but seems like a pretty good place so far.
'course, some folks'd say i'm in Austin, not Texas 
(now if i could just remember where i left the car ...)
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?
Native Texan
and
American by birth, Texan by the grace of God !
Reminds me of The Texas Version of Survivor.
All contestants have to drive across Texas in a Volvo (governed at 55mph) with a bumper sticker on the back that reads:
"I'm Gay and I'm Here To Take Your Guns".
Or this one -
"Yore Momma's Ugly and Texas Sucks"
gar-un-teed not to let them even REACH 55 mph! :)
Yeah, funny, right? There WAS that thought floating about at the time, however, and that IS the story line of the movie "Red Dawn" of that era.
I STILL thinks it's cool that the politician was trying to be derisive....little did he know!!
Actually, I think you will find the Louisiana state capitol is taller than all of them, INCLUDING the National Capitol building. Ole Huey wanted the biggest, and he got it (all thirty-four floors).
'course, some folks'd say i'm in Austin, not Texas
(now if i could just remember where i left the car ...)
We could probably start a separate thread with LBJ stories and jokes.
Have you heard that he used to hunt deer at night, using the spotlights on his truck to freeze them in their tracks?
He probably had more blackmail material on Congress than Bill Clinton ever did. Also, he may have bedded more wonem.
however, i do love texas cowboys!
hey pa_cowboy! AUSTIN is TEXAS! ;)
While in high school at Concordia High School in Austin, it was the job of freshmen to put up the flag. During Texas History week (week of March 2 - Texas Independence Day and Sam Houston's birthday all rolled into one), we flew the Texas flag above the U.S. flag. On Friday morning, a Texas highway patrol car pulled into the campus as we were hoisting the flags and told us to reverse the flags. We, quite fearful, started to do so. The trooper then mentioned that there was no law that said we had to fly the U.S. flag - why not fly just the Texas flag? He then said that he and a number of other troopers had driven by the school (on East Avenue - it later became IH-35) and noticed the reversed flags and rather enjoyed the sight. He stated that "some Yankee (no doubt prefixed with a "d" - I didn't realize Yankee didn't start with a "d" until I was 15 years old!) complained so they had to stop in and say something to us.
By the way, there are four time zones in the continental United States - Eastern, Mountain, Pacific, and Texas Time.
Kids all went to A&M and received their graduate or undergraduate degrees from Aggieland. Youngest son (Chem. Eng. graduate) is now proudly sharing his love of Texas and A&M with his classmates at the Naval Nuclear school in Charleston, South Carolina. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit there last month - I envy their history (and the history of Beaufort and Savannah, Georgia, that we also visited). Lived in Midland when I was in college, but didn't know either Father or Son Bush. We appreciate the current President's values and his effort to implement them. God bless the U.S.A.
walk the treeline at a flat field one morning(field east of trees) or evening(field west of trees) and SEE a TEXAS-SIZE sky.....
listen to the "laughing-jabbering-howling-barking" coyotes running the creekbed at 11:00 pm while looking at a zillion-star-sky clear winter night with your children in your backyard from a trampoline....
go to a small town county fair with your family and lots of quarters...
Change a flat tire for a mom with lots o'children in a tired stationwagon in the middle of nowhere on an August afternoon....and just tell her "glad I could help" when you're done....
Wave thanks to the driver who "drove on the shoulder of the road" so you could pass him/her on that 2 lane highway safely...
count the pickup trucks along an isolated FM road when the local ag-man is demo-ing a new method or product to ranchers/farmers....
Expect to be waved to and smiled at by drivers going in the opposite direction on any road at any speed.....wave back and smile...(They ALSO know how good it is here!)...
Texas has as many ways to "fall in love with it" as it has dirt roads....
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