In those days, most everyone in my California circle - myself especially - generally believed that all Texans were cowboys, oilmen, or country music performers; that everyone rode horses to work, had big hats and ranches, and cactus bloomed everywhere. We had seriously stereotyped images of "Texas", that might seem comical now, of a dry hot barren, foreboding desert with circling buzzards – a place to avoid.
If I owned Texas and Hell...
I'd rent out Texas, and live in Hell!
General Philip Henry Sheridan 1866 2
'Berdoo' folks know about living in heat, so we could appreciate Texas as just being a dang hot place to live. We thought everyone there lived like the Dynasty TV series:3 business men were like the character 'JR Ewing'4 and everyone was a spur jangling redneck or roustabout or worse. All of which pretty much encapsulated everything we thought we knew about Texas.
Those were simple times.
The PC, and mass communication devices were 30 years off. You only knew the latest stuff from radio, and TV (3 stations). We had rotary corded, or public pay phones: the cordless home phone didn’t exist yet, and it's still 25 years before cell phones. Digital had not happened yet! There were no pocket calculators only slide rules. No instant worldwide communications – except expensive trans-oceanic phone calls. It will be 4-5 years yet for Monterrey Pop and Woodstock, and the moon landing.5
It was a simpler time, but we had certainty in what we knew. Texas, seemed like it was a whole 'nother country.
As I was chatting my lady friend, I was eager and extremely curious how my 'Hippie from California'6 was making out in the dreaded land of her redneck family. I asked, 'What is there to do in Texas?' Her reply was a classic:
In this heat, our biggest excitement is
laying awake at night just listening to the grass die!
After many, many life adventures, 50+ years later, I now find myself very happily living in Texas, as a 'T-I-C' (Texas Improved Californian). I have a wonderful 1 acre ranch and house, with a fabulously landscaped lawn, and beautiful pool ! As I write this, it's now deep gulf coast summer, and the lawn is getting pretty well baked, in spite of daily watering.
As I was studying the situation recently – and fretting about the lawn, I suddenly burst out laughing ... recalling my friends comment from lo those many years ago ! In a flash, I had finally evolved enough to appreciate the depth of that 50 year old observation!
Nowadays, even in the midst of this particularly hot summer, I really do enjoy sitting out on the veranda overlooking the pool, watching the birds at the feeders, relaxing in my lovely and tranquil yard and gardens .. very park like. It IS a 'whole 'nother country'!
When answering the phone, and asked what I'm doing, I often I tell folks .. “I'm jus' watching the pool evaporate”, but you know, I'm secretly trying to suss if I can hear the grass die!!
This brings an inner smile of course, glowing at how serendipitously all this has converged. It's been a very long road from California to Texas, materializing over a 50 year arc: Texas having – realistically - changed from mysterious far off land to – literally, a wonderful piece of paradise !
T for Texas,
T for Tennessee
...
any ol' place I hang my hat
is home sweet home to me!
Jimmie Rodgers – The Yodeling Brakeman - 1920's7
References
- San Bernardino, California has many informal nicknames: San Berdoo, S.B.D., S.B., San B., Dino, San Bernas, and Berdoo are the most common
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino,_California - General Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888)
1866 his quip was widely reported:
"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan - Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981, to May 11, 1989.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty_(1981_TV_series) -
John Ross "J. R." Ewing Jr. is a fictional character in the American television series Dallas (1978–91) and its spin-offs, including the revived Dallas series (2012–14). The character was portrayed by Larry Hagman from the series premiere in 1978 until his death in late 2012, and Hagman was the only actor who appeared in all 357 episodes of the original series. As the show's most famous character, J.R. has been central to many of the series' biggest storylines. He is depicted as a covetous, egocentric, manipulative and amoral oil baron with psychopathic tendencies, who is constantly plotting subterfuges to plunder his foes' wealth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Ewing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hagman - List of Pre-Digital Communications and Technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Pop_Festival
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11 - A hippie (sometimes spelled hippy) is a member of the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie - James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933) was an American singer-songwriter and musician in the early 20th century, known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Rodgers, along with his contemporaries the Carter Family, was among the first country music stars, cited as an inspiration by many artists and an inductee into numerous halls of fame. Rodgers was also known as "The Singing Brakeman", "The Blue Yodeler", and "The Father of Country Music".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Rodgers_(country_singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Yodel_(songs_by_Jimmie_Rodgers)
No comments:
Post a Comment