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!"
Ditto that
Beans are to be eaten with tortillas.....
Corn Tortillas
(None of those danged "flour" tortillas)
Es verdad.
>Is that a threat ?:>)
Not if you're a Texan....
Thank you. Live in Richmond so it is not too far away. Have not had a Whataburger since I was in Tallahassee. Good times, good food.
We could do without that Juneteenth thing. That's one of the stupidest holidays or celebrations or whatever the hell you want to call it on record.
LOL
I'll bet you love chicken mole too.
(I know I do)
Not if you're a Texan.
While traveling on I-20
I spent the night in Tyler one time does that
count?
If you follow the PBR keep your eyes on a youngster named Best Western. He will buck in the Classic in Las Vegas in a couple f weeks.
Yeaah. It'll do
Oops. The credit on the second one is Black/Bruce.
Yeaah. It'll do
Oh it was at a Holiday Inn Express too.
Well, "chile" dates back long before Richardson moved there from either California, Mexico City, or Boston. Of course I always twit those born in Albuquerque with whether they were born on the Texas or New Mexican side of the river.
Noone who has been here can dispute that- this state is just crawling with beautiful women.
Here's something I found interesting- not long ago, I was undergoing physical therapy with a very nice lady from Kentucky. She was instructing a young lady from Kansas about my particular problem. They got to talking about moving to this area when Melinda, my therapist, asked the other lady- "Have you gotten used to people opening doors for you yet?".
I was more than a little bit shocked by that question, so I asked- and they both assured me that men did *not* open doors for ladies in either Kansas or Kentucky!
She also asked her if anyone had told her they were "stove up" yet :) I got a good laugh out of the facial expression on that one. And, yes, I was stove up (or almost), but my wonderful Kentucky born therapist fixed me up! (of course, she's also very attractive- this explains why she ended up in Texas :)
I make a pretty good chicken mole', but I cheat. (How many Yankees just thought you asked me about a cross between a ground-burrowing rodent and a chicken, I wonder--it's pronounced molay, northern FRiends).
Anyway, I cheat and my mom always cheated too. That stuff you buy in the jelly jar/glass in the Mexican food aisle is the real thing and will do nicely, but you have to only use about half of it and "doctor" it with extra cumin and garlic yourself. Further, DO NOT cook it by itself as a sauce that will be poured on top of a sad, tired, boneless skinless chicken breast later. Pre-cook your chicken thighs and/or legs (on the bone), and then put your chicken IN THE SAUCE as it finishes cooking. That's the secret.
Less troubling but no less uncomfortable were the scorpions that lived in the house. The rug was reddish, brown shag and the scorpions were reddish, brown shag. One could only see them if they moved which some of them did and some of them didn't.
It was a telling day when my ex-father-in-law let out a humongous scream after toweling off with a scorpion laden towel.
Ah, I remember it well, the evenings when we would all sit and drink beer, eating nacho chips with hot sauce on the floor of that brand new house, watching the scorpions crawl across the floor.
I've been to Texas Hill Country - luv it!
Longview no longer has an El Chico but Panchos is still open. El Chico's burned down about three or four years ago and they decided not to rebuild. I work in Longview.
You live in the County Seat of Ft Bend? Heck that's just down the road and we have several Whataburgers around here! ,,,,,, ;-)
Sounds like you're real Happy and down-to-Earth!
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