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Texas History

Bubba JoelBubba Joel Member Posts: 5,161
edited March 2002 in General Discussion
Found this on another board and thought it was good reading...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Texas History Do you remember looking at a map of the world? Look at Texas for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande are 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'll get it maybe after a second, but who else 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. Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow...so you're from Ok-la-homa. 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 brave men standing in a church, facing eight thousand 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 took the heroic route. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is Texas. Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto. Texas is Texas Independence Day. Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest. Texas is breathtaking mountains, wonderful rivers and the bright stars at night in Big Bend. Texas is shiny skyscrapers and great wide freeways in Houston and Dallas, beautiful beaches in Padre Island, historic charm of Galveston, and the fun filled Frio, San Marcos, Colorado and Guadalupe rivers. Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork and deep sea Red Snapper near Rockport. Texas is Mexican food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico. Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, ZZ Top, Earl Campbell and Nolan Ryan, Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Lyndon Johnson and George Bush. Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Compaq and Texas Instruments. Texas is great industries like NASA and Texas Medical Center in Houston. Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops. Texas is skies blackened with doves and leases full of deer. Texas is a place where cities shut down for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football and the streets are deserted during church. Texas is beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains, prairies and forests. Most repeated comment from visitors leaving Texas: "God's country." If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No one does anything bigger or better. Texas is about freedom and room to grow. 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 the hell it is, goes at 17. 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, too. Do you know why? Texas is the only state that was once its own country and has the right to secede or become five small states at any time. The Republic of Texas. All of that makes you proud to be a Texan. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in D.C. We signed those in as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part right there: WHEN WE CAME ON, America got much better.
http://www.tmorg-forums.com/
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    concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yeah, Texas sounds pretty cool. Never been there, but I'd love to visit sometime.I heard a story once, though, that made me laugh. This guy from Texas came up to visit Michigan. Every time he saw something he said "yeah, that's good, but it's BIGGER in Texas!". He ate a steak for dinner and said "yeah, that's good, but it's BIGGER in Texas!". He got bitten by a mosquito and said "Yeah, but they're BIGGER in Texas!".So, the guy he visited decided to take him out fishing on Lake Superior. When they got on the boat the Texan noted that this was a pretty big lake from the looks of it. When he asked how large it was (expecting to chime in about how the lake he lived on in Texas was BIGGER), his friend said that if they navigated the boat straight East at full speed, they'd get across the lake in about 6 hours (160 miles wide). And, that if they dropped an anchor in the middle of the lake they'd need a 1300 foot rope. After all, this lake was over 31,000 square miles.That shut the Texan up.Anyway, just funnin ya'll from Texas. But Michigan does have BIGGER lakes!
    Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT Criminals
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    Brth729Brth729 Member Posts: 1,231 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Did somebody say Longview?
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    CAPPERCAPPER Member Posts: 139 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    GOD BLESS TEXAS
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    thunderboltthunderbolt Member Posts: 6,038 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Texas is Texas after all, but it would stillbe Mexico if not for some good old boysfrom TENNESSEE!!!
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    tidemantideman Member Posts: 1,099 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    In all fairness, those good 'ol boys did LEAVE Tenn. originally for other reasons than to help defend against the Mexicans. But, we still appreciate their volunteering. I once had a fun conversation with a fellow from Michigan who just couldn't stop trying to beat the Bigger and Better stories of Texas with Bigger and Better Michigan stories. He went on and on about bigger trees, bigger bears, better lakes, etc. I finally got to him when I told him "In Texas, we catch catfish 13" long". He paused a second and replied, rather proudly, "Well, in Michigan, we catch catfish 18" long". "How do y'all measure your catch in Michigan?", I asked. "From the tip of their nose to the end of their tail.", he replied. "Well, in Texas, we measure 'em from eye to eye!", I said.Tideman [the Texan ]
    "Don't shoot to stop 'em, Shoot to Destroy 'em!"
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    Bubba JoelBubba Joel Member Posts: 5,161
    edited November -1
    Brth729, are you from Longview?I'm looking this summer for a place to retire to around your area...
    http://www.tmorg-forums.com/ [This message has been edited by Bubba Joel (edited 03-20-2002).]
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    concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good one Tideman! Thems some BIG catfish!
    Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT Criminals
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    rkmitchellrkmitchell Member Posts: 1 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Both my brother's were born in Texas. And I enjoyed living there for many years. One thing I did learn there is "You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell them much!"
    "Don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good!"
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    VarmintmistVarmintmist Member Posts: 1,074 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Where's this at again?
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    Brth729Brth729 Member Posts: 1,231 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bubba JoelI spent some of my youth and all of my teen years there. I moved away some years back and am currently in Illinois.
