1. Everyone In Lubbock Know “Guns Up” Beats “Hook ’Em Horns” Every Time
This is Red Raider Nation, after all, where they're all about their Texas Tech football. While Tech may not always beat UT, their hand sign is way cooler than that silly cow thing those Longhorn fans do.
Anyone born in Lubbock was throwing this sign in the cradle, but just in case you’re not from ’round these parts, here's a quick primer: It’s super easy, all you do is stick your thumb up in the air (like you just don’t care) and point your index finger out, making your hand into a gun.
Saying “pow, pow, pow” is purely optional.
2. Folks In Lubbock Are BBQ Snobs—And Have Every Right To Be
Texas BBQ is a big, big deal, because, you know, everything's bigger here. While every town claims that their ’cue is the best, people in Lubbock, don’t even need to brag on theirs, since the food does a fine job speaking on its own behalf.
Just listen to the moist, tender ribs at Wiley’s, the perfect pork loin at Eddies and the spicy, smoky sausage at J&M. Oh, and of course the lean, juicy brisket at Tom & Bingo’s. Don’t you hear it calling your name right now?
3. Everyone In Lubbock Has A Story About Stubbs BBQ—Even If They Were In Diapers When It Closed
The original Stubbs Bar-B-Q opened in Lubbock in 1968, and quickly became famous, not just for the food, but for the Sunday night jams which drew big names like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Tom T. Hall and George Thorogood. Everybody who was anybody hung out there, and even those who didn’t—due to being out of town, an infant, not yet born, or some other kind of half-assed excuse like that—still want to claim a piece of the legend.
4. And Folks In Lubbock Can Tell You Exactly What Day The Music Died
Lubbock is, after all, the hometown of ’50s rock ’n’ roll icon Buddy Holly. If you grew up in Lubbock, you may have never actually visited the Buddy Holly Center, but you probably have taken a selfie posing with those giant glasses and you also know the words to each and every one of his songs.
5. Vote For A Democrat? Not In Lubbock You Don't
Yep, no tree-hugging, granola-munching hippie types here. A survey a couple years back by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research (nonpartisan, despite the name) found Lubbock to be the nation’s second-most conservative city, behind only LDS-stronghold Provo, Utah.
Needless to say, in the last presidential election Mitt Romney carried the city by a wide margin, receiving over 70 percent of the votes. Republican candidates also swept the local elections in almost every case. The only exception? Precinct 3, which seems to be the last bastion of Lubbock’s beleaguered liberals.
6. Lubbock Is All Ginned Up About Cotton
Cotton is most definitely king in Lubbock. It lies right in the heart of the world’s largest cotton-producing region, which produces two thirds of all the cotton grown in Texas and about a third of all U.S. cotton. They get their cotton-pickin' hands on enough of the white stuff each year to make over a billion and a half shirts, which is a good thing since it's way too hot to wear synthetics or wool.
7. Folks In Lubbock Are Counting The Days Until The Oil Companies Make It Rain
Cotton’s cool and all, but in Texas there’s one thing that’s bigger still, and that”s oil. Lubbock, as it turns out, does have its untapped oil reserves, but in Texas these days the problem isn’t finding oil, but having enough man-and-machine power to keep up with the seemingly never-ending flow.
At the moment it seems like all the drilling in Texas is concentrated in the Midland/Odessa region to the south, so no-one’s gotten around to bothering with Lubbock yet. Still, they live in hopes of the day when the Midland oil fields run dry (or, more likely, just get too crowded to fit one more well), so Lubbock, too, will finally be able to cash in on the oil boom bonanza.
8. And People Here Are Really Flip Out Over Pancakes
OK, so a lot of service organizations hold pancake breakfasts to support whatever do-gooding they're doing, as well as help carbo-load the entire community. The Lubbock Lions Club, though, doesn’t host your average pancake feed, theirs is the World’s Largest.
In fact, Lubbock has twice earned a spot in the Guinness Book for its prodigious pancake consumption—during their 50th anniversary festival in 2002 the Lions Club flipped a fantastic 30,734 fabulous flapjacks, but in 2009 they bested that by serving a spectacular 66,459! A
Actually, that’s just the record for pancakes served during an 8-hour period. The entire festival lasted 13 hours, and over 108,000 pancakes were sold in all. Can’t top that, except with butter and syrup—281 gallons of which were used that day, seems like that should be a record too.
9. Blue Sky = Best Damn Burger You Ever Tasted
The burgers at Blue Sky Texas would make any cow proud to die for the cause. They're huge and juicy, made from fresh ground real beef (yo, no soy!) and even the buns melt in your mouth.
Not only can you get your burger topped with cheese and bacon, but you can also do it up in true Texas-style with chili, green chile, grilled jalapenos or hickory bbq sauce.
While the rest of Texas may be wild about Whataburger, Lubbock knows there’s a better burger out there, and by now they’re too spoiled to have it any other way.
10. Folks In Lubbock Are Total Weather Warriors
In 2013, the Weather Channel held a bracket-style championship to pick the U.S. city with the worst weather. Competition was pretty fierce as cities like Caribou, Maine; Fargo, N.D. and even Fairbanks, Alaska slugged it out. But when the dust storm settled (something everyone in Lubbock is oh-so-familiar with), Lubbock took home the honors for crappiest climate. Seems that high winds and higher temps beat flooding, freezing and roof-high snow.
But Lubbockites are tough. Hundred degree temps? Ho-hum. Freezing desert nights? Been there, done that, remembered to bring a jacket. Blizzards, tornadoes, torrential rains—Lubbock has seen it all before. At this point, they know there's nothing the weather can dish out that they can't take.
Did we miss anything? Tell us what you think about Lubbock in the comments below! 
