For all you Texans out there!

[Slappie 9]

Dear Friends,
Last year, I wrote a small piece about what it means
to me to be a Texan. My friends know it means about
damned near everything. Anyway, this fella asked me
to reprint what I'd wrote and I didn't have it. So I
set out to think about rewriting something. I
considered writing about all the great things I love
about Texas. There are way too many things to list.
I can't even begin to do it justice.
Lemme let you in on my short list. It starts with
The Window at Big Bend, which in and of itself is
proof of God. It goes to Lake Sam Rayburn where my
Grandad taught me more about life than fishin, and
enough about fishin to last a lifetime. I can talk
about Tyler, and Longview, and Odessa and Cisco, and
Abilene and Poteet and every place in between. Every
little part of Texas feels special. Every person who
ever flew the Lone Star thinks of Bandera or Victoria
or Manor or wherever they call "home" as the best
little part of the best state.
So I got to thinkin about it, and here's what I really
want to say. Last year, I talked about all the great
places and great heroes who make Texas what it is. I
talked about Willie and Waylon and Michael Dell and
Michael DeBakey and my Dad and LBJ and Denton Cooley.
talked about everybody that came to mind. It took me
sitting here tonight reading this stack of emails and
thinkin about where I've been and what I've done since
the last time I wrote on this occasion to remind me
what it is about Texas that is really great.
You see, this last month or so I finally went to
Europe for the first time. I hadn't ever been, and
didn't too much want to. But you know all my damned
friends are always talking about "the time they went
to Europe." So, I finally went. It was a hell of a
trip to be sure. All they did when they saw me was
say the same thing, before they'd ever met me. "Hey
cowboy, we love Texas." I guess the hat tipped em
off.
But let me tell you what, they all came up with a
smile on their faces. You know why? They knew for
damned sure that I was gonna be nice to em. They
knew it cause they knew I was from Texas. They knew
something that hadn't even hit me. They knew Texans,
even though they'd never met one. That's when it
occurred to me. Do you know what is great about
Texas? Do you know why when my friend Beverly and I
were trekking across country to see 15 baseball
games we got sick and had to come home after 8? Do
you know why every time I cross the border I say,
"Lord, please don't let me die in _____"?
Do you know why children in Japan can look at a
picture of the great State and know exactly what it
is about the same time they can tell a rhombus from
a trapezoid? I can tell you that right quick. You.
The same spirit that made 186 men cross that line in
the sand in San Antonio damned near 165 years ago is
still in you today. Why else would my friend send me
William Barrett Travis' plea for help in an email
just a week ago, or why would Charles Stanfield ask
me to reprint a Texas Independence column from a year
ago? What would make my friend Elizabeth say, "I
don't know if I can marry a man who doesn't love Texas
like I do?" Why in the hell are 1,000 people coming to
my house this weekend to celebrate a holiday for what
used to be a nation that is now a state? Because the
spirit that made that nation is the spirit that burned
in every person who founded this great place we call
Texas, and they passed it on through blood or sweat to
every one of us.
You see, that spirit that made Texas what it is is
alive in all of us, even if we can't stand next to a
cannon to prove it, and it's our responsibility to
keep that fire burning. Every person who ever put a
"Native Texan" or an "I wasn't born in Texas but I
got here as fast as I could" sticker on his car
understands. Anyone who ever hung a map of Texas on
their wall or flew a Lone Star flag on their porch
knows what I mean. My Dad's buddy Bill has an old
saying. He says that some people were forged of a
hotter fire. Well, that's what it is to be Texan. To
be forged of a hotter fire. To know that part of
Colorado was Texas. That part of New Mexico was
Texas. That part of Oklahoma was Texas. Yep. Talk
all you want. Part of what you got was what we gave
you. To look at a picture of Idaho or Istanbul and
say, "what the Hell is that?" when you know that
anyone in Idaho or Istanbul who sees a picture of
Texas knows damned good and well what it is. It
isn't the shape, it isn't the state, it's the state
of mind.
You're what makes Texas. The fact that you would
take 15 minutes out of your day to read this,
because that's what Texas means to you, that's what
makes Texas what it is. The fact that when you see
the guy in front of you litter you honk and think,
"Sonofabitch. Littering on MY highway."
When was the last time you went to a person's house
in New York and you saw a big map of New York on
their wall? That was never. When did you ever drive
through Oklahoma and see their flag waving on four
businesses in a row? Can you even tell me what the
flag in Louisiana looks like? I damned sure can't.
But I bet my ass you can't drive 20 minutes from
your house and not see a business that has a big
Texas flag as part of its logo. If you haven't done
business with someone called AllTex something or
Lone Star somebody or other, or Texas such and such,
you hadn't lived here for too long.
When you ask a man from New York what he is, he'll
say a stockbroker, or an accountant, or an ad exec.
When you ask a woman from California what she is,
she'll tell you her last name or her major. Hell
either of em might say "I'm a republican," or they
might be a democrat. When you ask a Texan what they
are, before they say, "I'm a Methodist," or "I'm a
lawyer," or "I'm a Smith," they tell you they're a
Texan. I got nothin against all those other places,
and Lord knows they've probably got some fine folks,
but in your gut you know it just like I do, Texas is
just a little different.
So tomorrow when you drive down the road and you see
a person broken down on the side of the road, stop
and help. When you are in a bar in California, buy a
Californian a drink and tell him it's for Texas
Independence Day. Remind the person in the cube
next to you that he wouldn't be here enjoying this
if it weren't for Sam Houston, and if he or she
doesn't know the story, tell them.
When William Barrettt Travis wrote in 1836 that he
would never surrender and he would have Victory or
Death, what he was really saying was that he and his
men were forged of a hotter fire. They weren't your
average every day men. Well, that is what it means
to be a Texan. It meant it then, and that's why it
means it today. It means just what all those people
North of the Red River accuse us of thinking it
means. It means there's no mountain that we can't
climb. It means that we can swim the Gulf in the
winter. It means that Earl Campbell ran harder and
Houston is bigger and Dallas is richer and Alpine is
hotter and Stevie Ray was smoother and God vacations
in Texas. It means that come Hell or high water,
when the chips are down and the Good Lord is
watching, we're Texans by damned, and just like in
1836, that counts for something. So for today at
least, when your chance comes around, go out and
prove it. It's true because we believe it's true. If
you are sitting wondering what the Hell I'm talking
about, this ain't for you. But if the first thing
you are going to do when the Good Lord calls your
number is find the men who sat in that tiny mission
in San Antonio and shake their hands, then you're
the reason I wrote this tonight, and this is for
you. So until next time you hear from me, God Bless
and Happy Texas Independence Day.
Writen by Bum Phillips the old coach of the Houston Oilers
Gota jump baybay!! Blue Skies!

