Texas Tidbits: A Visit from Pancho Villa

Wow! Have we covered a ton of Texas History in the last couple of weeks or what? I kind of wanted to take a break from that for at least a few days to rest my brain. I thought today that we'd take a trip to Nowhere. And by Nowhere, I mean Brewster County located waaaaayyyyy out west, home to Big Bend National Park and the City of Alpine. My maternal Grandmother grew up in Alpine and she would sometimes talk about how life was when she was a child in the late teens and 1920s.

Grandmother once told me a story about a group of Mexican banditos who would occasionally come to her home when she was a little girl. This particular group of men was led by an hombre called Pancho. Pancho Villa. As I remember, she said that Pancho Villa and his men would come for food and water and stuff like that. I don't remember the whole story, but I do remember her saying that Pancho and his men didn't seem like a bunch of bad guys and he and his men treated my Grandmother's family with respect. I'll have to get in touch with my aunt (Grandmother's youngest kid) and see if I can get more details of the story. Anyway, I thought that was the coolest thing when I was a little boy. Pancho Villa! At my Grandmother's house! Wow!

I remember another story that she told me only one time and I never heard another word about it. Grandmother and her family were very devout Catholics, as am I and the rest of the maternal side of my family. The story involved men in white sheets burning a cross on Grandmother's front yard when she was just a small child. Yup. The dickweeds of the KKK did it. Is it just me, or is it ironic that an outlaw like Pancho Villa treated her family with great respect and the "good guys" (excuse me while I go puke) of the Klan would do something as vile as a cross-burning in her front yard simply because they were Catholic? I can only imagine what that must have been like for a little girl to witness such a cowardly yet terrifying thing. Pardon me for a moment while I send a heartfelt, personal message to the boys in the KKK. FUCK YOU AND ROT IN HELL YOU PUSSIES! Other than that, have a nice day, assholes. :) END OF PERSONAL MESSAGE TO THE KLAN. There. I feel better.

My intent when I decided to write about Brewster County was to actually write about Brewster County, but I got so into the stories my Grandmother told me when I was a kid that it kinda veered off in that direction. I was and still am very proud of my Grandmother. She is probably the toughest human being I have ever met, and I have met some dandies, trust me. She was about 5 foot nothin' and about 90 pounds soaking wet and tough as an acre of snakes. I have some more stories from her that I could tell you about but let's save that for another time.

The Southern Tip of Texas

University of Texas at Brownsville

I have always been a sucker for things Mexican - the food, language, tequila, traditions, sense of family, tequila. You get the picture - all that other stuff and tequila. Seriously, I love the culture of our Mexican neighbors. I was thinking, if I want to get a taste of Mexico and still be in the USA, where would be a good place to go? Easy answer. Brownsville. In Brownsville, I'd still be in Texas and get the flavor of Mexico as well. Hell, Matamoros is just across the Rio Grande. The southernmost city in Texas has a population of about 140,000 and a semi-tropical climate that attracts many snowbirds, or Winter Texans or as Texans call them, Yankees. :)  The climate is just one item on the "plus" list for Brownsville. Other pluses include a landscape laden with palm trees, bougainvilleas and comforting Gulf breezes, exotic birds and a zoo that features over 1500 species of animals. Brownsville's recorded history goes back to the 1600's but was settle many years later. According to The Handbook of Texas Online, "In 1781 Spanish authorities granted fifty-nine leagues of land on the northern bank of the river, including all of the site of Brownsville, to José Salvador de la Garza, who established a ranch about sixteen miles northwest of the site. During the early nineteenth century a small number of squatters, most of them herders and farmers from Matamoros, built huts in the area. A small settlement had formed by 1836, when Texas declared her independence from Mexico, but the region was still only sparsely settled when United States troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor arrived in early 1846." THOT has a more detailed history of Brownsville here. Today, as in centuries past, is a major shipping port that brings in goods from all over the world. I guess the most famous thing Brownsville is known for is Spring Break. Enough said. It seems that I have discovered Paradise at the southern tip of Texas, and it called Brownsville.

Plus One: Happy Birthday, Bocephus!

Bad. Ass. Man.

Repost from October, 2010....It's been a great Trip Through Time and Country Music over the last four weeks, but like all things, this too must end. We began our tribute with a bang with Garth Brooks, and now we're gonna end it with a BOOM! 

