Growing up in San Antonio, Texas and being around ranchers a lot of my life it is fairly common that at some point you will cross paths with George Strait. When he is not on the road doing concerts he is doing work on his ranch.
One day my wife and I wanted to meet for lunch at one of our favorite places, The Alamo Cafe. Which has some of the best Tex-Mex food around. The one on the north side of town is also one of George Strait’s favorites too.
So, we go in get seated and place our order. While waiting for it to come, two very classic cowboys walk in and get seated in the booth right behind me. For clarification, they are in jeans, western shirts, boots and cowboy hats. Not at all uncommon for Texas.
To be fair, my wife is more an east coast girl and didn’t really grow up in Texas, nor is she a fan of Country and Western music. If I have the radio in the car on a western station her first comment is always the same “Your radio is broke.”
When I was growing up there were a couple of things that were hard fast rules. One of which was that you NEVER wore your hat at the table. If I would have forgotten, my grandmother would have knocked the hat off my head and glared at me. Today people don’t seem to be taught that, and it isn’t that big a thing in most places.
But this day my wife was feeling a little feisty and couldn’t help but make a comment loud enough for the cowboys to hear. “I guess their mothers didn’t teach them it is impolite to wear your hat at the table.” Both hats promptly came off.
My jaw hit the table for a couple of reasons, first that she said it so loud, and the other…well you’ll see in a moment.
I proceeded to go face down into my food and was quiet for most of the meal. Then as soon as we were done I was in a hurry to get us out of there. My wife kept looking at me with this what’s wrong look on her face. Finally just before we go to the door she stopped and asked “What is wrong with you?”
I told her that while I didn’t disagree with what she had said, I wouldn’t be saying that to George Strait. At first she didn’t believe me, so I stopped a waitress and asked if she knew who the two men in that booth were. She looked and said “Oh, yeah, that’s George Strait and his manager. “
My wife rolled her eyes and we left.
Each time I tell this story my wife asks if I am ever going to let it go.
Apparently not.
G