Finally getting to my post on my perspective on Young Sheldon (as a life long and proud Texan).

 It is Sunday and Bubs is going to take the kids for breakfast at a local place called "Jerry Bob's." Not only am I not hungry and feeling a little crabby, but I kind of feel like we moved to more cosmopolitan Arizona to get away from places called "Jerry Bob's." I told him that I was going to stay at home and get some blogging done. He "joked" that he can't wait to be bored by it later. Enjoy your greasy food from Jerry Bob's asshole. And bring me back French Toast. 

So I have been promising this post for literally months now and kept getting sidetracked by my fragile emotions, life events and the best haircut I've ever had (I can literally curl my hair every day now--it's incredible). But one of my long time readers asked me to talk about how realistic the show Young Sheldon was from a life long and very proud Texan. 

So first things first, my family and I loved that show. I think it's kind of bittersweet because it's the first show in years that we would actually set aside time to watch when it was broadcast live. It reminded me so much of being a kid in the 90s and my sisters and I would get so excited and make sure we were in place to watch shows like Family Matters when they would be live. Our media consumption has changed so much that it makes me a little sad that Young Sheldon may be the last show where we would all make the time to sit down and watch it together instead of cramming a streaming movie into our schedule. I have yet to catch Georgie and Mandy and the clips seem cute, but I don't think it has the same heart as Young Sheldon so it doesn't seem like a replacement. 

One of the things that they did such a great job of is catching the overall feel of what it's like to live in small-medium sized city in Texas. I have heard the fictional town of Medford is roughly based on Lufkin which is about 4 hours away from where I grew up. But even then, the Cooper family's neighborhood made me feel right at home with the sidewalks, the lawns, the slightly curved streets, etc... I was actually shocked to hear that it was actually filmed on studio lot in LA because it looked exactly like so many Texas neighborhoods I've been in. The same went for the rest of the town, the little main street, the sporting good store, the video rental place (sadly I never knew of an illegal attached casino--but I wouldn't at all be surprised) and the church. I also identified with it because I believe the show took place between 1988 and 1994 (I think) and being born in 1991, everyone's house was decorated nearly exactly like I remember everyone's houses as I was growing up. So for the overall feel of being from Texas, the show literally gets an A+.

I'll get into specific characters in just a second but another thing they got absolutely perfect were the background characters. Unless I was in a big city like Dallas, Houston or Austin, I'll bet I can count on one hand the number of times a stranger was rude to me in public (weirdly San Antonio always seemed super friendly--save for the time I had to slam tackle a chick into the river for trying to grab my cousin's pony tail). But even though strangers are friendly, there is always a hint of judgment, suspicion and even nosiness in the interactions. I thought the show did an absolutely wonderful job of portraying this. 

Now for the characters, the main and side characters were such a wonderful amalgamation of people that I know that often times I felt like they show was being written directly for me. I have known so many Georges, Meemaws, Marys, Missys, Georgies, etc... and some times even my own family fit the bill for those characters. 

So to start with my absolute favorite character...Meemaw. I not only loved her, I can only hope that I'm witty enough to be her when my kids grow up and have spouses and their own kids.  I didn't know Bub's other grandma very well (the grandparents that owned the ranch, not our house) but I do remember her as being absolutely hilarious and telling me she was afraid to serve me any more food or she would get her hand bitten off (I was always starving because of gymnastics and probably not super ladylike at when invited to dinner). Bubs always says that she had a very similar character to Meemaw. There are a lot of women like her in Texas, they love the state and play lip service to all the norms but also have an extremely pragmatic side that allows them to break the rules when they see fit. Women who are small in stature but more than make up for it in terms of personality. 

Next is Mary. I loved Sheldon's mom and she actually reminded me a lot of my mom. My mom is a lot more educated (Mom has a masters degree) and my mom rarely had that air of nervousness that Mary seemed to have. But what they absolutely shared was that they sacrificed everything for their family's well being and then were trying to do the best they could for themselves with the lost time and present circumstances.  When my younger sister was school age, my mom immediately started work as a high school math teacher, much in the same way that Mary took the job at the church because even a little bit more money was a way to a better life. I think she was ok that she had to take some time off when my brother was born but I know it frustrated her that she always felt like she should be doing more financially. My mom was also very much like Mary when it came to being a good Christian. As long as we were in town, we never missed a service, we were always at Youth Group and Bible study. As Episcopalians, we don't quite go into the eternal damnation stuff like our Baptist friends and neighbors so I don't think my mom  had the "going to hell" self talk like Mary but my Mom's devotion to the church and being active ring very true of the character. 

