Did Daddy Raise YOU right?

After reading Franks blog on southern hospitality and the "Texas Hidy Ya'll" I had to contribute my own experience with this tradition.

I have this distinct memory of driving with my dad (in his truck – of course!) on back country roads when I was a little girl. (He used to pile my sisters and me into the car before daybreak with breakfast tacos and drive us out to the ranch to spend the day). On this particular morning, unable to sleep and sitting in the revered “shot-gun” seat next to my daddy, I remember being puzzled when he gave the passing truck a “traveling Texas hidy.” I immediately asked if he knew the man, but he simply shrugged and shook his head no….as if to say – “it’s just what you do.” That was my first introduction to this southern tradition, and now that I find myself driving all over Texas a least half the month, I find myself carrying on the tradition with a small lift of my fingers from the steering wheel.

(Appropriately so, it was also from watching my dad that I have adopted (religiously) the slight wave into my rear-view mirror as a Thank you for letting me pass etc.)

I consider myself a “city girl,” but when it comes to Texans like my Dad, I’ll never stop appreciating these embedded social exchanges and the friendly traditions that are rooted in Texas towns. Afterall, I can imagine the weird or angry looks I’d create if I walked down a crowded New York sidewalk looking people in the eye and acknowledging their presence with a Texas hidy! Texan’s “get” hospitality….its a childhood lesson really (and dad raised me right) - we simply treat people that way we want to be treated…It’s a Texas Thing!