

I had four roommates from Texas my freshman year of college.  They were all from a teeny-tiny town in eastern Texas.  I had never met any real live Texans and it was like finding someone from another country.  They taught me the difference between Ropers and cowboy boots (which they quaintly called shit-kickers and told me that only skanky girls tuck their jeans into their boots.  But that was the 90’s and I think it’s acceptable again.)  

They also taught me to do the Texas Two-Step and promptly dragged me and my boyfriend (also not a Texan) to go country dancing. This was at BYU and although Utah people like to accuse Texans of being hicks, Utahns are one generation from away from the farm so there was plenty of hickness to be found in Provo.

Country dancing turned out to be kind of fun but obviously the line dancing exceeded my limited education.  Not to mention I was dressed ALL WRONG.  I felt horrendously out of place and considered my affiliation with country dancing to be eternally over.

Until last Friday.

A bunch of our friends decided to go dancing down at the Broken Spoke which is here in Austin and prides itself on being the last honky-tonk in Texas. If that’s true it’s very sad.  I’m not exactly sure what a honky-tonk is but it sounds very country-ish in the most endearing way.

Mister is not a dancer and neither am I really.  I think the last time we went dancing was before we were even engaged, so it’s been a while.  But I was tired of doing the same old boring date-night stuff so we gussied ourselves up and went out two-stepping (although I still don’t have cowboy boots! What’s up with that, Jennie?)

The Broken Spoke has dancing lessons the hour before it opens and we had a spunky little teacher who showed us the moves including lots of twirls and fancy stuff.  It turns out Mister is a pretty decent dancer and I still suck.  But it was tons of fun and we had a fantastic time.  I especially liked doing the twirls except I had a big long chain belt that flew out and whipped the dancers closest to us, but hopefully they were too drunk to notice.

The music was played by a live rockabilly-country band that did not take a single break the entire time we were there. I guess they were just wetting their pants or something.  Since it’s Texas (and a honky tonk!) everyone two-steps.  There was no line dancing and none of that fancy swing dancing stuff.  Good thing, because there is no way we could have mastered anything like that.

We definitely want to go country dancing again, so if you know us in real life, be prepared!  You will be going dancing with us. 

17 thoughts on “Do-si-do

  1. My favorite is the cowboy with the beer in his hand draped all the way around his girl's shoulder and the other just hanging…see any of those? I would love to go two-stepping again. I miss it!

  2. Sounds like you guys had fun. I think I'll have to see Texas before I believe it . . .

    Also, is that the same shirt you're wearing in your profile picture?

  3. So fun! I'm super jealous.

    You make Texas sound as good as every other Texan I know. Makes me want to move there. Too bad I married Mr. Sweats-a-lot who has sworn off hot climates. Boo.

  4. I'm game. Kelly might take a little talking into. But he might still have some cowboy boots (or those other ones, whatever thy're called…the fancy dress ones)from his mission, so maybe we can talk him into it.

  5. My sister lived in Texas and hated it. I think Austin gives a deceptive impression. 🙂

    Also, you have more than one white shirt? Jealous.

    Also, my husband is also a better dancer than I am, whereas neither of my brothers-in-law will dance. I think I got the better deal than my sisters in that regard.

  6. James is a way better dancer than I am, but that doesn't stop me from embarrassing myself in the whole process.

    I like that you switched it up for date night. You both look like you are having fun, and I think that would sell Texas to anyone.

  7. Okay, that settles it. We're coming to Texas for Thanksgiving and going country dancing. Remember how we used to go play laser tag in Portland when we didn't have kids?

    I'm so glad you've seen the "dancing is fun" light.

    Yee haw!

  8. Jennie! I so would love to go too! I'm from Oklahoma, remember? I grew up two-steppin' and love to dance. Let's all plan to go there sometime. Who did you go with? I'll even go boot shopping with you sometime. Cavendar's has some pretty good selections.

  9. So delighted to see this post…on my one and only short trip to Austin (love it!)my friends took us to The Broken Spoke–and said that I possibly hold the record for Shirley Temple orders. I have tried to incorporate "honky tonk" into as many conversations as possible ever since.

  10. Usually when us Texans meet Utahns who have moved to Texas for a job, they HATE Texas and all they can do it talk about how they can't wait to go back home to Utah. I've met so many people from Utah who have lived in Texas for 25 years and raised their families here, yet they still talk about going "home" to Utah all the time.
    It is seriously so refreshing to meet someone who is Mormon from Utah and actually loves Texas and wants to be here… because us Texans LOVE Texas more than life itself and it makes us so angry when all these utahns bitch about it constantly. It really makes us Texans have a hard time liking Utah Mormons. So a big huge THANK YOU for being so positive and friendly about Texas.
    Just reading your blog is making me love Texas even more. Thanks for the reminder of why I love Austin so much and why I threw a compete temper tantrum to my DH and insisted that we move back to Austin THIS SUMMER. I've been away for 4 years and I cannot wait to get back "home".

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