Golden Triangle

My mother sent me a longer version of this list; I had to laugh at some of these statements. One side of my family moved into the Beaumont-Port Arthur-Orange area (the "Golden Triangle") in the 1830s and never left. It's depressed, repressed, and dispossessed.

You know you're from the Golden Triangle (or lived there too long) if:

• "Meeting a celebrity" means standing in line at the Olive Garden next to the local weatherman.
  
• Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a camper on the Eastex Freeway.
  
• You vacation in Houston and honeymooned in Galveston.
  
• You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
  
• You own a 'swirl' painting from the SE Texas State Fair that you made as a child.
  
• The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page, but requires 6 pages for high school football.
  
• You've had to switch from Heat to A/C in the same day.
  
• You find 98 degrees "a little warm," and 60 degrees downright freezing.
  
• You know if someone is from out of town the second he or she walks in the door.
  
• You've had several friends move off and move back within a couple of months.
  
• Your third field trip to Gladys City sucked as much as the first.