Onto George. I loved the character of George and he reminds so much of nearly every one of our coaches and gym teachers growing up. My dad has some similarities with George, mainly in that what he wanted most in life was to be able to come home from a long day of work and sit in his chair with no distractions. Instead he got "Daddddddd, Jennifer got her period and there is blood all over the toilet and it's DISGUSTING!" and "Dadddddd Danielle and Jessica snuck out last night and ripped the screen and there are bugs EVERYWHERE!" But beyond that, George is a nearly perfect representation of that Texas "everyman" who loves his family but probably drinks too much and is always on the cusp of doing something better in life but circumstances always get in the way. It actually made me cry when George died. 

Now for Georgie. I can't believe how many Georgies I have known growing up in Texas. Very sweet, very cute guys but who also have literally zero book smarts. But in the end it always seems like these guys end up wealthy because they have a talent for pouring concrete, carpentry or something like plumbing. They also have the people skills to get nearly anyone do their bidding--and enjoy it in the process. My little brother Brian is a genius (he's getting his PhD in economics ) but when the Georgie and Mandy storyline started taking off, that's when I saw my brother. Only my brother had access to dating apps and a much wider pool of women that he could convince he was of the appropriate age and experience level. How we don't have an entire team's worth of nieces and nephews from him alone will forever be a mystery to me.  The biggest fight Bubs and I have ever gotten in and the one time I was so mad at both of them I literally wanted them to drop me off on the side of I-35 so I could walk came when Bubs defended Brian after Brian had convinced a girl in her 20s that he was a grad student--he was 16. The girl's boyfriend beat the absolute shit out of Brian and I was scared he could have been killed and Brian still seemed proud of his accomplishment and Bubs defended him. I'm actually mad about it again now it was so upsetting. 

Missy is another very true to life character as an amalgamation and I kind of see her as a mini MeeMaw, a near genius with it comes to using her social skills to get what she wants. Again, I wish I was as cool as her but I think I'm a little bit too selfish to have the skills to read the room the way that Missy does. 

As for the other characters I think the whole point of Sheldon is that he's so unique and fish out of water that he represents the counterpoint to Texas. At times, my loving husband can remind me of Sheldon in his matter of fact way of speaking that makes me want to strangle the life out of him. The next one that comes to mind is Pastor Jeff. I think I've mentioned him before but a few years ago our Priest retired and the man who took his place reminds me a lot of Pastor Jeff--his manor of speaking and appearance are very similar. I know I'm going on so long here but the other character who seemed very true to life was Sheldon's friend Tam. We had a few Vietnamese families in our area who somehow landed on South Central Texas as the place to go when they immigrated. I went to school with a boy named Lin who also lived a couple of streets down from us. I have the vaguest of memories of there being neighborhood gossip about Asians moving into the neighborhood when I was young but by the time we went to school, Lin was just a normal kid and I remember everyone loved the exotic food they would bring to the 4th of July parties. Sadly, I don't know what became of Lin and his family as they sold they house a few years ago. 

So the crew is back from Jerry Bob's and I better wrap this up and say hello to the kids...there is a certain husband who forgot my French toast and needs to turn his ass around and make a second trip. Ok now he's telling me he can make me French toast...we shall see. 

Edit: I have known my husband for well over 21 years and I've never once seen him make French Toast. Well he made me the best French toast I've ever eaten. He claims his grandpa used to make it for him all the time, I suspect he looked it up on the internet but it may be even more fun to accuse him of cheating on me with a woman who knows how to make French toast and watch him sweat a while. I'm just on the cusp of the 3rd trimester and in the previous two pregnancies' I was an absolute nut case at this stage. Buckle in Bubs--REALLY crazy Dani may be making a return.