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Personal Narrative: Tex

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What comes to mind when you here the expression Tex? My father, a dedicated western move fan, loved to watch the old Spaghetti Westerns on the television. So when I hear the word Tex, immediately my thoughts envision a tall, lanky cowboy—sporting a long handlebar mustache—suddenly ejected from the back of a bucking bronco. He rolls, quickly jumping to his feet he begins beating the dust off his jeans with his sweat drenched Stetson as he walks toward the corral gate for a rest. We lived in Texas for two years prior to moving to Tucson, Arizona. During the middle of our two year tour, a boy in my eighth grade math class began calling me Tex. I could not figure out why he would call me that. I did not resemble a cowboy, I did not wear …show more content…

After all, I was born in Phoenix. Before living in Texas, I lived in Turkey for two years—I didn’t end up with a Turkish accent. Before I lived in Turkey, I lived in Georgia for two years—I didn’t have an accent that reflected the South. Or did I? Maybe I did, you see, my mother is originally from Georgia and my father from North Carolina. That’s when I understood, that’s what he heard—the Southern tones in my voice—yet, he was unable to distinguish between the two. Never the less, he determined on his own, it was a Texas draw that he had heard in my voice—in my mind—he was utterly and completely wrong. I told my mother about the teasing; she said in her sweet southern draw, “Oh sweetheart, he’s probably doing it because he likes you.” I said, “What? That’s a crazy way to show it. Besides, he can forget it. If that’s the way he treats me when he likes me—I would hate to see how he treats me when he doesn’t like me.” The thought of the possibility of this being true troubled me even further; from that point on, I did everything I could to ignore him. Before I knew it, my father’s two year tour had come to an end; he had received his orders and we were on our way back to Texas. The following year, my father retired and we remained in San Antonio. From that point on, I never had to worry about anyone teasing me by calling me

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