MooPig FWD Email :: "Texas"

You Might Find Texas Peculiar
Captured by Pat Darnell  |  Feb 26, 2013  |  Bryan TX

Only in Texas...

Love the sun?
Sun City, Texas 78628
Sunrise, Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray, Texas 79086
Sunny Side, Texas 77423

Want something to eat?
Bacon, Texas 76301
Noodle, Texas 79536
Oatmeal, Texas 78605
Turkey, Texas 79261
Trout, Texas 75789
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice, Texas 75155
Pearland, Texas 77581
Orange, Texas 77630
And top it off with:
Sweetwater, Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!
Detroit, Texas 75436
Cleveland, Texas 75436
Colorado City, Texas 79512
Denver City, Texas 79323
Klondike, Texas 75448
Pittsburg , Texas 75686
Newark , Texas 76071
Nevada, Texas 75173

Memphis, Texas 79245
Miami, Texas 79059
Boston, Texas 75570
Santa Fe, Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861
Reno, Texas 75462
Pasadena, Texas 77506
Columbus, Texas 78934

[Pictures of Firehouse and Bank in Italy, Texas]

Just Texas
Pep, Texas 79353
Smiley , Texas 78159
Paradise, Texas 76073
Rainbow, Texas 76077
Sweet Home, Texas 77987
Comfort , Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Feel like traveling outside the country?
Athens , Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China , Texas 77613
Dublin , Texas 76446
Egypt, Texas 77436
Ireland, Texas 76538
Italy, Texas 76538
Turkey, Texas 79261
London, Texas 76854
New London, Texas 75682
Paris, Texas 75460
Palestine, Texas 75801

No need to travel to Washington DC
Whitehouse, Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!
Earth , Texas 79031

We have a city named after our state:
Texas City , Texas 77590

Exhausted?
Energy , Texas 76452

Cold?
Blanket , Texas 76432
Winters, Texas 79567

Like to read about History?
Santa Anna , Texas 76878
Goliad , Texas 77963
Alamo , Texas 78516
Gun Barrel City , Texas 75156
Robert Lee , Texas 76945

Need Office Supplies?
Staples, Texas 78670

Want to go into outer space?
Venus , Texas 76084
Mars , Texas 79062

You guessed it. It's on the state line.
Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids...
Kermit, Texas 79745
Elmo, Texas 75118
Nemo, Texas 76070
Tarzan, Texas 79783
Winnie, Texas 77665
Sylvester, Texas 79560

Other city names in Texas, to make you smile......
Frognot, Texas 75424
Bigfoot, Texas 78005
Hogeye, Texas 75423
Cactus, Texas 79013
Notrees, Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest, Texas 76886
Kickapoo, Texas 75763
Dime Box, Texas 77853
Old Dime Box, Texas 77853
Telephone, Texas 75488
Telegraph, Texas 76883
Whiteface, Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

The Anti-Al Gore City
Kilgore, Texas 75662

[Book LINK]

And our favorites...
Cut and Shoot, Texas 77303
Gun Barrel City , Texas 75147
Ding Dong, Texas
West, Texas (it's in Central Texas)
And, of course,
Mule Shoe , Texas 79347

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas

If someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Texas;

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas;

If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas;

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas;

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas;

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas;

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas;

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph --you're going 80, and everybody's passing you, you may live in Houston, Texas;

If you find 60 degrees 'a little chilly,' you may live in Brownsville, Texas;

If you actually understand these jokes, and share them with all your Texas friends, you definitely have lived in Texas.

Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas :
1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742miles

2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles

3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas

4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos , July 4, 1883.

5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water. Destroyed by Hurricane Ike - 2008!

6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston , Texas .

7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America .

8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.

9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
10. The worst natural disaster in US history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island
11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was " Houston ," but the Space Center was actually in Clear Lake City at the time.

12. The King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .

13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a US rainfall record of 43" in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.

14. Texas is the only state to enter the US by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) instead of by annexation.
This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the US Flag, and Texas may choose to divide into 5 states.

15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.

16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.

18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the Brazos, Harrisburg , Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia, and Austin .

19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the US which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington , DC (by 7 feet).

20. The San Jacinto Monument is the tallest free standing monument in the world and it is taller than the Washington Monument .

21. The name ' Texas ' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning "friends". Tejas is not Spanish for Texas .

22. The State Mascot is the Armadillo. An interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies.

They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.

23. The first domed stadium in the US was the Astrodome in Houston .

Masons at the Alamo; Yellow Rose of Texas; Hats Off Please

Who Were The Masons?
The Masons belong to a fraternal organization whose membership has included many famous founders of both the United States and Texas.

