A true Texas fact

woodman6415

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Today is Monday, September 18, 2017

Today in
Texas History

1865 - John B. Stetson designed the first real cowboy hat. The Texas Rangers wore it for its versatility and durability.

1933 - At Monument Hill, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas dedicated a new vault.

1929 - Julius Myers died in San Antonio, TX. He is considered the last town crier in America.

1944 - At Best, Holland, Lt. Robert G. Cole was killed by a sniper during "Operation Market Garden." He was rewarded a Medal of Honor for his heroic actions the previous day.

1944 - In the Palau Islands, Charles Howard Roan jumped on a grenade to save his comrades. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. A Texas historical marker was placed on his family plot in the cemetery in Claude, TX.

1962 - The American League held a meeting in New York to explore the possibilities of major league baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Although the idea was deemed worthy, league owners rejected Kansas City A's owner Charley Finley's attempt to move his team to the metroplex.

Texas Quote

In the covered wagon days, if a baby was born in Texarkana while the family was crossing into the Lone Star State, by the time they reached El Paso, the baby would be in the third grade.
- Wallace O. Chariton
 

woodman6415

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The Texas Quote of the Day is the text of a newspaper article from Canyon, Texas on January, 31, 1891 and it sure is interestin':

"Some fool started the report that a gang of Indians numbering about five hundred stampeded from the nation and struck Saulsbery [Salisbury] "all spradled out" and painted the town crimson by killing twenty odd persons and burning the town on last Thursday night. When the report first reached Canyon the people here gave it little credit, but as all kinds of blood-curdling reports kept coming in our people commenced to take things a little more serious, and when the stage driver arrived here Saturday at 10 a.m. he told the thing more scary than ever and said that reports reached Amarillo just before he left that the state rangers were fighting the Indians and that two or three of the rangers had been killed. He further said the redskins were making for the Tule and would very likely cross the canyons at this place. The story was then believed by all of our citizens and they began to make ready to fight Indians.

Runners were sent out in all portions of the county and by three o'clock in the afternoon the town was alive with armed men - the women and children being placed in the courthouse as a place of safety. Heavy lumber was secured and a breastworks made on all sides and the men walked around town waiting for "the little thing to take place." In the meanwhile Sheriff Wise and Jas. Patton were dispatched to Amarillo to find out anything they could in regard to the way the Indians were moving. They returned home about sundown and reported the whole thing a farce and not a word of truth in the report. Our citizens then stacked arms and once more breathed easy. Quite a number of men here took their wives and children to Amarillo. Everyone was badly scared and there is no use denying the fact. It is a strange thing how such reports can get out and carried so far without any foundation whatever."

------ John Edgell, Canyon City Echo, January 31, 1891
 

woodman6415

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In the best song ever written about Texas, Gary P. Nunn sings the following lines:

You ask me what I like about Texas
It's the big timber round Nacogdoches
It's driving El Camino Real into San Antone
It's the Riverwalk and Mi Tierra
Jammin' out with Bongo Joe
It's stories of the Menger Hotel and the Alamo!

This is "Bongo" Joe Coleman, a famous street performer in San Antonio, shown in 1975. Here's what the Handbook of Texas History has to say about him:

COLEMAN, GEORGE [BONGO JOE] (1923–1999). Street performer, percussionist, and singer George Coleman, known as Bongo Joe, was born in Haines City, Florida, on November 28, 1923. Coleman's father died before he was born and his mother died when he was seven. After he graduated from high school he moved to Detroit to live with his older sister. There he was exposed to the local jazz scene and began his interest in musical performance with the piano. He played with many local musicians, and even with Sammy Davis Jr.

He moved to Houston by his late twenties and started his career as a percussionist with a local band. Rather than appearing onstage with a full drumset, which he did not own, he fabricated a makeshift kit out of empty fifty-five-gallon oil drums. This led to a unique percussive sound that he developed over the course of his career through specialized drumming techniques, tuning, and hand-made instruments. He also augmented his sound with his humorous and insightful lyrics.

