It was the middle of the second semester of my freshman year at UT, and more importantly, only my sixth month living in Texas since I was two years old. I’d traded in my t-shirt and converse for a dress and boots on game days and started to pick up saying “y’all” instead of “you guys”, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into by going home with Ally Wild for the weekend. We had both somehow cheated the UT registration system and ended up with no Friday classes, and Ally had invited me to go back to Nacogdoches with her to see where she grew up.
We had only known each other for a few months, but my family knew her as my 5-foot-nothing, blonde hair teasing, pink lip gloss wearing friend who lived by the motto “the higher the hair, the closer to God”. My mom said “Well, you sure didn’t waste any time finding a friend who’s a real Texas girl!”, and thought it’d be fun for me to see a real small Texas town. We took off early Friday morning in her little white car with pink license plates that read “A <3 WILD”, and a few hours later we pulled up the dirt road to her house in Nac. Ally’s mom, Miss Tracey, was waiting for us at the door holding their yorkie, Lily.
Later that night, Ally took me out to Banita Creek Hall with her high school friends who now go to SFA. Surrounded by thick accents and teased hair, I walked into a dance hall where the live band was playing their hearts out, singing The Everclear Song by Roger Creager. Before I knew it, every boy had grabbed a girl and started dancing, spinning and dipping her around the room. Ally took my hand and started dancing me around just like everyone else, and all I could do was try to keep up – this was nothing like the high school reunion parties I had gotten used to after going back to Oregon for winter break.
Apparently, The Everclear Song was ‘the song’ of Ally and her friends’ high school years, and they all convinced the band to play it over and over again throughout the night until I’d learned the words myself. We danced and danced all night long, went back and did the same thing the following night, and by the end of night #2 I had (sort of) figured out how to dance and learned every word to their favorite song.
Truthfully, I’d never even heard of everclear before college. When Miss Tracey found this out, she decided to take it upon herself to convince both me and Ally that we’d never want to really find out what Roger Creager meant when he sang “Until I wake up and I’m face down in the hall, / Hey, I’m completely naked, for a reason I can’t recall.” She poured some in a glass and offered us each a sip, but luckily for us, we both started coughing from the smell and turned away.
Two years later, I’ve still yet to experience a single thing more country than that dance hall filled with teased hair and cowboy boots. Just in case I ever forget, Ally and her mom still love to play that song to remind me just how terrible everclear is, and how much I missed out on by growing up anywhere that wasn’t the great state of Texas.
I love that song!!! You’re completely right, it gives an accurate description of what everclear will do to you! I really enjoyed reading your post and I’m glad you got to have a real Texas experience. I think that there’s nothing more fun than going to a dance hall with friends and dancing the night away. 🙂 Ps. Miss Tracey sounds like a fun mom, from holding a Yorkie at the door to offering you a drink! I hope you continue to have awesome country experiences while you’re here!
I loved reading this story. I could really imagine you seeing all of these stereotypical Texan things happening and probably being very confused at first. Honestly, I’m from Texas and would have felt like an outsider at one of those dances. Texas city life and small town life are so completely different. I had never heard ‘The Everclear Song’ before reading this post. It is a pretty entertaining song to listen to and kind of reminds me of ‘Red Solo Cup’ by Toby Keith in that they are both drinking songs with a fun, catchy tune.
Coming from another out of state girl, this post was so fun to read! I have a lot on my Texas bucket list and one of them is to go to a small town in Texas! Back at home in California, we go line dancing and do a little bit of two stepping but I’d love to see how that would be in a small town. I went to “Dance Across Texas” here and it was a little small but also pretty fun! I hadn’t heard of “The Ever Clear Song” until I moved to Texas either. In fact, ever clear is actually illegal in California so it’s so funny to me that it has such a presence in Texas! Great post! I loved reading about your view of a small town and hope I can have a similar story soon too!
Great article. Going back to a small country town for a weekend is something I’ve wanted to do with friends but mine all happen to be from the big cities. I’m not surprised you were able to convert back to your Texas roots as quick as you did and I honestly would’ve thought you were from Texas and not Washington if I hadn’t actually talked to you or read this. Everclear is one of my favorite songs from Creager and I will belt heck out of that song every time I hear. I love how everyone will join along when he plays it and he barely has to perform it.