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While taking cupcakes to the Azle News a while back, I thought, “This is fun. I bet whatever they take in New York, it’s not cupcakes.”
What is unique about Podunkville is that in rural Texas, people are not bound by big city conventions.
We lag behind the rest of the country in style and culture trends. We still think using as many different rainbow colors for eye makeup as possible, with a chunk of matching color in our hair, is a fashion statement. We’re still looking for Goth to catch on – that’s how far behind we are. We’ll even wear shorts to church if it’s hot, because we think what matters is not what you wear, but that you show up. If you can still fit in your clothes year after year, you are never out of style because we don’t have any in Podunkville. Kids get in trouble, but get caught more often, because everyone knows each other, even if it’s just through gossip. If we’ve been working in the yard and want to have lunch at a cafe, we can go as we are because everyone else is also underdressed.
We chat with strangers in stores and help old people. My elderly cousin left her purse in a cart at the grocery store, and a young man returned it to her at home with the contents intact. We are not progressive regarding traffic congestion. Work has begun about 15 years too late on I-20 bridges and access roads to relieve the numerous backups all along the interstate because enough vehicles can’t exit the one-lane roads. There are several appealing shopping centers close by, but I can’t get to them to shop. I can drive to and from Fort Worth in less time because locally, I must detour through two neighborhoods, cut across the Wal-Mart parking lot, take the access road under the bridge to go back the other way and cut through the backside of a motel complex, then cut across the parking lot of the tack store to catch the rural road that goes to the shopping center. Maybe that’s why we look like we do here, and our culture will change after the I-20 work is finished. But maybe not. Perhaps this is just the charm of living in Podunkville. Jill Walczak lives with her husband, two dogs and five cats in Aledo. |
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