Coleman started performing more on streets than on stages, hauling his oil drums around the cities of Texas, mounting them with a pick-up microphone and playing through a small amplifier. For fifteen years or so, he played at popular Houston-area tourist spots such as Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, and later moved to more prominent tourist attractions such as HemisFair '68 in San Antonio. He traveled through Mexico playing for tips, but settled in San Antonio. As he continued to travel the state of Texas and its immediate environs, taking his oil drums with him and playing on streetcorners, he acquired the affectionate nickname "Bongo Joe."

Bongo Joe was invited to participate in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival nine times. There he played piano once with Dizzy Gillespie. In 1976 he played on a ten-city tour as part of Gerald Ford's presidential campaign. In 1991 he appeared on three television programs called "Almost Live from the Liberty Bar" that aired on the San Antonio PBS affiliate KLRN. His performances stopped in the early 1990s, when he was diagnosed with diabetes and kidney disease. He died in San Antonio on December 19, 1999.

Bongo Joe has been alternately viewed as inspired and as a novelty act. Whichever way he is interpreted, he was certainly a cult classic. He was recorded in San Antonio by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records in 1968. These recordings led to an LP that, in combination with a few later sessions, turned into a CD re-release by Arhoolie entitled George Coleman--Bongo Joe. One selection from these original recordings, "Innocent Little Doggie ," was an underground classic on independent radio in Texas as well as in England. Associates of Coleman knew him to be an extremely talented musician who performed on the streets by choice, often turning down opportunities to play more respectable, and more lucrative, engagements in order to play for the general public.

This photo courtesy the Portal to Texas History. These folks are just about the most awesome people in Texas, which pretty much makes them the most awesome people in the world.
IMG_3068.JPG
 

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In the best song ever written about Texas, Gary P. Nunn sings the following lines:

You ask me what I like about Texas
It's the big timber round Nacogdoches
It's driving El Camino Real into San Antone
It's the Riverwalk and Mi Tierra
Jammin' out with Bongo Joe
It's stories of the Menger Hotel and the Alamo!

This is "Bongo" Joe Coleman, a famous street performer in San Antonio, shown in 1975. Here's what the Handbook of Texas History has to say about him:

COLEMAN, GEORGE [BONGO JOE] (1923–1999). Street performer, percussionist, and singer George Coleman, known as Bongo Joe, was born in Haines City, Florida, on November 28, 1923. Coleman's father died before he was born and his mother died when he was seven. After he graduated from high school he moved to Detroit to live with his older sister. There he was exposed to the local jazz scene and began his interest in musical performance with the piano. He played with many local musicians, and even with Sammy Davis Jr.

He moved to Houston by his late twenties and started his career as a percussionist with a local band. Rather than appearing onstage with a full drumset, which he did not own, he fabricated a makeshift kit out of empty fifty-five-gallon oil drums. This led to a unique percussive sound that he developed over the course of his career through specialized drumming techniques, tuning, and hand-made instruments. He also augmented his sound with his humorous and insightful lyrics.

Coleman started performing more on streets than on stages, hauling his oil drums around the cities of Texas, mounting them with a pick-up microphone and playing through a small amplifier. For fifteen years or so, he played at popular Houston-area tourist spots such as Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, and later moved to more prominent tourist attractions such as HemisFair '68 in San Antonio. He traveled through Mexico playing for tips, but settled in San Antonio. As he continued to travel the state of Texas and its immediate environs, taking his oil drums with him and playing on streetcorners, he acquired the affectionate nickname "Bongo Joe."

Bongo Joe was invited to participate in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival nine times. There he played piano once with Dizzy Gillespie. In 1976 he played on a ten-city tour as part of Gerald Ford's presidential campaign. In 1991 he appeared on three television programs called "Almost Live from the Liberty Bar" that aired on the San Antonio PBS affiliate KLRN. His performances stopped in the early 1990s, when he was diagnosed with diabetes and kidney disease. He died in San Antonio on December 19, 1999.

