South vs. North?

[EE-BO]

Culturally, Texas and the Deep South are two different worlds.

Social order and formal courtesies are far more closely observed in the Deep South than they are in Texas.

And in Texas we are far more flamboyant with our wealth. This is evident in Greek life. I have been to some awesome parties at Georgia and Auburn, but the chapter dues and budgets at UT-Austin are far in excess of anything I have ever seen at any school. When I was at UT- my chapter dues were 3-4 times my tuition every semester (and my dues were the cheapest possible since I had a private room in the chapter house.)

I would attribute it to oil. That wealth came fast and furious to this state- and to this day there is still enormous money to be had. I know of cases where people owning less than 1% of a share in a field started getting 5 and 6 digit royalty checks when an old field was reopened to extract remaining reserves using new technology (usually injection with salt water or directional drilling.) And this state is full of people who still own tiny shares in fields that, although with increasing rarity, can still make them millionaires in a very short time. That oil is running out- but this gives you an idea of what kind of money we are talking about when a tiny piece of interest in a single field can generate that kind of income for one person.

There is similar wealth remaining in the Deep South, but much of it originates from far older fortunes. And those who still hold those fortunes kept them with generations of a more conservative approach.

Going back to Greek life, a good example of this conservative and ritualistic difference is football games.

When I was going to Georgia, we wore khakis and a white shirt and tie to the games. Our dates wore black cocktail dresses. Game days started with a buffet at the house, then the game, then home to clean up, dinner- again either at the house or large groups going to nice restaurants- and then a band party. Going to a football game was an all day ritual with strict dress code and social procedure.

At Texas- nothing like that. Jeans and a T-shirt for the game. Sneak all the booze in you can (though we did that at Georgia too), dinner whenever and wherever with whoever, and then a band party after.

While Texas is my home and I prefer it here- games days at Georgia were as good as college life got.