Wylie, Texas. The place I have called home for 20 years until I moved cities to go to college. Wylie is one of those towns that has a “small town” vibe, even though we aren’t all that small anymore, with a population of 45,000. For those of us who have lived here our whole lives, there are some things we know to be true about Wylie, Texas.
1. "Where’s Wylie?"
Whenever you tell someone you’re from Wylie, Texas, the question you most often get is, “Where’s Wylie?”, and then you have to go into the conversation of surrounding cities to give someone the idea of where Wylie is. Although it used to be super annoying to always explain it, now you have the whole spiel down.
2. Chiloso
Wylie doesn’t have many options when it comes to restaurant choices -- luckily we have Chiloso. It's one of the best Mexican food bistro’s there are -- in my personal opinion, at least. When someone asks if you want to go eat, you usually know Chiloso is where you are going. Chiloso is so popular in Wylie -- it's one of the few things that kids who have moved away for college actually miss about Wylie.
3. When one train stops all traffic in town
The train tracks run through the middle of town, and every major road in town crosses those tracks. So when a train comes, be prepared to sit for a while. Sometimes it's not unlikely to make it through the tracks on one part of town, but get stuck by the same train somewhere else.
4. Friday night lights
One of the most serious events to happen every single Friday night, football season is its own season in Wylie. You can usually find the majority of the town at one of the high school football games on Friday night. If you’ve ever seen the show "Friday Night Lights," that’s a pretty good example of how serious the people of Wylie take football season, even more so now with two high schools to cheer for (or against, for those who are die-hard Raider or Pirate fans).
5. Cross Town Showdown
Wylie stadium holds about 10,000 people, and on this night you can bet 1 out of 4 people who live in Wylie will be at this game. Cross Town Showdown is the single most exciting football game of every season. Wylie East Vs. Wylie High is a big deal, not only for the students but for members of the community. It's a week's worth of competitions, such as the cross town chowdown (a competition between the schools of who can get the most receipts in their box at Chick-Fil-A -- the winning school gets a $1,000 scholarship). Even friendships are temporarily ended for the week for friends who go to the different high schools. For those of us who have already graduated, we will typically come home for this game instead of homecoming. Cross town showdown even moves onto different sports throughout the year, and is just as exciting.
