I live in Waco because I want to live in Waco. I'm not going to go out of my way to prove this and I will admit that if someone offered me the right job in Chicago this afternoon, I'd be driving through Missouri by sunset.
But the way things sit right now, and given my love of things like college football and the Texas cities that are within a 90-minute drive added to the ability to live inexpensively, there's no place I would rather be. That's why I don't say things like "This place is so nice! You don't even know you're in Waco!"
Ok, I understand what people mean when they say it and most of the people I've heard say things like this love Waco as much as I do. So I don't begrudge them for this sentiment. Most recently, I heard a good friend offer that thought at McLane Stadium on Sunday.
It made me wonder, though, what a place that feels like Waco is supposed to feel like. Does Kitok's feel like Waco? I've not been inside the Alico building, so I don't know what that feels like. But I've been told places like Dichotomy and Muddle and, of course, the stadium make a person forget they're in Waco. It's a compliment to the objects of the sentences, but it's at best a backhanded compliment to our town. The owner of one bar told me he wanted his place to be more edgy than other places in Waco, more like places in Austin. I think he nailed it because many times when I go in there a band is playing that I just wish would take a break so I could speak with the people I came to hang out with.
Much like overuse of the word literally, I don't think this "it doesn't feel like Waco" phrase is going anywhere. I would imagine the Hippodrome and Kuma are going to be the next two places that people say don't seem like Waco. And, really, it's ok. I'm cool with it.
Here's why: eventually there will be enough places that "don't feel like Waco" that you can spend a whole weekend hopping around to different places that don't feel like the place that they actually are, and that means that will just be what Waco feels like.
On Sunday night, I was sitting in the press box at McLane Stadium, having serviceable barbecue with some sportswriting buddies. I commented that part of the scenery out of the window, looking across I-35 to the northwest wasn't a very good picture of Waco. One of the guys joked that it didn't get any better than that in Waco. Sportswriters think they're funny. Never mind that the view out of the other side of the press box was about a thousand times better and even the view just over to the southwest, the river and downtown, suggested a thriving small town in an idyllic setting.
I let it pass, but I know there are better views to be seen in Waco than looking across at power lines and a Red Roof Inn.
Actually, I think Waco will always have kind of an off-beat reputation. But the reality of living here is improving almost monthly (and I was into it a couple of years ago, so you know I dig it). More encouragingly, the draw for people to stay here after they're done with school or even to move here after college and want to stay around seems to be getting stronger.
I don't know how Waco is supposed to feel, but it sure does feel like home to me.
