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!"
Texas is 60 days in a row over 100 degrees, fire-ants that kill furry little critters, and no rain from June to October.
and THAT's North-East of Dallas!
Yep! Best climate in the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything............
&
I live in south Texas (Way South). We don't consider its gettin' hot till it's over 105.
Sorry to burst the bubble but Vermont has better gun laws than Texas.
The diving pig was in San Marcos at Acquarena Springs.
Fireants have killed off the harvester (Big Red) ants which the horny toads used for food.
For someone who seems to have made up his onscreem name from John Muir and some California trees while living in Connecticut, ragging other people about geographical attributes seems unseemly.
Its gotten better, once you left.
Its something that is done unconciously. At least in my case. We tend to mime or imitate naturally. When I travel and have been in some place a few days, it is not at all strange for people to tell me I have no Texas accent.
As my wife entered her 4th year with cancer and just after they told her it was metastatic and terminal, we visited the west coast and the Muir woods. She told me it was one of the most peaceful places she had ever been and she sensed a feeling of strength and permanence there that was missing from so mant aspects of her life with the disease. She asked me to spread her ashes there when the time came. I chose it as a screen name then. A few years later, on August 23, 2004 I followed through on her wishes.
Got an issue with that?
Ummm ok. I guess you're glad you got that off your chest.
Mine definitely lessens too. When I was in the Navy, people would poke fun at me for days after I returned from being home on leave because my accent would return to its normal level. My post was really in reference to people doing it intentionally though. I would use my mother-in-law as an example again but that wouldn't be nice.
Emphasis mine
. As my wife entered her 4th year with cancer and just after they told her it was metastatic and terminal, we visited the west coast and the Muir woods. She told me it was one of the most peaceful places she had ever been and she sensed a feeling of strength and permanence there that was missing from so mant aspects of her life with the disease. She asked me to spread her ashes there when the time came. I chose it as a screen name then. A few years later, on August 23, 2004 I followed through on her wishes.
Got an issue with that?
Certainly not. I too am a widower, and can emphathise for having lost a loved one. We always feel inadequate, and feel we could have done more. Whatever more is.
Having that as a known, it still seems unseemly to me, to attribute personality defects, to people who have a love of place, or country. Just as your wife felt a special connectedness to the redwoods, (and who could not?) others often connect with places also. I have a special place that I think of from our old family farm. A small creek and insignicant water fall. Thinking about it lowers my blood pressure 30 points. I often use it for that purpose.
These things are amalgamated into a larger picture, and result in "pride or love of place". Why is that a personality defect?
Besides bragging is a national trait of Texans, But then we have a lot to brag about. I have seen Connecticut and am therefore, able to understand not having a sense of "Pride or love of place". There is almost nothing to distinguish it from the rest of New England. It is ground to be covered on the way to Vermont skiing or Boston or Cape Cod. Somehow I just don't get shivers of pleasure, from the idea of visiting an Insurance Center. Yale is nice, but why visit, unless you attend or have a child there.
ya know, you're right.......
I hadn't given it much thought but you don't see the big 'ol red ants around much anymore either.......
&
We don't have as many rattlesnakes as we use to either but I think all those "rattlesnake roundups" a few years back had sumpin to do with that......
Ca Ching....we have a winner!
*sniff*... kinda gets you... you know... right... HERE. I think the best thing I ever did for my kids was to make it possible for them to put "Texas" on their birth certificates. :-)
Well, I'm sure the slaves who learned they were free didn't think it was all that dumb..
Ditto that!
Oh, be still my heart. That line up (Guy Clark, Joe Ely, Steve Earle and Doc Watson) is just incredible. I'm a fiddler, and I'm happiest playing that good western swing...my musical heart is definitely in Texas! Since the start of this thread, I've been singing in my head:
YOU'RE FROM TEXAS (C. Walker)
as recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys (1946)
from The Tiffany Transcriptions Vol. 4 (1985 Rhino Records)
Pardon me stranger I hope there's no danger
You'll think I'm getting off of my range
Oh but I calculate that you're from my state
And though you may think its strange
I allow as how you're from Texas
You talk a lingo I understand
I'll bet my cale that you hail from Texas
There's no mistaking the brand
You've got a smile like an acres of sunflower
Your eyes are blue bonnet blue
Shake hands its grand that you're from Texas
Cause I'm from Texas too
You've got a smile like two acres of sunflowers
Your eyes are blue bonnet blue
Shake hands its grand that you're from Texas
Cause I'm from Texas too
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