My favorite artist from any genre of music, bar none, is Hank Williams, Jr. I am very familiar with Hank's trials and tribulations over the years. He has told me about many of them in person, during the three times I had a chance to talk with him. As we drank shots of whiskey and nursed a few beers, Hank related to me one great story after another. Most of them were just general stories about the music biz, his role in it, his Dad (of course) and some other stuff. The one subject that Hank told me about was when on Augusta 8, 1975, he fell almost 500 feet down the side of Ajax Mountain in Montana. He went over the accident that nearly killed him in chilling detail. He probably would have fallen further down the side of the mountain except for one thing - a BFR. A Big Fuckin' Rock. He smashed into it face first into it and it opened his skull like it was on a door hinge, his brain exposed to the elements. Hank was hiking with his buddy, Dick Willey and Willey's son, Pete (I think, his name escapes me) when the accident happened. The senior Willey had to hike several miles back down Ajax to get help, while his son, who was about 10 years old, IIRC, tried to keep Hank awake and alert. The boy prove to be a hero. Hank told that if it hadn't been for the cold weather, he probably would have died right then and there. Two years of reconstructive surgery and rehab, including learning how to talk all over again, followed the fall down Ajax. Amazing story.

Already recorded prior to Hank's accident, was an album called Hank Williams, Jr and Friends. The link provides only clips of the songs, but I urge you to take a minute to listen to them. this album, in my opinion, is the single greatest album ever recorded. It was the single most influential album that initiated the Outlaw Movement in Country Music. I know, I know, Willie and Waylon and all that. I agree that W & W were the ones that popularized Outlaw Country, but Hank, Jr and Friends was before all that. Hank and Friends consists of nine songs that are my life set to music. It's the ultimate Country record. It's that great.

We know what many of Hank's hits are. Below I will list some of his better-known songs and some that aren't. But I promise you, they will all be good, and maybe you'll look at Hank from a different point of view.

• A Country Boy Can Survive - Arguably Hank's most popular song. A classic.
• Family Tradition - Another Bocephus classic.
• I've Got Rights - Justice, country style when the system fails.
• Country State of Mind - If the sun don't come up tomorrow, people I have had a good time.
• The American Way - Blue collar anthem.
• Hotel Whiskey - Clint Black makes a cameo.
• Honky Tonk Women - Hank rocks The Stones.
• Lone Wolf - I no longer run with the pack. 
• Outlaw's Reward - Gospel. Thinking of eternity.
• Whiskey On Ice - Whiskey on ice, women on fire.
• Feelin' Better - Becoming Bocephus. Waylon does harmony. Killer story.
• Blues Man - Bad ass tune. 
• Born to Boogie - Title cut from the 1986 Album of the Year

What a great way to end our tribute to Country Music Month. Hank Williams, Jr, who once had NINE albums in The Top 75 at one time (!), has a ton of YouTube pages with his music on them. Make time to listen to some of Hank's songs that were never released as singles. There's a treasure trove of kick ass Country tunes and songs that paint a vivid image in your mind that I think you'll really like.

Texas Tidbits: Blues, Texas Style: Struck By Lightnin'

Blues. Music that touches and tortures the soul. Music that sings of joy and triumph and, at the same time, despair and tragedy. We all, at one point or another, have experienced the gamut of emotions that is the blues. However, it takes an artist, a Van Gogh with a guitar, a Shakespeare with a song, to make someone feel the blues. One such man was born in Centerville, Texas on March 15, 1912, Sam "Lightnin' " Hopkins. As a young black boy growing up in Centerville (halfway between Dallas and Houston on I-45), Sam was immersed in the blues. At age eight, Sam met a true Blues Man, Blind Lemon Jefferson, at a church picnic in nearby Buffalo. That experience was Sam's baptism into the church of the blues. By the mid 1920's, Hopkins was jumping trains, throwing dice and playing the blues, living the blues. But a decade or so later Lightnin' was imprisoned in Houston County for reasons unclear. After prison, he moved to Houston to get in on the music scene there. Unsuccessful, Sam was soon back in Centerville working as a farm hand. Taking a second shot at Houston in 1946 turned out to be a monumental decision for Hopkins, the blues and, eventually, the world. From then until the early '50's, Lightnin' rarely played outside Texas, but when he did...as the late Paul Harvey said, "Now you know the rest of the story"- playing in countries around the globe, in front of monarchs and poor folks, Hopkins became a legend. On January 30, 1982 in his beloved Houston, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins succumbed to cancer at age 69. Cue the the blues... "Lightnin'" has struck Texas.

It's Our 1st Birthday!!!

It was exactly one year ago today that I put up my first post Three States Plus One. It's difficult to believe that it has actually been a full year since I undertook this task. What's even more amazing is the fact that I am still doing this thing! The blog has changed in many ways since that day that seems like a lifetime ago. For one, the posts are a bit longer therefore allowing me to get more information to you the reader. I knew that would happen when I started the blog, as I was literally feeling my way through the process. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I take that back...I have written some stuff before, but that involved tens of thousands of radio and TV commercials, never a daily article about any chosen subject. Besides, radio and TV commercials are 30 and 60 seconds long requiring few words and, most of the time, just a few minutes of my time. Blogging, on the other hand, can take a few hours just to put one post together, depending on my mood, energy level, the state of my illnesses and whether or not Bailey the 4 Year Old is wound up like a cheap clock or taking a nap. Such is the life as the Head Honcho of the Next Big Blogging Empire.