Bongo Joe has been alternately viewed as inspired and as a novelty act. Whichever way he is interpreted, he was certainly a cult classic. He was recorded in San Antonio by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records in 1968. These recordings led to an LP that, in combination with a few later sessions, turned into a CD re-release by Arhoolie entitled George Coleman--Bongo Joe. One selection from these original recordings, "Innocent Little Doggie ," was an underground classic on independent radio in Texas as well as in England. Associates of Coleman knew him to be an extremely talented musician who performed on the streets by choice, often turning down opportunities to play more respectable, and more lucrative, engagements in order to play for the general public.

This photo courtesy the Portal to Texas History. These folks are just about the most awesome people in Texas, which pretty much makes them the most awesome people in the world.
View attachment 134440

The first time Nikki and I met was at a wedding of mutual friends. We were both in the wedding party with different escorts. The reception was downtown on the riverwalk, and after the wedding a group of 8 of us went partying on the river. Nikki and I danced to Bongo Joe. 1988, seems like forever ago..... Tony
 
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Wildthings

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The first time Nikki and I met was at a wedding of mutual friends. We were both in the wedding party with different escorts. The reception was downtown on the riverwalk, and after the wedding a group of 8 of us went partying on the river. Nikki and I danced to Bingo Joe. 1988, seems like forever ago..... Tony

Not Bingo! Bongo!! Jeeeesssshh
 

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The Texas Quote of the Day:

"The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days nobody could stand him."

----- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22," 1961
 

woodman6415

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Canción en Agave Azul

I dance to Texas
with enormous belly,
suck torrents of Shiner Bock,
lick the lips of agave plants,
drink fresh aromas from morning skies,
bear witness to blushing sunsets
between beautiful yucca screams,
devouring the landscape like a fever-starved star,
my laughter and sorrow piercing haunted memories,
following familiar evenings and flickering sun
like her windswept miles, eternal.

Sanderson, Texas, 2013
Traces of Texas

IMG_3078.JPG
 

woodman6415

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Y'all aren't going to believe the Texas Quote of the Day, which comes from a newspaper back in 1889. I transcribed this for this page and beg forgiveness if I have made a mistake.

"Some twenty months ago a woman living on the banks of the Brazos River missed her 3 months old baby from the pallet where she had left it lying during an absence of a few minutes. Search was made for the infant, but no trace of it could be discovered and the whole affair was wrapped in mystery until a few days ago.

A party of gentlemen riding through a somewhat unfrequented portion of the thick woods that border the river ... were startled by seeing a strange object run across the road. Thinking at first sight that it was a wild animal, several of the party were about to fire on it, when the one who had been nearest to it called to them not to shoot but to run it down instead.

This was done with difficulty, for the underbrush was thick, but at last the creature was overtaken in a dense copse. It was half running, half leaping, first on all fours and then nearly upright.

The gentlemen dismounted and attempted to lay hands on it, but chattering frightfully and savagely biting and scratching, it broke away from them. They could see it had a human face, though the brown body was covered with long, tangled hair, and the nails on the feet and hands so long as to be claws. It ran with incredible swiftness, getting over fallen trees and dense masses of creepers at a rate that obliged its pursuers to exert themselves to the utmost to keep it in view. It finally ran into an immense oak tree that lay uprooted on the ground, and the hollow trunk of which formed a yawning cavern. By dint of poking in the tree with sticks, the party succeeded in driving out an old wolf which immediately ran away. It was not pursued, as it was not the object sought. This, too, was finally dislodged and lassoed with a lariat made of hides. It bit and scratched so fiercely that it was thought advisable not to approach it, and it was half dragged, half led home with the lariat about its neck howling and yelping like a wolf.

The fact of the woman's child having disappeared was well know to all, and it was decided that this must be the child.

The wolf had evidently stolen it, and for some reason adopted it as its own. The mother declared this conjecture was correct, claiming that her child had had a malformation of one ear, which peculiarity was found in the monster.

It is kept tied up in her cabin, suffering no one to lay hands upon it, and is fed on raw meat, as it refuses to touch any other food. The woman has hopes that she may yet reawaken the human in it, but in the meantime she is reaping a fortune from the crowds who come daily from all parts of the county to inspect the strange creature."

----- The Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, 1889; the "strange creature" finally died in captivity
 

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Y'all aren't going to believe the Texas Quote of the Day, which comes from a newspaper back in 1889. I transcribed this for this page and beg forgiveness if I have made a mistake.