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    TrinityScrimshawTrinityScrimshaw Member Posts: 9,350 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I always loved history when I was in school. I grew up in East Texas, and Texas history got me my start in loving to read about it. Bubba Joel got just about all that correct, but I believe the secede situation was delt with in 1865. An for Concealed, well the last time I looked 1/2 of Lake Superior was in another country???There was this Texan who went to Niagra Falls on his honeymoon. Every where the tour gide took him he would say "That's nice, but it's bigger & better in Texas!" Well the gide had as much as he could stand, so he took the Texan to see the falls, and said "Well TEX, what do you think of that? I bet there is nothing like that in Texas is there?". The Texan looked at the falls for a long time, and then stated "No I can't say I have ever seen anything like that in Texas, but I know a Plumber in Houston who can stop that leak in five minutes!".Trinity+++
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    Brth729Brth729 Member Posts: 1,231 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    tideman,Did you ever do any fishing on Lake O' the Pines? Pulled many a flathead out of there myself.
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    budmottbudmott Member Posts: 155 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I moved from Oklahoma to Houston, I heard a lot of, Okies is proof them Indians really did screw them buffalo.Of course the come back is, if it weren't for Oklahomans flushing, there would be no Texas.[insert grin here]bud
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    Bubba JoelBubba Joel Member Posts: 5,161
    edited November -1
    Bud, I was born in Oklahoma (south-east) and I get a lot of jokes..I have several pilot friends that tell me, they fly unside down over Oklahoma, when they use the toilet, because there's nothing there worth crapping on...NOT FUNNY....LOL
    http://www.tmorg-forums.com/
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    LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    I spent some time in Texas while in the Army, and I liked it a lot. I also lived in Oklahoma for 3 years in the eighties and liked that too.I DO have to call B.S. on the part of that "Texas History" post where it talks about Texas' "breathtaking mountains." Sorry, but in Washington State they're not even considered mountains unless they're over 8 or 9 thousand feet and have glaciers and snow on them year-round. As far as I'm concerned, there ain't no mountains in Texas.Any of you boys from the Rocky Mountain states like to back me up?
    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.[This message has been edited by Lowrider (edited 03-21-2002).]
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    badboybobbadboybob Member Posts: 1,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Will you guys quit it? I can't stop laughing!
    PC=BS
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    IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Lowrider, most places have some claim to fame (although I've been in a few where it had to have been the size of their roaches), but what they call mountains in Texas wouldn't pass for molehills in many states . . . . . This wouldn't deter many of the breed from making such a claim, though. stir, stir, stir.
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    beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Let's see California was independent before it became part of the USA and Hawaii was a monarchy before joining the USA....Are you comparing Texas to those to states?Didn't Texas loose her right to split into four separate states when she was readmitted into the union? Gosh if she had backed a winner in the Civil War we might now have 8 Senators from the states of Texas. Oh well these things happen.A recent diary of a Mexican Army officer who fought at the Alamo paints a different picture of the end of the battle than the one we were all brought up to believe. I do hope the diary is a forgery because it would certainly break the hearts of a lot of people around the world.....course Mexico can't really say anything no matter how the end occurred....any time you use 3000 regular soldiers to take on 186 militia men its a hollow victory either way. Beach
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    cowboy62cowboy62 Member Posts: 70 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Texas is a fine state. But remember Sam Houston was from Virginia.Cowboy
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    He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,964 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Lowrider, down in the Big Bend Country they got some sho' 'nough mountains. They are not 13ers, you understand, but they are respectable desert mountains. got no glaciers, but they do have some really nice rattlesnakes. In '98 I was in Egypt, and people would come up to us daily and say, "Welcome Americans!" With a little conversation they would ask where we lived. We would say New Mexico. "Where is that?" was the next question. "Next to Texas," was our reply. Everyone knew where Texas was or had at least heard of it.
    He DogWhen only the police have guns, it is a police state.
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    TxsTxs Member Posts: 18,801
    edited November -1
    A man decided to write a book about churches and took off traveling across the country.Going to a very large church, he began taking photographs and making notes. He spotted a golden telephone on the vestibule wall and was intrigued with a sign which read "$10,000 a minute." Seeking out the pastor he asked about the phone and the sign. The Pastor answered that this golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to Heaven and if he pays the price he can talk directly to God. The man thanked the pastor and continued on his way. As he continued to visit churches in Seattle, Atlanta, Greensboro, Chicago, Milwaukee, and all around the United States, he found more phones with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor. Finally, he arrived in Texas. Upon entering a church in Ft Worth, behold, he saw the usual golden telephone. But THIS time, the sign read "Calls: 35 cents." Fascinated, he asked to talk to the pastor. "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I have found this golden telephone and have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads 35 cents a call. Why?" The pastor, smiling benignly, replied, "Son, you're in Texas now...it's a local call." ======================Y'all Okies settle down. Actually, we greatly appreciate your state. The only thing that keeps Texas from sliding off into the Gulf of Mexico is that Oklahoma sucks so hard.(insert big grin here, too)
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    SawzSawz Member Posts: 6,049
    edited November -1
    A Texan and an Alaskan were fishing together in a boat on a stream in Alaska. after much refreshemant they decided to relieve themselves so they stood up unzipped and flipped over the boat edge the Texan commented to the Alaskan how cold the water was .. Alaskan answers back yup and its pretty deep too
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    jdb123jdb123 Member Posts: 471 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    texas has more members in the pro football hall of fame than any other state. dont forget the great shaquille o'neal either
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    BlueTicBlueTic Member Posts: 4,072
    edited November -1
    Raised outside of Ft.Worth - I miss my family down there but have no real desire to move back. Betcha Lowrider was stationed in Killeen (Ft. Hood) Both my brothers were there in 75 - 78. Now there is a hell of a town. We got thrown out of a few "clubs" there. Loved Austin and Galveston. Hate DFW. We are taking the kids down for a road trip this year.You've probably heard it, but - Why doesn't Texas fall into the gulf? - Cause Oklahoma SUCKS!!!!!!!!
