Hog Creek over the road
Posted on 04/10/2002 5:49:46 AM PDT by serinde
When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like....
"Do you have any cows?" It's nice to be able to say yes.
They ask you, "Do you have horses?" Yup.
"Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?" Of course.
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched "Dallas."
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Heck, yes you have.
Look at Texas 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 that 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'll get it sooner or later, but who else in the world would? Even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?
In every man, woman and child on this little rock the Good Lord put us on, there is somewhere in them a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride in a pickup or dance at a dance hall. Did you ever hear anyone say, "Wow ... so you're from Kansas. Cool. Tell me about it."?
There is some bit of Texas in everyone. Do you know why? Because Texas is 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.
We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and Bowie and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
Texas is Juneteenth and Texas Independence Day. Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crocket National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in Big Bend.
Texas is shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas. Texas is the uniqueness of Austin.
Texas is a world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas has the best colleges around; from Austin to Lubbock and everywhere in between.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson and Buddy Holly, Earl Campbell and Nolan Ryan, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey, Lyndon Johnson and two George Bushes.
Texas is great companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer and Compaq.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is skies blackened with doves and fields full of deer.
Texas is the best barbecue anywhere. Period.
Texas is the nicest people you'll ever meet. Anywhere. Not to mention, the prettiest girls.
Texas is a place where the streets are deserted during church.
Texas is the best music, with the best musicians in the world.
Texas is beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies.
If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No one does anything bigger or better.
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, or California, or Maine, and your state flag, whatever it is, flies at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview at 20 feet, and the Lone Star flies at 20 feet.
Do you know why? Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in D.C. We signed that and the flag height in as part of the deal when we came on.
That's the best part right there ... when we came on, Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas.
Aren't you proud to be a Texan?
. I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce and I don't consider LBJ someone to build ledends. What he did for Houston was no more than what Trent Lot did for Pascagoula, Civil Rights was already a done deal by congress and Johnson took this country off to a war that he was not willing to win. All those other legends you spoke of aren't responsible for the deaths and injuries of thousands. Your right, Larger than Life.
Right on!
Reading this thread has been a lot of fun, especially since I have spent almost all of the last 2 weeks driving across the western USA from the heart of Texas to far northwestern CA.
Hope to cross that boundary back into the Lone Star State on Friday, and it will be SO -O-O good to be back home!
Gig 'em!!
I have traveled around the world and when a foreigner asks me where I am from, my reply is always, TEXAS! Others in the group say the USA, and the foreigners always gravitate to the Texans and they have hundreds of questions. BTW, when I was in Indonesia last year, they were still watching re-runs of DALLAS! We were in a little cafe, where the girls were huddled around a little portable b&w tv, aluminum foil on the antennas watching DALLAS!
My wife and I went there on our honeymoon last year. It is, without exception, the most beautiful place I've ever been -- a tropical paradise.
I already packed a bag. Heading back home to Texas for the weekend. I need to see some bluebonnets, a long horn steer, and an armadillo or two if I can.
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