A “Texas stop” has also been called a “California stop.” It’s when a car is supposed to stop, but really merely slows down instead.
AmericanIndian.net
WHAT IS A “CALIFORNIA STOP”?
You come up to a stop sign at an intersection. As you approach, you slow down and look both ways. When you see that no one is coming, you decide to go on without coming to a complete stop. What you have just done is sometimes called a “California Stop.”
(...)
Regardless of why a person does a California Stop, coming to a complete stop is such an easy to do. By cutting California Stops” out of your driving pattern you may prevent a collision; or, avoid getting a ticket. Incidentally, when I lived in Texas, it was called a “Texas Stop.” I wonder what they call it in Rhode Island?
(Oxford English Dictionary)
1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 266 Arizona stop; Texas stop, n. Slowing down, but not making a full stop at a stop sign.
“A Texan Abroad” blog, 7-1-2006
But I got a ticket for NOT coming to a complete stop. I don’t disagree with the fact I did a TEXAS stop - I did. I do however, find it insane that they’d ticket for it considering you can NOT go any way but right when you leave the Shoppette parking lot.
Google Groups: misc.legal
From: Allen Gwinn
Date: Sun, Jul 21 1991 2:21 pm
I was driving through a mall parking lot and did a “Texas stop” at one of those stop signs that nobody stops for (you know, the kind out in the middle of the parking lot where nobody ever parks).
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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