A Fort Worth State of Mind

A candidate and I were just discussing the famous Southern hospitality vs. the general kindness in the Midwest. It was a contrast between Beaumont and Chicago. She said it was different, but certainly not bad.
I remarked that when I first moved to this town (err, towns) I lived in Fort Worth and now I live in Dallas. Sunday, when I was running on the Trinity, I noticed that every person I came by -- whether out walking the dogs or heading to work via bicycle, waved or at least said hello. I said hello back.
Now I've run a lot on the Trinity Trail and I had forgotten this custom. You can go to White Rock Lake on a Sunday and 1000 people will be out there walking, running or riding their bikes. But not one of them will spontaneously say "hi."
Fort Worth really is different than Dallas. I venture that it's because there just aren't very many Dallasites living in Dallas any more. We're all from somewhere else. Fort Worth is full of Texans. And I think that makes a difference.