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!"
Unfortunately, they have both left their mark on us.
...and don't forget Bob Wills, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly...
I think this was written by Bum Phillips. He has written a couple of essays about Texas and this sounds a lot like one of his.
But gave us Janis Joplin.
You are obviously in the wrong part of CA if you miss 100+ degree days. Get away from those wimps in SF and come toward the Sierras, Northern CA is the only place to live in CA.
WRONG on two counts!!! First, it's "Anna". Second, Houston didn't capture Santa Anna. Mr. M's great-great grandfather, Sion Record Bostick along with his cousin Joel Robinson and another scout captured Santa Anna and brought him to Houston. Houston let the weasel live and sent him back to Mexico. The famous painting that hangs in the capital and is featured in all Texas history books of Houston wounded under the tree with the Texan army shows Sion and Joel. The problem however, is the artist painted Sion as he was when the artist visited with him - as an old man with a white beard, rather than a boy of 16. Sion is the old white bearded man wearing a black hat standing on the top back row on the mid-left. A more age appropriate Joel is wearing a white shirt with a red scarf (IIRC) and is centered in the portrait. This excerpt of Sion's recollections of the capture of Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto is from the Texas Handbook Online. I have the more colorful story but the language of what he really wanted to do to the prisoner wouldn't have been proper for Handbook. Actually, Santa Anna gave Joel the Masonic handshake which saved his skin or his death would have been a mystery to this day. The Masonic brotherhood played a huge part in Texas history. Susannah Dickinson survived the Alamo because her husband wrapped their baby in his Masonic apron and later Houston let Santa Anna live because they both were Masons.
"Capt. Moseley Baker told me on the morning of the 22nd to scout around on the prairie and see if I could find any escaping Mexicans. I went and fell in with two other scouts, one of whom was named Joel Robinson, and the other Henry Sylvester. We had horses that we had captured from the Mexicans. When we were about eight miles from the battle field, about one o'clock, we saw the head and shoulders of a man above the tall sedge grass, walking through the prairie. As soon as we saw him we started towards him in a gallop. When he discovered us, he squatted in the grass; but we soon came to the place. As we rode up we aimed our guns at him and told him to surrender. He held up his hands, and spoke in Spanish, but I could not understand him. He was dressed like a common soldier with dingy looking white uniform. Under the uniform he had on a fine shirt. As we went back to camp the prisoner rode behind Robinson a while and then rode behind Sylvester. I was the youngest and smallest of the party, and I would not agree to let him ride behind me. I wanted to shoot him. We did not know who he was. He was tolerably dark skinned, weighed about one hundred and forty-five pounds, and wore side whiskers. When we got to camp, the Mexican soldiers, then prisoners, saluted him and said, “el presidente.” We knew then that we had made a big haul. All three of us who had captured him were angry at ourselves for not killing him out on the prairie, to be consumed by the wolves and buzzards. We took him to General Houston, who was wounded and lying under a big oak tree."
I forgot to mention I live a couple miles from Southfork.
And Jimmy Johnson
Flat, hot, humid, no interesting cities except the capital, which is ruled by Communists, great Mexican food everywhere (why go to Mexico?), watery beer brewed in San Antonio, a great place, fer shore!
I'm in Wylie. You?
Yum! Fried armadillo - fresh caught of course. And fried rattlesnake... ok, I let someone else catch the snakes.
The world saw the strong moral character of Texans in our response to Katrina, by opening our hearts and homes to our neighbors in need...
The spirit of America is alive and well in TEXAS!
1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats
2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them
Number 6 is good:
6. Texas: Local police watch for looting
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting
Not from Texas myself, but appreciate the Texan can-do spirit.
What's Juneteenth?
It is interesting that while most of we Texans are polite and cordial whenever meeting folks from elsewhere, often these same folks will go out of their way to make a pointed attack against us. A little trick I have used is to comeback with comments such as; "have you ever heard a song about Rhode Island"?. "Can you name one epic novel written about New Jersey"? Can you name a state that has had probably a dozen movies made about the same event (Alamo) and continues to sell well each time"?
By pointing out That Texas is a unique place with it's own unique history that no other state can compare with usually sends these inferior specimens away in a pissy mood.
One little correction, though--the Texas anthem is not the Eyes of Texas. That is the University of Texas fight song. The Texas anthem is Texas, Our Texas. We used to sing it every morning at flag service held out by the school flagpoles. We did the pledge of allegiance to the USA, the Texas pledge, and sang the Texas anthem. (I don't remember in what order--LOL).
Also, as a school girl growing up in Texas, we studied Texas History from the 1st grade through the 7th grade. In the 8th grade, we were introduced to American History--I kid you not. I love Texas history--both the real stuff, and the folklore.
I have lived around the country and enjoyed most places where I have lived, but Texas is where I want to be. Texas is my home, I'm happy to be here now, and Texas is where I'll die.
Never mind. :)
"Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
"From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond."
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