Perceptions About La Grange
I lived in La Grange all of my life until I made the move to Austin to attend the University of Texas. As a student at UT, I’ve become acclimated to a very simple question: “Where are you from?”
This kind of question seems like low-hanging fruit, but it’s something a lot more complex than it leads on. For example, some people don’t really call one place their home, and others water down their real suburban origin by just saying “the Houston area” or “DFW”.
For me, there was a different kind of category to consider.
When I answered inquiries about where I came from with “La Grange,” I’d get a mixed bag of confused stares or a few curious questions or references. I’ve become a professional at answering this icebreaker question; now, the easiest response is, “La Grange, a small town about halfway between Austin and Houston.”
Not everyone I introduced myself to at UT knew about La Grange. If they did, they’d start air-guitaring furiously to the ZZ Top song or suggest the “kolaches were really good there.”
With my previous experiences in mind, I sought out on a mission to answer my own question: What is La Grange? And, more specifically, what is La Grange known for?
In order to start my journey, I polled 110 individuals through social media.
About 80 of my poll’s respondents (70%) were from La Grange.
These residents hypothesized that non-residents would most identify La Grange by the iconic ZZ Top guitar riffs and the Chicken Ranch (both with 77% of supportive pollers.) Many residents also mentioned local businesses, such as Weikel’s, brought in plenty of traffic. Various other lower-ranking considerations included local events (especially of the alcoholic variety) and La Grange’s role as a German and Czech heritage center.
One enthusiastic respondent even mentioned the “trees in the road” as an iconic La Grange trademark.
However, the popular answer to the question of La Grange’s identity among non-residents included road signs. One poller recognized La Grange as “that place we stop between Austin and Houston,” and another as a town “I exited to drive through on my trip because the bridge and downtown was easy to access and pretty.”
Samantha Roberts, one of my good friends I met at UT a former resident of The Woodlands, mentioned only knowing La Grange as a small town on the way from one home to another. “I never stopped, but I always saw the La Grange sign, then the McDonald’s sign,” Roberts said. “It didn’t really look like much, but it had that cool hill next to it.”
Stacey Norris, the Director of Community Development and Tourism in La Grange, suggested many visitors see La Grange as a stopping point that many people (including my friend Sam) used.
“For some it is a daytrip getaway that allows them to enjoy a quick trip with manageable crowds and spacious attractions,” Norris wrote in an email. “For others it is a stop on the way to their final destination.”
Obviously, polling my friends and acquaintances about somewhere they live or have been exposed to through me is a bit nearsighted. To get a little bit more interesting, I walked around UT campus and asked 60 complete strangers about La Grange.
Of the 60 strangers, 44 (73%) didn’t even know La Grange existed. As a self-appointed La Grange ambassador at UT (as well as a former employee at the Visitor’s Center,) I was able to enlighten a few.
Two men walking together learned that the ZZ Top song was based on a real place: “I thought it was some French words that meant something. And I didn’t listen to the lyrics. I don’t even know what he was saying.”
Another student, saying she was from Chicago, explained, “My friends wanted to do a daytrip to a small Texas town, and we randomly chose La Grange, because it sounded cool. I pet a cow there.”
Luckily, I was able to explain the difference (yet again) between kolaches and pig-inthe-blankets to a student who liked to stop by Weikel’s on their way back to Austin from Houston.
With all these mixed responses and understandings, the picture I’ve tried to paint of La Grange becomes a little more muddy. After all, of those who recognized La Grange, UT students didn’t really know of the deep culture of Fayette County; they knew about ZZ Top and the road signs, but couldn’t quite place anything else on the map.
So, in order to try to bring my original question back into focus, what is La Grange?
To me, it’s my family and friends, as well as the picturesque Colorado River and iconic local businesses. To residents, it’s the bees, the trees in the road, the local breweries, the culture and the school spirit. To visitors, it’s an escape to an endearingly quiet(er) area. And to those just passing through, it might just be a place for gas and kolaches (not pig-in-theblankets or klobasniky, as La Grange residents will affirm,) or just a road sign on the trip to their destination.
La Grange is a lot of things to a lot of different people. La Grange is different experiences and memories, or even memories waiting to be made. Some Texans might not even know about La Grange or see it during their lifetime.
Whatever the relationship to this town might be, I think La Grange residents can take solace in what is here. And that’s you.
Bethany Stork is a La Grange High School grad, who has been studying Journalism and Global Communications at the University of Texas, where she graduated last week.