Follow up to the wintery things

As you may have picked up, I live in Texas. Bryan Texas specifically. So mid-central-ish Texas. Sometimes I think of Bryan as an oasis for the middle of nowhere. If you leave city limits, you have about 45 minutes of driving before you hit the next watering hole. And I mean 45 minutes where the speed limit is 75 mph. So this might lead you to think there would be lots of country folks around. And I definitely think there are lots of good ole boys and girls floating around. However, you may also remember, I am a PhD student. So naturally, most of the people I interact with in my working day are not in fact "country people." Ok, that's fine. But I also teach undergraduates. Wouldn't you expect at least half, if not most, students at an Agricultural and Mechanical school known for being exceptionally conservative to be "country folks" or at least have interacted with these country folks on multiple occasions. I mean everyone can't be from Dallas suburbs and Houston inner-city.

Alright, there is the premise. On Monday I was teaching my students and I mentioned how pleased I was about receiving the Carhartt overalls/bibs. The class seemed flabbergasted, and asked me what I meant, and if I meant "bibs, like for babies?"

Whoa whoa whoa. So two words here: Carhartt and bibs. I guess I can understand 'bibs,' although I would expect people to think about ski bibs. But I thought everyone who was even remotely country knew about Carhartt... what was it called... Redneck Nike or something (from the recesses of high school days). So I polled my colleagues. I got mixed responses. Most knew one word or the other, but no one actually knew what I was talking about! This is so crazy to me!

I guess all this really means is I have a thicker country streak that I have previously acknowledged, and the people in this area have never had to dress for cold weather.

In other news, the overalls are AWESOME and I enjoyed their warmth. Even if no one knows what they are, my cold legs knew. More importantly, Robert will be competing at his first show next weekend (March 7th), and I think he's going to write some teasers and thoughts about it. Stay tuned.