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!"
Rolling in the mud and pulling each other's hair is NOT a discussion.
Thanks, Eaker. And thanks for pinging me to this thread. It has been a fun thread.
For those who've never been here, no explanation is possible....... For those who have, no explanation is needed..........
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Ain't that the truth!
my mom pretty much does her mole' that way
We learned many years ago, make ourselves a very small plate.
The meaness in me always makes a BIG plate for first timers.
We're on the Llano Estacado (the Texas South Plains around Lubbock ), and we had a white Christmas last year, I think.
A fried egg on top almost makes them illegal!!
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The first time I ever saw enchiladas with a fried egg on top was in New Mexico. There were soft fried corn tortillas stacked like pancakes with chili, chopped onions, and cheese between each layer with a fried egg on top. I opted out on the fried egg. It's the only time I've eaten enchiladas flat instead of rolled.
Speaking of food...I once had chili served by a transplanted yankee. It was a thin tomato sauce with no seasoning served over spaghetti noodles. Strangest version of chili I've ever eaten.
nice photo. i once broke my finger swinging off a rope into the frio river.
That is almost how I make my enchiladas. Hamburger meat, cheese and sauce on top of fried corn tortillas; bake until cheese melts, top with lettuce, tomato and a fried egg.
Everyone that eats them comes away from the table miserable ~ ~ they are so good you cannot stop eating them.
"Sopapillas for everyone!" -Dale Dribble
Oh, goody... a Texas thread! I can never get enough. Has Pardeck shown up yet to bash us? ;-)
(BTW, anyone wanting to read more about the Lone Star State can find more Texas threads on my Links page.)
The part about riding out the hurricane is at the bottom of the page, titled "Hurricane Rita - 2 days later."
BTW, is there any way to make a blog read from top to bottom chronologically? Starting at the bottom of a page just seems so weird.
Beautiful photos, bert!
The worst "chili (?)" I ever had was from up nawth too.
It had such things as kidney beans and tomatoes.....
AND
(Gag!) Believe it or not.......Sugar....You could actually taste the sugar in it....(Gag, Barf)
(Just thinking about it again makes me want to barf)
What I ate in NM was good and your version sounds good, too. It's just that I can't get used to the idea of fried egg with enchiladas. Yellow, runny yolk flowing over my enchiladas...nope...just can't do it.
Big Bend is one of my favorite places. :-)
Sweet chili? That has to be worse than the yankee version of chili I had. At least with bland I could add some salt and pepper. I can't think of any way to correct sweet chili except to throw it out and start over.
Fiddlstix, I award you the 'worst chili story' trophy, so far.
Bum Phillips did not write that piece, it was written by Bob Wheeler. See my previous post.
Regards.
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