[Slappie 9]

I never knew how long it was till I posted it! sheeeeeeeesh sorry for the story all....
But still it's a good one for Texans heheheheh...
Gota jump baybay!! Blue Skies!

[spectre230 0]

[freaksister 0]

too long. can't read it. when i'm sober i will. faster to post response than to read.hugs,
sis
I don't want the meaning of life, I want the experience of being alive!

[PhreeZone 20]

Sis, are you drinking alone again?
Do I HAVE to do another raft dive???

• Quote

[ramon 0]

No Offence to the Yankee skydivers but
I always forget how nice Southerners are till I go up North.
Skydive Chicago was great and the people basically nice, but the morons working in and around Ottawa restaurants and hotels.......ha ha ha ha. rude and stupid.
The difference in service at a fast food joint in Illinois and Arkansas was amazing.
at least service industry southerners are polite and caring.
bloo skies
ramon

[PLFKING 4]

I used to live in Texas, and still have friends in Mineral Wells and Grapevine......
1) Bum Phillips never did get that door kicked down....
2) Spectre 230, the way I heard it, you buried him in a coffee cup.....I think you're giving them WAY too much credit !
The PLF Maggot

[hottamaly 1]

Spectre230 dude, you make me LOL. How did you know I was asking my self that same question? I got stuck (no offence) in Houston for 5 years and finally had to get married to get OUT. But the weather here lateley makes me think I'm back there. The humidity was the catalist in my rapid departure. The only time I would go to such lengths in describeing something I loved, I'd have to be talking about paradise. Only that is worth the pages.
SKYDIVING GAVE ME A REASON TO LIVE....

[freeflir29 0]

I'm not normally a Texas basher but I can't resist. Are the Oilers still in Houston?
My drivers license and citizenship is in Montana so I think I fall in neutral on this one. I did grow up in Georgia so it makes me a southerner mostly. It's just that the mountains are too small and there are no Elk and the trout fishing here sucks.
"I used to know a girl...She had two pierced nipples and a black tattoo"-Everclear
Clay

[Bearcat 0]

Awesome stuff. Never knew how much I missed Texas until I got transferred. But, I'll make my way back, somehow, someday.............. Go Texas!!
Bear

[Slappie 9]

Well I have to say, I've enjoyed the posts.... even specs LOL and it's a MATCHBOX not a shoe box DuH!!
Gota jump baybay!! Blue Skies!

[freaksister 0]

Ok - sober now, and I read it. Pretty DURN cool!!
I am a native Texan...I've lived other places but always seem to come back here. We'll see what happens in the future!
I do have a map of Texas on the wall!!
Sis (haha! Pammi started talking like me while we were at Quincy!!) heheehe
I don't want the meaning of life, I want the experience of being alive!