It's not like this is the first time it's happened... Sheriff Humpy Parker would be proud. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1995_1282335 This is not unique to Texas, should we compare the history of Texas vs. New York police malfeasance?
No harm intended. Just kidding with you. We Texans don't want some New York guy talking bad about our state. I lived in deep East Texas for many years, and that area of the state has never been known as culturally progressive. Tenaha is no exception.
At least this is an honest representation of what most smalltown police forces really are - they're revenue collectors. Smalltown police forces are basically the local mafia. I don't know if any of you have been pulled over recently, but the "Driver Responsibility Program" is basically bureaucratized extortion. At least this is direct and no one's trying to convince anyone that it's some legitimate extension of the law.
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair by Archie P. McDonald, PhD Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair are communities in Shelby County whose names were appropriated for a plea by crapshooters for good luck when seeking to roll double fives. Similarly, dice throwers hoping for an "eight" would sing out, "Eighter from Decatur, the County Seat of Wise." Later the alliteration in the sing-song phrase "Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair" helped a folk song recorded by Tex Ritter popular. How did the communities become involved with dice and popular music? Robert S. Maxwell's history of the first railroad in East Texas, Whistle In the Piney Woods: Paul Bremond and the Houston, East and West Texas Railway, offers several accounts. First, some believe that stringing the town names together began during World War I when soldiers in a National Guard Unit composed of men from Shelby County discarded the familiar cadence of "hup, two, three, four" for "Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair," their home towns. Dice players took up the chant, according to advocates of this explanation. Others argue that the popularity of the saying began from a porter in Houston announcing the departure of a train on the Houston, East and West Texas line. The porter called out the various destinations along the way to Shreveport, and the alliteration of "Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair" made it a favorite of passengers. Maxwell claims that the song had little to do with the HE&WT other than through the recording by Ritter that made the towns and the railroad line famous. Courtesy of Dr. Francis E. Abernethy, director of the Texas Folklore Society, here are some verses of the song: On the HE--WT line, Old East Texas sure looks fine Drop me off just anywhere (near) Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair Here those drivers pound the rails, Takin' me back to Texas trails, Bought my ticket, paid my fair, Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair Whooooo, waiting for the whistle, Whooooo, when you hear the whistle, It means that the stations not so far, From where we are, Let'er highball, engineer, Pull that throttle, track is clear, There's a gal just waitin' there, Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair. The HE&WT also was said to stand for "Hell Either Way Taken," but that is another story. http://www.texasescapes.com/DEPARTM...istorical/TenahaTimpsonBoboBlairTx1AMD101.htm
