Texas - have you seen this one?

email | 10/14 | anonymous

[phatoldphart]

When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like, Do you have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?"

They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched Dallas.

Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be.. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It's Texas. Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt and he'll know what it is. What happens if I show you a picture of any other state? You might get it maybe after a second or two, but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?

In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.

Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow...so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you know why? Because there's no place like Texas.

Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.

Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.

Texas is "Juneteenth" and Texas Independence Day.

Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.

Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.

Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.

Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.

Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.

Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.

Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.

Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.

Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, Rick Husband, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, Lyndon B.Johnson.

Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments and Compaq. And LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROSPACE, Home of the F-16 Jet Fighter and the JSF Fighter.

Texas is NASA.

Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.

Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer.

Texas is a place where towns and cities shut down to watch the local High School Football game on Friday nights and for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and for the Night In Old San Antonio River Parade in San Antonio. Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.

If it isn't in Texas, you probably don't need it.

NO ONE DOES ANYTHING BIGGER OR BETTER THAN IT'S DONE IN TEXAS.

By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag. Think about that for a second. You fly the Stars and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, California, or Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview or anyplace else at 20 feet, the Lone Star flies at the same height - 20 feet. Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state.

Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in Washington, D.C. and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part, right there.

Texas even has its own power grid!!

If you are a REAL TEXAN you won't even need to be told to pass this on!"

[El Gato]

Well Southwestern was formed from the merger of several struggling Methodist schools. The oldest of those was chartered in 1840, but it got a new charter from the state in 1875. Austin College was chartered in 1849, and has been operating under that same charter ever since. They did merge with Texas Presbyterian, an all girls school, in 1930. Thus Austin College has been continuously operating under the same charter longer than in other college or university. They were also the first college in Texas to grant a graduate degree. Today they only grant Master's degrees in Education. They did change locations, from Huntsville to Sherman in 1876, for much the same reasons that the schools which made up Southwestern chose to merge at Georgetown. Yellow Fever was a real problem at the original location(s) and the schools all suffered in the aftermath of the War of Yankee Aggression.

Baylor was originally chartered in 1845, but didn't confer their first degree until 1854. In 1886 they consolidated with Waco College, which was under control of a different Baptist group beginning in 1847, and a new charter was issued as Baylor University at Waco (The original Baylor had been at Independence) in 1886.

So, Southwestern has the oldest roots, Baylor's roots go back farther than Austin College's, but Austin College has been operating under the same charter the longest, in fact since it's original founding.

The site in Huntsville where they were originally located is now the site of Sam Houston State, having passed through the hands of a short lived Methodist school. When the last remaining former Austin College building burned down some years ago, some of the timbers were salvaged and a ceremonial "Mace" constructed of one of them was presented to Austin College by Sam Houston (or it's students). That Mace leads the procession at Graduation and other important events at AC, along with 2 to 4 pipers in keeping with the school's Presbyterian roots. It's an impressive beastie. :)

[Revolting cat!]

I luv BBQ and I hate Taxes!

[bobbyd]

You may prefer the long way around, it's a block longer

What the hey, I could use some......eerr... the exercise.

[El Gato]

The 1824 has to do with the treaty of 1824. There was a flag with 1824 written on it flying above the Alamo as a reminder to the Mexican army of the 1824 treaty.

Actually the Mexican Constitution of 1824, the violation of which by Santa Anna was the nominal casus belli of the Texian Revolution.

[Fiddlstix]

I luv BBQ and I hate Taxes!

I must agree.....

I Hate Taxes Too!

[Squantos]

Here ya go Nita......Did ya know Tom is running for Governor of Texas ?

[potlatch]

LOL, thanks for the ping Eaker! This "is" my little Yorkie and Bevo!!

Ps; Yorkie had a 'hair trim' and Bevo had a 'horn trim'!

[Bigun]

I can't even imagine a Mexican Restaurant in Holland of all places.

Neither can I but there ARE Mexicans there or at least there WERE!

Some years ago a friend and I were traveling back to Saudia Arabia and got stuck in Amsterdam overnight, terrible shamal (sandstorm) at Daharan or something like that. Anyway the airline put us up in the Hotel Pulitzer right in the middle of the canal district. We got our rooms and decided to go out for a drink since it was still early in the evening. We walked around for a few minutes doing a little window shopping ( what else does one do in the canal district?) and eventually walked into one of those street corner bars (there is one on EVERY corner in the canal district). We ordered our drinks and, since we were the only two customers in the place at the time, struck up a conversation with the bartender who turned out to be a Texican who had landed in Amsterdam 25 years before and never left.

We stayed there into the wee hours of the morning and never paid for another drink as our new friend was having a grand time blathering back and forth with us in Tex-Mex!

[Smartass]

LOL, looks like Piper's in control.

[groanup]

LOL. The guy was an elk hunter from Giddings and was no tenderfoot. Of course, until the scorpion got hold of him.

[potlatch]

Yep, Piper would chew his ankles to death!!

[Fiddlstix]

Well I'll be danged.......
Who'da thunk it....
Small world ain't it.....
lol

[AmericanDave]

As a native Texan, I thank you for the compliment.

[AmericanDave]

builds character, LOL.

[groanup]

builds character, LOL.

absolutely. Snakes, Black Widows, fire ants, scorpions, mosquitos, guitars tuned good and firm feelin' women.

[AmericanDave]

Nobody recognizes the shape of New York State...LOL

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

The flip side is that for some years the chief cook in the Macaroni's Grill in Stafford, Texas had worked in a bar I hung out at in Bergan an See, Holland. He knew all my oilfield trash friends and told me some stories that won me some dinners on bets and as bribes to keep my mouth shut.

[JFC]

Texas Ole Texas all hail the mighty state.

I love this great state.

[petitfour]

And Natalie Maines

[Dawgreg]

This is a keeper! I was Texas born, Texas bred and when I die, I'll be Texas dead! Thank you Lord for allowing me to be born in Texas! *~*