If all goes well today we will cross over into another state besides Texas. Texas is an awfully big place. Former governor Ann Richards put it this way, “I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no idea of its size until I campaigned it.”
I noted a sign along the Interstate yesterday which said, “Don’t mess with Texas.” Then I met and talked with some fellows with their souped up V-8 Diesel Turbo pick-ups at the fuel pump yesterday. That meeting confirmed for me the truth of the signage. I wouldn’t want to “mess” with any of those guys! They seemed to me to be as tough as their trucks! On the other hand, I’ve met some of the most courteous and generous people here in Texas; people who are willing to bend over backwards to help you. Texas has everything—all sorts of geography, all sorts of people, all sorts of all things! Texas, in the last analysis, is like everywhere!
There are all kinds of jokes about Texas and there all kinds of impressions and descriptions of the Lone Star State and its people. General Philip Sheridan wrote back in the late 19th century, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell.” John H. Holliday, the infamous “Doc” Holliday of western legend, purportedly said, “At the risk of descending to unscientific generalizations, 90 percent of Texans give the other 10 percent a bad name.” Davy Crockett, hero of the Alamo said in 1836, “I must say as to what I’ve seen of Texas it is the garden spot of the world. The best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here. There is a world of country here to settle.”
This “world of country” called Texas has a uniqueness all its own. People have indeed come to settle here and Texas is the second largest populated state in the union and has a growing, highly diversified economy which includes the new technologies. “I must say as to what I’ve seen of Texas” (to quote Crockett) it is a Big Country, with wonderful scenery and genuinely kind people.
No comments:
Post a Comment