Don’t Miss a Moment.

Join 30,000 locals who stay current on San Antonio news, culture, and events. Get our free newsletters in your inbox three times a week.

Don’t Miss a Moment.

Join 30,000 locals who stay current on San Antonio news, culture, and events. Get our free newsletters in your inbox three times a week.

There’s no shortage of ways to tell if someone hails from San Antonio. Eating tacos for breakfast, for example, or breaking into the chicken dance at weddings. These identifiers are just a few of the unspoken ways to tell if someone is a true San Antonian.

You know that not all breakfast tacos are created equal. Whether it’s the tortillas or the fillings, you know that some tacos are just better than others. Photo via Instagram / jesselizarraras

You have collected every Selena shopping bag H-E-B has ever released. Photo via Twitter / Adriana_Acosta

Rios Barbacoa 1720 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 734-3980 With locations all over San Antonio, you know Rios Barbacoa has a shop near Huebner. Perfect for Sunday mornings when you want to indulge in barbacoa and Big Red, the SA-chain makes getting authentic tacos on the North Side a convenient task. Your hungover self will thank you for stopping by. Photo via Instagram, alanisgood Credit: Instagram / alanisgood

The only thing that allowed you to shake your grudge against Charles Barkley was realizing that you hate Kawhi Leonard even more. Photo via Twitter / BrianRayy_

You long ago stopped wondering, “Were those fireworks or gunshots?” Photo via Twitter / PuroSanAntonio

You’re willing to eat street food at Fiesta with your hands moments after using one of the porta johns. Photo by Jaime Monzon

The Ghost Tracks You can’t talk about urban legends in San Antonio without covering the Ghost Tracks. This long-dispelled myth is still a local favorite, and was voted Best Urban Legend in the Current’s Best of San Antonio poll for the past three years running. As the story goes, you can park your car at this spot on the train tracks and get “pushed” forward by some spectral helpers. As a bonus, if you put flour on the back of your trunk, you might even see their little handprints. The push purportedly comes from wee ghosts of children who met an untimely end in the early 1900s when a train rammed into a bus at the location. However, in 2003, archivist Matt De Waelsche traced the story’s origin to a 1938 bus accident in Salt Lake City, Utah. Even worse, the tracks were “exorcised,” if you will, by a construction project. When Union Pacific added a second track to the intersection, they levelled out the elevation, removing the downward slant that vehicles would gently roll down when they were supposedly being “pushed” by the ghosts. Turns out it was just a trick of physics the whole time. Photo via Google Maps

You have fallen asleep on the couch only to be awakened by an Americus Diamond commercial. Photo via Twitter / dylangonzalez21

You’ve tubed down the river with an ice chest full of beer. Photo via Instagram / andrewfisher7

Threatening them with la chancla Is there anything in the world that scares Mexican children more than la chancla? The power of the seemingly harmless footwear is not to be messed with, causing kids to behave or risk experiencing the quick strike of la chancla. Even just the lift of the shoe can encourage kids to be on their best behavior. With la chancla, it’s really all the parenting you need to do (and scar your kid for life). Photo via Twitter / BeiingColombian

They can’t quote lines from the Selena movie.Start with “Anything for Salinas!” Credit: Courtesy Photo / Warner Home Video

You sing along to “Hey, Baby, Que Paso?” anytime it comes on the jukebox. Photo via Twitter / Blue_Bridge_Rob

You understand that if you’re eating Mexican food outside of Loop 410, you may as well be eating it in Austin. Photo via Instagram / worldheritagesanantonio

You know what a Marbach mop is. Photo via Twitter / lilnee789

You make snap judgments about people based on where they went to high school. And, let’s face it, at least 60% of the time they turn out to be correct. Photo courtesy of Northeast Independent School District

You’ve driven home from a New Year’s Eve party and had difficult seeing through all the fireworks smoke drifting over the road. Photo via Twitter / Joeycules

They don’t understand what you mean when you say “inside the loop.” They’ll learn sooner or later. Right? Photo via Instagram / jesse0188

