As a young girl, I had a certain impression of what Texas was all about. Both of my brothers attended Letourneau College, which is near Longview. We visited several times. I remember flying into Dallas, and being struck by the huge flatness and dust. It was very different from the green Catskill mountains of New York, where I grew up. I never really "thought" of living there. It was far away, and different, like another country.
Several years ago, my husband and I watched Lonesome Dove, and then we read all of Larry McMurtry's books about Lonesome Dove. They awakened another vision of the Big Land. One of a hundred years ago, where buffalo and Comanchees roamed and reigned. A wild land of extreme temperatures, and the newly formed Texas Rangers. I have to admit that Gus McCrae will always be one of my favorite heroes.
During this time, I really got into the whole vintage cowboy thing for a while. I remembered a vinyl record of cowboy ballads we listened to as kids, we all loved it. I found the download on amazon, it has classics like "Blood on the Saddle", and "Jack of Diamonds" on it. I listened to Johnny Cash and Mary Robbins all of the time, too. My favorite song, which every cowboy must sing is the "Streets of Laredo", ironically I just discovered it was originally an old Irish ballad, and has quite a few versions, or tales written for the tune. The version below is awesome with the cartoons of a pig, but more importantly, all of the verses I knew as a child are in there.
So, to continue my ramblings, and to get off of my rabbit trail, I appreciate the history and adventure of the state, and now with the prospect of possibly living there for a while, it means a little more.
First of all, after some online research, it appears that the state is greener than I thought.
There are fields of flowers, the Bluebonnet is the state flower, I believe.
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