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    LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    I WAS in the Killeen area but I was stationed at a little Top Secret nuclear base out in the desert called Killeen Base. I can't tell you any more about it or else they'll come kill me.
    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
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    bwabwa Member Posts: 224 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    They tell me that you don't know the meaning of the word 'eternity' until you've crossed Texas at 55 mph.
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    bartobarto Member Posts: 4,734 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    spent a pretty blagh winter in killeen in 59, really dont miss it to much.got a texas story, though.seems these two pumas (brothers) met up after a few years on their own. the first looked at his bro who was skinny as a rail & obviously starving to death & asked what hed been eating to get so screwed up.the other replied, just texans. i jump on em & scare the shht out of em & eat em up.to which his brother replied, THERES your problem; you cant survive on just stetson hats & belt buckles! barto
    the hard stuff we do right away - the impossible takes a little longer
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    TxsTxs Member Posts: 18,801
    edited November -1
    Amen, bwa.As the crow flies, Texarkana is closer to Chicago than it is to El Paso.
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    He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,964 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not that I agree, but in New Mexico they say that the spring winds are because Texas sucks. Probably some Oklahomans started that...
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    vol fanvol fan Member Posts: 301 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Re: Sam Houston: he was a Governor and Senator from TENNESSEE.Re: Who captured Santa Anna, it was a Gentleman named Erasmus "Deaf" Smith, I believe.
    Guitars, Cadillacs, and Hillbilly Music...The only things that keep me hangin on...
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    MillerMiller Member Posts: 175 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    The last words Sam Houston said,"Texas, Texas."
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    LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    Definition of a Texan: A Mexican on his way to Oklahoma.
    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
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    nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,018 ******
    edited November -1
    When we return to our beloved Texas from an infrequent foray into the Indian Nation, I make the kids all roll down their windows and holler, "TEXAS, BY GOD!" as we cross the Red River.
    Certified SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of the General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the premier gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net Jesus is Lord!
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    TrinityScrimshawTrinityScrimshaw Member Posts: 9,350 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Now Lowrider, There is no desert near Killeen. Fort Hood and Killeen are in Central Texas near the northen edge of the Edwards Plato which is known as the Hill Country in Texas. Not many really big Mountains there, but after walking the length of one of those rolling hills you come away thinking it would have been easier to go straight up. California and Hawaii were never their own countries!What state is the biggest state in the US?Texas is, because you can't count frozen ice as land mass. If Alaska ever melted it wouldn't be any larger then Deleware! (LOL).Trinity+++
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    tidemantideman Member Posts: 1,099 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Vol fan, After the fall of the Alamo, Erastus {Deaf} Smith was sent by Sam Houston to gather particulars on the battle, and he returned with survivor Susannah Dickerson and her baby to Houston's camp, about 1/2 mile south-west of Santa Anna's encampment on the banks of the San Jacinto river. This enabled Houston to get an "eye-witness" account of the events at the Alamo. Hence the battle cry "Remember The Alamo!". At the Battle of San Jacinto, Smith, among other duties, destroyed Vince's bridge, thus blocking any escape routes for Santa Anna and his army from the site of the battle.For a short time after the revolution, Smith commanded a company of Rangers to protect Texas' frontier settlements from Mexican and Indian raids. Deaf Smith retired briefly with his family to Richmond, Texas, before he died on November 30, 1837.Tideman [the proud Texan ]
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    LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    Scrimshaw: Well, to a born and raised Washington State boy, it looked like desert to me. Head outta Killeen toward Copperas Cove about five miles and take a left out into the boonies. Come to think of it, there WERE hills out there; covered with scrub brush and cactus.Ain't that desert?
    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
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    texshootertexshooter Member Posts: 1,002 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    youse yankee boys are funny....by the way, everything north of the red river is yankee land...
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    RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    ...been to Texas many times, one thing is for sure....the "miles" in Texas are defintely longer....Had the opportunity to work with the Texas Rangers a few years ago....now there's a first class bunch of gentlemen.... [This message has been edited by Rembrandt (edited 03-21-2002).]
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    TrinityScrimshawTrinityScrimshaw Member Posts: 9,350 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Lowrider, There is cactus in FL too, but I haven't seen any desert there. Heck I have an uncle who lives in MO, and he has some cactus on his farm, but still no desert. In West Texas there is some places that can pass for desert, but it really isn't a true desert like out West where all the so called Texas western movies were made. AZ and NV is where most of them were filmed. Most people who live up north do not understand how nice the landscape is in Texas. They think it is like in the movies.Trinity+++
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    beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Trinity...better do your homework on California and Hawaii. Beach
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