You have been personally insulted by Tommy Lee Jones after daring to speak to him in a public place.Photo via Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The Frosty Frog 11619 Bandera Rd, (210) 835-5978, facebook.com You’ll find variety here will custom house flavors and even multiple flavors of sorbet. But you can trust Frosty Frog to know what they’re doing when it comes to ‘nadas and shaved ice. Photo via Instagram / hellomynameis_hersch

Best Late-Night Eats Whataburger, Multiple locations, whataburger.com Photo via Instagram / munchinwithmuti

Best Gay Bar Bonham Exchange, 411 Bonham, (210) 224-9219, bonhamexchange.com Photo by Julian Ledezma

You’ve seen one of more of the following bands at least five times: Triumph, Judas Priest, Rush, Saxon or Legs Diamond. Photo by Jaime Monzon

Best Puffy Tacos Henry’s Puffy Tacos, Multiple locations, henryspuffytacos.com Photo via Instagram / dalian151 Credit: Instagram / s.a.foodie

You say “puro pinche” on a daily basis, and it doesn’t matter who’s in earshot either. Photo via Twitter / groovykvt

Bread rolling on conveyor belt on Butter Krust billboard San Pedro used to be a lot more tempting to drive down, as it was home of the iconic moving billboard from Butter Krust at the Hildebrand intersection. The “Falling Slices” billboard was exactly what it sounds like. Slice after slice would tumble down endlessly from the infinite loaf. Photo via Instagram / barbacoapparel

Basically shutting down the city with any chance of snow or ice But not before we ransack H-E-B to buy food and supplies will undoubtedly last longer than the cold weather does. Photo via Instagram / fr8ers68 Credit: fr8ers68 / Instagram

You consumed way too much sausage at Wurstfest and had your designated driver pull off I-35 so you could puke. Photo via Instagram / wurstfest

Yelling “show us your shoes” at girls and women in fancy dresses Seriously trying to think of a situation where this would even happen… only in San Antonio, y’all. Photo by Samantha Serna

Donkey Lady Bridge You can’t live in San Antonio long without hearing a version of the city’s favorite creepy legend: the story of the Donkey Lady. The story goes something like this: In the 1950s, a young woman attempted to save her children from a house fire (that some say was lit by her sociopath husband) — but failed. The event left her horribly disfigured, with her fingers and toes melted together to create hoof-like nubs and her head warped into an elongated, donkey-like shape. She was promptly cast out of town and banished to live in the woods. Ever since, the Donkey Lady has roamed the woods of Bexar County, crying out for her children and generally pissed off. Want to meet her? It’s said if you stand on a stone bridge in the Medina River Greenway and call her name three times, she’ll appear. Photo by Justin Moore

Flaco Jiménez The San Antonio-born accordion master began performing at the age of seven with his father, conjunto pioneer Santiago Jiménez Sr. Since then, he’s carved out a lengthy career as a solo artist, a member of the Texas Tornadoes supergroup and as a sideman for artists including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Ry Cooder. His brother Santiago Jiménez Jr. is a respected conjunto artist in his own right. Photo via Wikimedia Commons / Steve Terrell

Being able to buy dogs, t-shirts, gift baskets, DVDs and pretty much anything from the side of the road Shoutout to the roadside vendors that hold it down with the glamorous Spurs shirts and holiday baskets. Photo via Instagram / moderntejana

Camp out at Brackenridge Park for Easter Think of it as a rite of passage. File photo Credit: Courtesy Photo / Parks & Recreation

KEEP SA CURRENT!

Since 1986, the SA Current has served as the free, independent voice of San Antonio, and we want to keep it that way.

Becoming an SA Current Supporter for as little as $5 a month allows us to continue offering readers access to our coverage of local news, food, nightlife, events, and culture with no paywalls.

Join today to keep San Antonio Current.

San Antonio Flavor, Limited Tickets Remain!

Tell me you’re from San Antonio without telling me you’re from San Antonio