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!"
My family also. Some of my family still lives in Tyler County.
Gary P. Nunn. One of my favorite songs. Have you heard Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Screw you, we're from Texas?"
I live in California now. Last year, my son had a multi-cultural day at school. Each child was supposed to bring food and other things from the country their family came from.
I told my son his family came from the country of Texas. I think some people thought I was crazy, however I'm proud of the fact that my family is really native Texans.
My family did not immigrate to the US. One side fought in the American Revolution, and the other side fought for Texas' Independence.
I know absolutely nothing about Sheila Jackson Lee. I know a bit about Ann Richards. After Clayton made his remark about lying back and enjoying the rape (not verbatim) I preferred Ann Richards.
I despise her politics but for some reason I like her. People can make fun of the way she looks and the way she talks but she's Texan and it shows. When she was Governor, she was plain spoken and not given to all that flowery type talk.
People say she looks and sounds like she was rode hard and put up wet. Well, it's no secret in Texas that she's a recovering alcoholic and it's not uncommon to see her in an AA meeting there. Women alcoholics tend to hide their alcoholism longer and it takes a bigger toll on their looks than if does men. I can respect the fact that she did something about her alcoholism and made something out of her life. Others would have ended up in a gutter somewhere.
Is she a great Texan? I guess it all depends on your definition of great. I disagree with her ideas about what's best for Texas but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that she loves Texas. She's a great Texan in the same way I'm a great Texan. I love my state and couldn't imagine being from anywhere else. She's a character who adds a little something to Texas.
Tell ya what! If Texas has to have liberals, I'd rather have an Ann Richards liberal than a Teddy Kennedy liberal anyday!
"If I owned Hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas" - General William Tecumseh Sherman (Attrib)
----
Sherman was a smart man.
He knew renting out Texas would make him much more money than renting out Hell.
He knew Texas was bigger than Hell and would bring a huge profit.
He knew Texas was hotter than Hell and that many fellow yankees were tired of freezing their butts off up north.
Sherman must have been a greedy man to live in Hell and rent out Texas.
We Texans live in Texas because we love it.
Sherman can stay in Hell.
That's why air conditioning was invented. Up until I was in the 6th grade our schools had no a/c. I can remember coming in from recess and pushing/shoving to get to be front and center in front of the big fan.
I've become acclimated now and used to count the days until fall when I lived there. You learn to not sit on car seats right after you open the car door because it feels like strips of your skin are going to be left on the seat. Touching the steering wheel, need another towel. Covered parking places were coveted.
There's still no place like Texas. Maybe part of it is a state of mind.
See my post 265. I can't find any other state where it says they can fly there flag the same hight as the usa flag... : ) <<< me
Unfortunately AC doesn't work too well outdoors.
There's still no place like Texas.
Or it's hot humid weather.
That would be great, but we do not know where yet. Every time we go we want to buy where we are: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Waco, somewhere in west Texas, somewhere in south Texas. Altho the weather has me sorta deciding that the coast may not be for us. Guess we will have to make lots more trips to decide where.
Texas will be annexed my Mexico in the year 2013.
bttt for sometime next year when I can find this bump somewhere in 'my bumps' to go back and actually read this
That is the last thing a "Texan" has, that is the thing a "wanna be" has... : ) <<< me
No, No, and most definitely YES.
I have horses, when I was a kid, but that was in Nebraska. We've also got an oil well a couple of blocks up the street, and several more within 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, so I guess that means we're sitting atop a bunch of oil. Both sides of the Red River hereabouts have lots of oil wells. Old ones, but many are pumping these days, and serveral have been redrilled in the past few years. Only bad thing, we don't own the mineral rights. :(, although one of my wife's friends does, which she inherited from two of her three husbands. (She only ditched one of them, the one without any oil :), the other two died on her, #1 and #3 were brothers, with oil).
We had dinner at that same table week before last. Went to the Saints/Bills game and then met there after the game. Always fun trying to figure out which people are real and which are generic in the mural. And no, it is not me who shoots spitball wads at the painting of Clinton in the corner.
Texas has 4 Presidents who served 5 separate terms before it became the 28th state to join the United States. They were:
David Burnet, our first President
Sam Houston, first term
Mirabeau B. Lamar
Sam Houston, second term
Anson Jones, our last President and the one who led us into becoming the 28th state.
Just as a side note my great, great, great Grandfather served in the Confederate Army. He was taken prisoner and sent to a Yankee prison camp in New York. To pass the time he carved a complete chess set. The dark pieces were stained with berry juice while the light pieces were kept in their natural state. We still have the set except for one pawn which has been misplaced through the years. The set is stored in an ice cream carton dated sometime in the late 1800's. My sister has the set or else I'd be able to tell you the exact date on the ice cream carton.
That actually is the official song of the University of Texas. Eyes of Texas
Texas, Our Texas is the Official state song.
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