in an attempt to help A.A. Milne's fictional donkey lighten up. Austin always was a bit different.
Some places have unsentimental names, such as Sour Lake.
Granted, the charm of Texas is not always apparent right away. But there's something about Texas that digests even the toughest jerky. Some locals fret that the recent influx of newcomers, drawn by the booming high-tech industry, will turn Texas into everywhere else, and nowhere in particular. There's no question of the growth. Demographers say that within a decade, the triangle of countryside from Dallas to San Antonio to Houston will be as densely populated as the East Coast is today.