Eggs Laid by Tigers
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Forefathers; court houses; barbeque
Beautiful, beautiful Texas
Where the beautiful bluebonnets grow,The land of our forefathersWho died at the Alamo.You may live on the plains or the mountainsOr down where the seabreezes blow.But you'll still be in beautiful TexasThe most beautiful place that I know"
A dear friend and vigorous Texan recently sent the the words to this song, which we used to sing in school, without a thought what "forefathers" might mean.
But I wonder, Whose forefathers? Mine were somewhere in South Carolina or Mississippi. I suppose others were in Arkansas. Many of my classmates no doubt thought of their forefathers as coming from Mexico, since most of my classmates recently were from Mexico; and the Alamo would have a very different meaning for them, if any thought of the meaning of the words. I wonder if any did.
I wonder if the song is still sung. Perhaps time or political correctness has eroded its popularity.
"forefather": a member of one's family or people.
P.s., while looking up Texas militias, I ran across this wonderful pic of the courthouse in Denton:
It reminds me of the courthouse in Gonzales,
on the road from Austin to Raymondville just before a tin shack that sat on the side on the road. That tin shack had the best barbecue ever known to mankind. It still lies on my tongue, 60 years later.
I would ride that road and eat that barbecue again, under a sun that is young once only. I tear a little.
Silly old man.
Texas Governor Rik Perry, Secession, Militias, and Bluebonnets
Texas Governor Rik Perry doesn't know his Texas history. He says that Texas reserved the right to secede from the Union when it joined. Wrong! Texas reserved the right to divide into five States, thereby giving it's various citizens 10 Senators instead of just two, making sure that the Senate becomes even less representative than it now is; and would have done so even when I was young, except that no one could agree on which of the new states would get
the Alamo.
But I don't think there will be any one loser, since, under the Constitution, Hussein Obama is the commander in chief of all militias.
South Texas, to my mind, has he better claim on the Alamo, since vastly more of South Texas' forefathers fought at the Alamo. But East Texas, where my father's family hails from, also has a claim, since probably more of its forefathers fought in the Alamo. I don't see that West Texas, the Panghadle, or the Gulf has much of a claim at all, but I suppose the folks who live in those parts of the State would disagreed with me.
There is a way to settle this dispute that Rik might like. Each of the five areas could form a militia, and the five militias could fight it out. Atomics would have to be outlawed, unless someone were losing.
The idea of regional militias in Texas is not farfetched, except perhaps in South Texas. A quick internet search comes up with these:
The Army of the Republic of Texas
Knowing Hussein as I do (my daughter's girlfriend may have dated him, after all) he would find it necessary to be scrupulously fair to all, resulting in the death all combatants,
leaving only Friend Nan's beautiful bluebonnets . . . .
and her equally glorious Indian paint brushes (I guess you Texians [maternal grandmother's spelling, very old, very correct] still call them that), in a grove of live oak, or I miss my guess.
to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic loverthou answerestthem only withspring
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