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!"
No what I was pointing out is that we have been pulling your chain for years and enjoy it.
The reference to Long Island was to place me in your area, and not have you wonder why a Texan would be in your state so much. Given that we are such a problem to you, perhaps you would be happier, and I know I would, if you took your sour observations elsewhere.
So you are in the Sherman area? I have close family in McKinney which made Austin a very attractive choice to me in terms of having relatives nearby if she needed help. You are right that Baylor is a big school, and SWU is even smaller than my daughter's high school. I love the student/professor ratio at Austin, Trinity and SWU. They aren't just a number in the professor's grade book in a huge lecture hall. She knows Baylor is a good school, but she really wanted the away from home experience and the opportunity to meet new people. Baylor is such familiar territory from years of attending extended education seminars, athletic events, cultural events, etc. that it held no allure to her. Georgetown is so close to Austin that she has big city amenities nearby, but lives in a small town atmosphere.
It does snow more often in Jerusalem and Bethlehem than it does in San Antoinio. But just a little more up into the Texas Hill Country would be a pretty good approximation. San Antonio is at 29:46 N latitude, while Jerusalem is at 31.47 N. Jerusalem is also higher at 300 meters ASL than San Antonio, which is only around 700 feet, so the difference in elevation in not so great. And two degrees of latitude is only about 120 nautical miles so Somewhere around Ft. Hood would be very similar, if drier because of being farther from the water, and because of other geographic factors.
Haven't seen anyone comment on this yet, but it's true. There's (basically) West of the Rockies, East of the Rockies, and Texas. It's the law, Texas law that is. To keep electricity from being generated with Texas Oil or Texas Gas and then being shipped out of state without paying the State of Texas. :) IIRC we are tied to both the other grids, and they are tied to each other, but very lightly through links that can't handle much power. They are only tied to keep them all in synch. Thus, in the old days, clocks would run at the same speed everywhere in the country. And the entire country has the same frequency of power... on the average anyway.
I noticed that but didn't comment on it mainly cuz I thought everybody already knew it.......
And here I thought you were pulling something else to be enjoying yourself so much.
Been there, done that, got over it a long time ago...
Sorry to bust your bubble, but it's not as special as you make it sound.
The flag thing is cool, the state by treaty thing is cool, the fact that they have their own grid, their own standing army and the fact that corporate law is special in Texas is all cool stuff.
But what have you done with those cool legal differences lately? I think the last hurrah was when Connally and the Hunt family planned to secede and make the currency of Texas backed by silver and issued by First Republic Bank of Texas. They were stomped on by the powers that be and high points in Texas history are just that now, history.
Texas is just one more state in the union these days. It's big yeah... so what?
I lived there for over ten years. Worked construction for a while, worked on an operating nuclear plant for a while and owned a business there for a while. It's nothing special and most (nearly all) of the "cowboys" I met there were as fake as a three dollar bill.
Sorry, it just ain't that special anymore.
... and here you show your true self. Not only are you humorless, you are ill mannered.
Lloyd227, Just curious as to what part of the country you live in now? Also, if you had the opportunity to live anywhere you wished in our beautiful America, where would it be?
TX ping
We were all talking just the other day about how glad we were that you had gone.
Where would I choose to live, if employment were not a factor? That's a tough one... seen a lot of nice areas and met a lot of great people along the way. Have to categorize things a bit:
For the people? - North or South Carolina, or maybe Tennessee
The state political climate, governance? - Arizona, maybe Texas
The Climate? Southern Californa, or possibly the Carolinas and Tennessee would make it back on the list again.
Family ties? - All of mine and my wife's family are in central Missouri where we both grew up. Odds are, I'll end up back in that area to spend time with them all before we're gone.
I've got two kids in college and one in high school headed for college though... it will be a while before I get to choose where I live without concern for a steady income :-)
Cheers, Lloyd
That sure is a purdy pic, energy capitol/capital of the world.
I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you as having been among those "cowboys" I mentioned above :-)
All Ya'll have a good day and don't take every little bitty thing so serious.
Cheers,
Lloyd
It's jealousy or misunderstanding, no worries.
I've been to some others states too from time to time over the years
Me too, and I couldn't wait to get back home to Texas.
I otally agree. They are the other side of the blue bells.
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