The first attempt to establish Masonry in Texas came in 1828 when Stephen F. Austin and six other Masons attempted to obtain a charter from the Grand York Lodge of Mexico. Their request was not granted.

In 1835, Dr. Anson Jones and five other Masons met secretly in Brazoria to draft a request to the Grand Lodge of Louisiana for a charter. The Grand Master there, John Henry Holland, granted their request, and the lodge was named in his honor -- the Holland Lodge. The lodge was moved to Houston in 1837.

Later that same year, Texas Masons formed the Grand Lodge of Texas and returned the charters of the three existing lodges to Louisiana. Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, was elected the first Grand Master.

Many Masons participated in the struggle for Texas independence. Many Texas military and political leaders were Masons, including: Stephen F. Austin, Edward Burleson, Benjamin Rush Milam, Juan Seguín, Sam Houston, David G. Burnet, Lorenzo de Zavala, Thomas Rusk, Mirabeau B. Lamar, John A. Wharton, and James W. Fannin.

• See the following informational chart at link to click on, from James David Carter's Masonry in Texas: Background, History, and Influence to 1846 (p. 289), reveals the extent of Mason involvement in the battles of the Texas Revolution. click http://www.thealamo.org/asked.html#thirteen

Masons at the Alamo included James B. Bonham, James Bowie, David Crockett, Almeron Dickinson, and William B. Travis.

Masons continued to play a significant leadership role in the Republic of Texas. According to The New Handbook of Texas (2:1169):

"Although constituting only about 1_% of the population [of Texas], Masons
filled some 80 percent of the republic's higher offices. All of the presidents,
vice presidents, and secretaries of state were Masons."
Alamo Lodge No. 44, honored by a plaque on the south wall of the Long Barrack, was granted a charter from the Grand Lodge of Texas on January 15, 1848. The Master of the Lodge was Captain James H. Ralston, an Assistant Quartermaster of U.S. Volunteers. Born in Kentucky, Captain Ralston resided in Illinois at the time he received his commission, which he held from June 26, 1846 until March 3, 1849. Original members of the Lodge were mainly army officers who were already Masons. The Lodge held its meetings for several months in an upper-story room of the Long Barrack until it moved into its own hall on Alamo Plaza on June 24, 1848. [24]

Who Was The Yellow Rose?
The story of the Yellow Rose of Texas is one of the most enduring myths of the Texas Revolution. According to the legend, Sam Houston sent an attractive mulatto slave named Emily Morgan into the Mexican camp prior to the Battle of San Jacinto to distract Santa Anna while the Texian Army readied its attack. Santa Anna, who was known to be fond of the company of women, supposedly took the young Emily into his tent, and thus preoccupied, let down his guard.

In this version of the battle, Emily Morgan played the role of an 1830s M'atta Houri, enabling the Texians to gain victory at the expense of her virtue.

The story gained popularity in the 1950s with the revival of the song The Yellow Rose of Texas.

Historians, however, doubt the facts behind the legend. Historian Margaret Swett Henson points out that Emily Morgan was actually Emily D. West, a free woman of color under contract to James Morgan. Mexican troops seized Emily along with several other servants from Morgan's warehouse at New Washington on the Brazos River.

Henson contends that although Emily West was at Santa Anna's camp on the banks of the San Jacinto River, she had not gone there willingly nor had she been sent by Sam Houston. It appears that Emily West returned to New York, her permanent place of residence, shortly after the revolution.

Who Owns The Alamo?

The Alamo is owned by the State of Texas and operated by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Although many believe that Alamo is only the church, or Shrine, it is actually a 4.162 acre complex composed of original structures dating back to the mission period, a gift museum, a library, meeting hall, support facilities, and gardens.

Why Are Men Asked To Remove Their Hats?

This tradition at the Alamo dates to 1913 when the Daughters of the Republic of Texas first placed a sign at the entrance which read: "Gentleman on entering the Alamo will please remove their hats, and all visitors will speak in low tones, in recognition of the sacredness of this shrine." Removing one's hat is a sign of respect.

References

Text: (retrieved entirely from: http://www.thealamo.org/asked.html#thirteen )

Picture: (retrieved from: http://library.tamu.edu/tamu/production/Library/images/Collections/Alamo2.jpg ) This painting was produced as the backdrop for the opening credits to the 1960 movie "The Alamo," starring John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and Laurence Harvey.
It was given to Texas A&M by John Wayne on behalf of Frederick T. Graham and the members of Squadron 14, Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, class of 1963. It can be viewed at the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives.