Have a good one
Posted on 10/14/2005 3:43:58 PM PDT by 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!"
Goodnight SmartA, see you tomorrow.
Oh yeah! Smaller than you think!
I went to work one time for a New York outfit by the name of Amerada Hess who immediately sent me to a little island (Arzana Island) (bout a mile long by 1/2 mile wide) in the Arabian Sea 110 miles offshore from Abu Dhabi near the border with Qatar. When I got on that twin otter at Abu Dhabi airport headed out to this island I was asking myself just what the H*LL I had gotten myself into this time as I just knew that there would not be a soul on that Island that I knew.
WRONG! Within a couple of hours of my arrival I had discovered that half the people on that little island were folks I had worked with at other times and places. If you work in the "awl" patch it really is a small world!
I seem to recollect hearing a story like that before but I don't think it was from you.
Perhaps things like that are more common than we imagine!;>)
October 15, 1943
From the Texas State Historical Association
Texas native given command of both American air forces in England
On this day in 1943, Texas native Ira Eaker was promoted from commander of
the Eighth Air Force to assume command of both American air forces in
England, the Eighth and the Ninth. Eaker, an aviation pioneer, joined the
army in 1917 and transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1918. He was one of
ten pilots chosen to make the Pan American Goodwill Flight in 1926, and
pioneered in flight refueling in the inter-war years. During his World War
II service in England between 1942 and 1944, Eaker was instrumental in the
development and application of daylight precision bombing in the European
Theater. He went on to command the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in
1944-45. He died in 1987.
Links to related Handbook of Texas Online articles can be found on
the web at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/daybyday/10-15-005.html
With ALL due respect my FRiend if he don't know enough to knock the scorpions out of his boots BEFORE he puts them on he IS a damned tenderfoot!
Awfully nice country down here......
Well let's not forget another great Texan, Maury Maverick. He was a dedicated man, wrote a newspaper collumn in San Antonio till he died; and may he rest in peace.....
All I saw in Bruni was cactus.
Lots of cactus.
It was beautiful!
Okay, I'll give you that.
"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking.""~~~~~~~President George W Bush
I tossed a coin and it came up Harlengen so now I don't flip a coin it wiil be Harlingen without even thinking about it.
You did quite a bit of research! Thank you for all the history, and I'll pass it on to my daughter. She is very happy at SWU (freshman). I was so impressed with SWU, Austin, and Trinity. All three are top notch, and she wanted a smaller school. I'd have been thrilled with whichever one she chose.We are in the Waco area, but she refused to consider Baylor even though many of her friends chose to go there -- the "too close to home" syndrome for her.
Thanks for the song. Have sent it to friends in Louisiana and the northwest. Lots of Asleep @ the Wheel fans up there that also love Louisiana.
You sound like me. I was born in Oregon but have lived in both Louisiana and Texas - love all three but got a tap root going down here in Texas.
Lemme tell ya......
Whatever it is....... it ain't workin'..........
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