I'd like to think that, as a blogger, I have grown in my writing and ability to make you a part of the experience I write about. I'll give myself an A- on that, as there is always room for improvement. The template of the blog has changed very little with the exception of the sidebar which gets a makeover every once in a while with new gadgets I find on the internet, but it's pretty much the same as it was on Day One. I am halfway in the mood to redesign the entire page, but that will take more effort that I am willing to put forth at this time...in the near future perhaps, but not now.

On May 24, 2010 all the stats for the blog read "zero". Let's take a look where they stand as of this writing:

• Page views - 24, 075 Total; 462.9 per week; 2006.25 per month; 65.9 per day
• Countries - We are now read in 98 countries around the with the USA, of course, leading the way with 5434 Unique Visitors followed by Canada, 325 and the UK, 192. Our newest country on the list is El Salvador. All told, we have accumulated 6712 Unique Visitors over the last twelve months. 
• States - Three States Plus One is read in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C. Texas easily leads the way in total number of uniques with 1529, followed by Maine, 738 and California, 565.
• Number of Posts - 551

I don't want to bore you with a lot of numbers (and believe me, I could!), I just wanted you to get an idea of how far this blog has come. Despite the brilliant writing, biting humor and scathing satire, it's not my award-worthy writing that makes this thing click, it's you, the reader who are the bread and water, the sustenance if you will of Three States Plus One. I never in my wildest dreams thought that we'd reach such heights in such a short period of time.

I want to humbly thank you for sticking with me for the last year and I hope you'll hang in there with me for Year 2. Your support and acceptance of Three States Plus One has been nothing short of astonishing. I hope in some small way I have taught you something, provoked you to think or made you giggle out loud (or cursed like a sailor) during the past 12 months. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. God bless you and may God continue to bless America.

Adios,
Toby, Benevolent Blog Emporor, TexNetMaine Blogging Empire
threestatesplusone AT gmail DOT com

Looking Back: Texas Declares Independence

A Republic is Born

Today is such an important day to all Texans, that I am going to forego my usual brilliant insight and Nobel-worthy prose, to take a back seat to those who are far more qualified than I to inform you on this 175th Birthday of the Texas Constitution. On March 2, 1836, forty-one men gathered in a shack in Washington-On-The-Brazos and hammered out a document. A document that changed history. It was the Texas Declaration of Independence


"In October 1835, settlers in Mexican Texas launched the Texas Revolution. However, within Texas, many struggled with understanding what was the ultimate goal of the Revolution. Some believed that the goal should be total independence from Mexico, while others sought the reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 (which offered greater freedoms than the centralist government declared in Mexico the prior year).^[1] To settle the issue, a convention was called for March 1836. This convention differed from the previous Texas councils of 1832, 1833, and the 1835 Consultation. Many of the delegates to the 1836 convention were young men who had only recently arrived in Texas, although many of them had participated in one of the battles in 1835. Most of the delegates were members of the War Party and were adamant that Texas must declare its independence from Mexico.^[2] Forty-one delegates arrived in Washington-on-the-Brazos on February 28" says Wikipedia.

If you want to learn as much Texas History as you can in one stop, there are few places, if any, more informative that the archives at Texas A & M University. The Aggies do Texas Independence with the pride and enthusiasm you'd expect from them. From the Aggie Archives we find this on the convention that brought us a Declaration of Independence for Texas.

The Handbook of Texas Online has several interesting links to the Texas Declaration of Independence, so it that would be great place as well.

I know you'll enjoy the Texas History lesson you'll get at any of the links in this post. I'll have more to say later today, so until then...God bless Texas!

A Post Rapture Look Back in Time

Big Bend Sunset

Since we made it through The Rapture, I guess I am obligated to post something today. :) You know, a Rapture just ain't what it used it be. Back when I was a kid, we'd have a Rapture in the morning, then I'd walk five miles uphill to school in the morning, five miles uphill back home after school, then we'd have another Rapture to top off the day. It was brutal, I tell you. We must be importing our Raptures from China these days. Oh, well.....

• The Blizzard of 2010 - The day after Christmas was the beginning of what felt like The Rapture here in Maine. We got hammered with several feet of snow in a weather event that lasted for what seemed like forever. Look back with me at this amazing couple of days and marvel at the power of Mother Nature.
• Lens Master - Bob Zeller is to a camera like a duck is to water -  a Natural.. Check out this post and be shocked and awed. It's beautiful stuff. I promise.
• A Spitfire of a Colorado Woman - Four words: The. Unsinkable. Molly. Brown. Enough said.

A Blogging Note: I am loaded down with Doctor's appointments tomorrow, so I'll be back with new and exciting material for you on Tuesday, which will mark the First Anniversary of my first post on Three States Plus One. That will be a fun day, as we look back at my initial year in blogging and see what has changed about the blog and what has happened in over the past 365 days. There's a lot to talk about, so it'll be a few days celebration with some wonderful recollections and updates. Until then, adios, y'all!