Warm winds blowing Heating blue sky And a road that goes forever Been thinking bout it lately Been watching some tv Been looking all around me At what has come to be Been talking to my neighbour And he agrees with me Its all gone crazy Well my wife returns from taking My little girl to school Shes got beads of perspiration As she tries to keep her cool She says that mess it dont get no better Theres gonna come a day Someones gonna get killed out there And I turn to her and say texas She says what? I said texas She says what? Theyve got big long road out there Warm winds blowing Heating blue sky And a road that goes forever Im going to texas We got to get out of here We got to get out of here Well I got a little brother Several meters high Yea his built just like a quarterback And he swears hell testify He says hes been to texas And thats the only place to be Big stakes, big girls, no trouble there Thats the place for me Im going to texas Im going to texas Watch me walking Watch me walking Chris Rea
Interesting. This raises a secondary question. What do you think is behind that attitude? Is it a past grievance about the fact Atlanta was almost burned to the ground that has caused people to hold onto old attitudes, in defiance perhaps? I guess this goes to the broader question of what causes individuals and groups of individuals to progress past certain worldviews, and what causes people to hang on to certain worldviews for long long periods of time. It’s a very difficult question, but what are your general impressions about what the key factors are in a place like Atlanta?
I think culturally Alberta is closest to Texas. This is ranching country and oil and gas accounts for a huge part of our economy so there are a lot of similarities. There have over the years been rumblings of separatism here too but in Canada that issue is dominated by Quebec. One proposed constitutional amendment, that was eventually defeated, called for Quebec to be entrenched in the constitution as a “distinct society”. It was never clear what this was supposed to mean in practical terms and I’m sure the Supreme Court would have had a lot of fun sorting that out, but the amendment was defeated in the end.
Texas is like 5 separate states- East Texas Gulf Coast South Texas Hill Country West Texas/Dallas-FW We're all Texans but we have different flavors!
Pretty fair overview, Buck. About 90,000 Texans served in the Confederate military during the war. If you consider that in the federal census of 1860, there were 92,145 white males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years living in the state, one can safely say that participation during the war in military operations, either on the frontier of the Southwest, or in the main theatres of the war, was very high. Texans have always been a rather warlike bunch. I've always wished that Texans had listened to Sam Houston. After trying to keep Texas in the Union had become a lost cause, he suggested declaring independence instead joining the Confederacy. It would have been the wise thing to do. Sam was a pretty smart old guy. Central Texas was the hotbed of anti-succession feeling, and it's still the most liberal part of the state, despite the rightwing chumps screwing things up at the Capitol in Austin. One of my ancestors has his name on the monument at San Jacinto. We've been kicking around here for awhile. BTW... Fatty, we can divide ourselves up into five states, not four. I wish Central Texas could become a state. Then we could get a liberal and/or a moderate senator, or two, in Washington. That'd be nice. (of course, they'd be cancelled out, and then some, by loons from the other "states" that would be added as well, no doubt! bummer.) Keep D&D Civil!! And be Texas Proud!
Sure thing Deckerd. I was going off my head on knowledge I learned 10 years ago. Keep D&D civil, yourself, dude.
I do what I can, Fatty, but I'm no saint, and have never claimed to be. It's a reminder for folks here that I've typed, with my two fingers, hundreds of times. Maybe more... don't have a clue. I would like to think it makes a slight difference in the attitude of people in D&D towards each other. Does it? Maybe, maybe no. Keep D&D Civil!!
Thanks, Deck. Mom's from Johnson City & Dad's from Marble Falls and their families have pretty deep roots in the area (young LBJ was a stockboy in my great-grandad's general store in JC - I've seen some "Lyndon" entries in old store ledgers, always thought that was cool - and Papa Crider loaned LBJ some money to help finance his initial political campaigns), so I've always had an interest in the history of that part of the state. Got started as a kid just sitting around listening to the old folks talk & tell stories that the old folks told them when they were kids. Pretty fascinating stuff. Before it was donated to the state, Pedernales Falls State Park was the Wheatley Ranch. My dad was one of their cowboys when he was a teenager, so when he wasn't working, he got pretty much free reign to hunt & fish the entire place. Says he's seen every square inch of the place from the back of a horse. Every time we'd go to the park when I was a kid, he'd b**** about the "damn tourists". If you haven't read it already, you absolutely must read Noah Smithwick's (founded the town of Smithwick in Burnet County) book, The Evolution of a State: Recollections of Old Texas Days http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00398/cah-00398.html Noah Smithwick (1808-1899) was born in North Carolina, trained as a blacksmith, and moved to Texas in 1827. Legal problems drove him from Stephen F. Austin's colony, but he returned to Texas by the time of the Texas Revolution and participated in the Battle of Concepción. Moving to Bastrop, he was soon forced to leave in the face of the Mexican Army during the "Runaway Scrape," eventually arriving at San Jacinto after the decisive battle. With Mexican forces defeated, Smithwick returned to Bastrop and resumed his trade as a blacksmith and gunsmith, and he married Thurza Blakey in 1839. The couple lived in Travis, Williamson, and Burnet Counties, but Smithwick's Union sympathies and secessionist death threats drove the family out of Confederate Texas in 1861. They moved west to Southern California, where he died in Santa Ana in 1899. Check out Steven Harrigan's Gates of the Alamo as well, very accurate historical fiction. An aunt loaned me a copy of Hill Country by Janice Windham, more historical fiction, but I haven't researched it enough to know if it's worth reading. Undoubtedly many served willingly, but many didn't exactly have a choice, or joined for other reasons. As you said, Texans have always liked a good fight. The book Cold Mountain did a good job outlining what happened to "consciencous objectors" in the Confederacy. They either got conscripted or killed. Union sympathizers faced the same fate. From what I've read, a good number of Texan Confederate soldiers stayed in Texas as replacements for the US Army troops that manned the frontier forts as protection from Indians. No kidding. My favorite ancestor is Confederate General Henry Sibley. Described as quite possibly the worst and most incompetent General on either side in the Civil War. An unconscious drunk most days, so the stories go. He led a Confederate "Texas Brigade" on an invasion of New Mexico (WTF?!?) that was a disaster. Got courtmarshalled shortly thereafter. Simply awesome. He did, however, invent the "Sibley Stove" and tent combo, used by both sides in the Civil War & by the US Army up through WWI. So he did do at least one useful thing in his life.
Great stuff, Buck. I've read Harrigan's Gates of the Alamo, which , like you, I highly recommend. I haven't read Smithwick's work, at least I don't remember reading it. I'll have to pick that up. And you are too right about what happened to those who opposed joining the Confederate military. The outcome was most unpleasant all too often. What is it with Texans invading New Mexico, and anywhere else they can come up with? We've always been eager for a fight, but frequently damned haphazard about doing it. Black beans, anyone?? One has to be fascinated about what our history might have been had we remained independent. I have visions of Republic of Texas expeditions to Cuba, Mexico, various parts of Central America, the northern coast of South America... and if we'd gained access to the Pacific, god help us all! Sounds like you've had a hell of an interesting family. That's a Texas tradition we should all hope to continue. We seem to have a knack for creating great things from small beginnings. Keep D&D Civil!!
