Some places where I’ve been
March 9, 2010 (Tuesday)
When I was in college, I enjoyed wearing western boots, jeans and a denim jacket. There was no reason-I just liked wearing those clothes at times. The jeans and jacket were very cheap in those days. The cost of the boots for each year I wore them was also very cheap, because I kept them a long, long time. Back then, college kids liked cheap stuff, needed cheap stuff. So a few memories came back to me on February 28 when we observed “Go Texan” day at the Timbergrove Baptist Church in Houston. I’ve been devoid of western stuff for many years, so I bought a western shirt and some new jeans that fit a little better than the ones I already had. No boots, but I borrowed a string tie from Troy, just for the morning at church. I have several of those ties that folks have given me through the years, and they are really nice, but they were in Rockport. Anyway, the point of all this is that I did not feel any more like a Texan than I already did. I am a Texan. My ancestors came from Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England, and finally arrived in Texas via New York, Minnesota, California, Arkansas, and maybe somewhere else too. But I was born in Texas and never lived in any other state. In fact, I’ve hardly ever been out of the state. For the first 18 years of my life, I never left Houston except for a few brief visits to Lufkin, Keltys and Clawson, to visit with our East Texas kin. When I was in high school, I went on a special train one time to Beaumont to see a football game in a driving storm. Later I took another special train to Fort Worth to see another football game with my friends. I also went on a special bus to San Antonio to participate in a speech contest. I don’t think I ever spent more than one night at a time out of town, including the nights my dad and I spent fishing at Freeport.
When I went away to college, I lived in Marshall, then in Waco. I stayed overnight and through weekends in Groesbeck. Spent a little time in Keys Valley (now lying under Lake Belton), Prairie Point near Groesbeck, then became pastor at Oletha, where I spent more time and found my wife. After Waco, there was Cleburne, Fort Worth and Lampasas, then back to Fort Worth where I was determined to get through the seminary, but not before moving out to Briar, between Azle and Boyd. After that, they gave me a degree and we moved to Kosse, then Dallas, and finally to Rockport. All Texas places. Like a salmon swimming upstream to the place where he came into the world, I finally made it back to Houston, but not before spending some time in Refugio and Ingleside, besides preaching here and there in places like Beeville, Stockdale, Portland and Corpus Christi. Hey, ya’ll, ahm uh Texan. Oh, and I preached in California, Oregon, Ohio, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and sang or preached in revival meetings all over Texas, as well as Okinawa, where I preached to soldiers bound for Vietnam. And I preached for a week in Jamaica. But all those places were very brief visits. I’ve spent my life in Texas. So, pardners, ya’ll come to see us. We’ll put the big pot in the little ‘un and have us a real good time. Ah ‘speck ya’ll have heard that before.
The Houston rodeo is goin’ great guns r’at now. Didja guess that already?