HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TEXAS -- FROM BUM PHILLIPS

e-mail | February, 2004 (I think) | Bum Phillips

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I think a party would be most excellent! lol

[Nita Nupress]

Anywhere you go in the world, the people inevitably be friendly when they hear you're from TEXAS. It's God's Country! I'm lookin' out right now at the river lined with big ol' pecan trees and fields of wildflowers, with birds singing, the ocassional bellow of a cow, and a green lizard crawling a post.

Your wonderful description is reminding me of just one of the many, many reasons I LOVE this place.

Leaky is one of my favorite places to visit. Just look at how beautiful that is, would you? Talk about a "peaceful, easy feelin'..." ;-)

Frio River, Garner State Park

A decendant of Austin's and DeWitt's colonies, Gonzales, Bexar, and San Jacinto.

Quite impressive. :-)

[Senator Pardek]

LOL - I pinged the wrong Texan ;)

[LurkerNoMore!]

:-)

[Nita Nupress]

I'm proud to say that not only do I know where these places are but I've been to each one of them.

That's quite an accomplishment. I've never even heard of Manor and Poteet!

One day I'm going to start a thread about the uniqueness of the names of Texas towns. And I'll start it off with "Cut-n-Shoot."

CUT AND SHOOT, TEXAS. Cut and Shoot (Cut 'n Shoot, Cut N Shoot) is six miles east of Conroe and forty miles north of Houston in eastern Montgomery County. It was apparently named after a 1912 community confrontation that almost led to violence. According to the different versions of the story, the dispute was either over the design of a new steeple for the town's only church, the issue of who should be allowed to preach there, or conflicting land claims among church members. A small boy at the scene reportedly declared, "I'm going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!" The boy's phrase apparently remained in residents' minds and was eventually adopted as the town's name. Population statistics were not reported for the community until the mid-1970s, when the number of residents was fifty. By 1980 the incorporated community reported a population of 809 and had built a new city hall and supported a school and several businesses. Cut and Shoot had a post office by the mid-1980s. The community's population was reported as 903 in 1990.

[Senator Pardek]

I was a Steelers fan as a kid - what the hell do you want me to say?

[Grumpy Bear]

great post!

[Nita Nupress]

My bumper sticker: On Earth as it is in TEXAS

LOL! I want one! That's perfect!

[LurkerNoMore!]

Terry Bradshaw is now a Texan.

[TexasCowboy]

People in the rest of the world have always thought of Texans as friendly, and they use the origin of our name as proof of that.
What they don't consider is that the Tejas Indians weren't any more friendly to enemies than the other Indians. They were not a docile, timid people.

We're friendly, but we carry a big stick - just like the Indians from whom we get our name.

[RebelTex]

D*#N - I was enjoyin' your post, havin' a drink while admirin' that great Nolan Ryan moment of your picture & then I read your tag line!!!

(There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)

I almost spit my drink all over my monitor, choked, nearly fell off my chair laughin' so hard.

Next time, give a fella alittle warnin'! - PLEEEEASE.

ROTFLMAO
RebelTex

[Senator Pardek]

So are Pettite and Clemens - which is why the Yanks are falling apart in April.

[Nita Nupress]

While Staubach has lived in Dallas for over 30 years, he is originally from Ohio.

I sure didn't know that. Oh well, the way I look at it, anyone who's been here longer than about 20 years or so has a right to call themselves a Texan.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has been here less time than that who began to feel that Texas spirit in their veins. I've always wondered how long it takes before it develops. And I'm always at a loss for words when someone asks me to describe it. That's why I liked this e-mail so much. It comes pretty dang close to describing the "feeling."

And exactly where does it come from, anyway? My oldest son missed out on having the whole Texas History thing in elementary school when we spent a few years out of state, yet he still feels it. So I don't think it comes from 'book-learning.'

[flying Elvis]

I inserted exerpts from your post to see if Bum Phillips wrote it and just abou every other website attributes it to Mr. Wheeler. While Bum definitely fits the Texas archetype, he never struck me as the literary type which caused me to see if he did indeed write this. That being said, I'm willing to bet Bum wish he had written it. lol :)

[Constantine XIII]

bump!

[potlatch]

Thanks for the ping, Gracey! A few years ago my family was visiting Goliad during their monthly 'Market Days'. We went to their local popular resturant "The Empressario" for lunch and Bum and his wife were there. My daughter asked him if she could get a picture of him with my grandson. He went out to his truck and got his Stetson and came back and posed for this picture!

[Nita Nupress]

Thanks. Yeah, count me among those who don't picture Bum as being someone who is this crafty with a pen, although I was sure hoping he had written it.

Oh, well, we'll just pretend like he did. :-)

[Nita Nupress]

What a cool picture! And your grandson is a cutie!

[Nita Nupress]

Have you ever been here before?

[Nita Nupress]

We could have done without that one. At least give us a barf alert first!