"Some twenty months ago a woman living on the banks of the Brazos River missed her 3 months old baby from the pallet where she had left it lying during an absence of a few minutes. Search was made for the infant, but no trace of it could be discovered and the whole affair was wrapped in mystery until a few days ago.

A party of gentlemen riding through a somewhat unfrequented portion of the thick woods that border the river ... were startled by seeing a strange object run across the road. Thinking at first sight that it was a wild animal, several of the party were about to fire on it, when the one who had been nearest to it called to them not to shoot but to run it down instead.

This was done with difficulty, for the underbrush was thick, but at last the creature was overtaken in a dense copse. It was half running, half leaping, first on all fours and then nearly upright.

The gentlemen dismounted and attempted to lay hands on it, but chattering frightfully and savagely biting and scratching, it broke away from them. They could see it had a human face, though the brown body was covered with long, tangled hair, and the nails on the feet and hands so long as to be claws. It ran with incredible swiftness, getting over fallen trees and dense masses of creepers at a rate that obliged its pursuers to exert themselves to the utmost to keep it in view. It finally ran into an immense oak tree that lay uprooted on the ground, and the hollow trunk of which formed a yawning cavern. By dint of poking in the tree with sticks, the party succeeded in driving out an old wolf which immediately ran away. It was not pursued, as it was not the object sought. This, too, was finally dislodged and lassoed with a lariat made of hides. It bit and scratched so fiercely that it was thought advisable not to approach it, and it was half dragged, half led home with the lariat about its neck howling and yelping like a wolf.

The fact of the woman's child having disappeared was well know to all, and it was decided that this must be the child.

The wolf had evidently stolen it, and for some reason adopted it as its own. The mother declared this conjecture was correct, claiming that her child had had a malformation of one ear, which peculiarity was found in the monster.

It is kept tied up in her cabin, suffering no one to lay hands upon it, and is fed on raw meat, as it refuses to touch any other food. The woman has hopes that she may yet reawaken the human in it, but in the meantime she is reaping a fortune from the crowds who come daily from all parts of the county to inspect the strange creature."

----- The Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, 1889; the "strange creature" finally died in captivity

I don't know about this one...... Tony
 

woodman6415

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In 1977 the San Antonio Light reported that people were "shocked and appalled" at the sight of topless bathers at Austin's Barton Springs swimming pool. "Matter of fact, some folks are driving 200 miles to be shocked and appalled by the sight," the newspaper reported.

Just so everyone knows .. I only drive 145 miles
 

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In 1977 the San Antonio Light reported that people were "shocked and appalled" at the sight of topless bathers at Austin's Barton Springs swimming pool. "Matter of fact, some folks are driving 200 miles to be shocked and appalled by the sight," the newspaper reported.

Just so everyone knows .. I only drive 145 miles

A great place back in the day! Tony
 

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The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

Rancher Lee Bivins was born in Farmington, Texas ---- on Farm Road 1417 ten miles south of Sherman in south central Grayson County ----- in 1862. By the time he was 20 years old he had amassed a large herd of cattle and owned two general stores in Sherman. In 1890 he moved his family to his first ranch, the Mulberry Pasture, a few miles south of Claude, Texas. By the 1920s he was said to be the largest individual cattle owner in the world. He owned or leased more than one million acres of land and it was said that he once rode his horse 90 miles ----- from Dalhart to Amarillo ----- without leaving his property. He passed away in 1929 and is buried in the Llano Cemetery in Amarillo.
 

woodman6415

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Or woodworking

The Texas Quote of the Day was uttered by an elderly man to his daughter at the Half-Price Books store on South Lamar in Austin: "Look at all these self-help books. They must be for people who haven't discovered fishing."
 

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Everyone from where I'm from knows you don't plant the garden till the mesquites start showing leaves .


The Texas Quote of the Day:

"The mesquite loves life and will grow almost anywhere. In fact, most West Texans think it prefers the dry red clay or the worst soil God had to offer. It has about its annual bloom a mysterious sense of danger in springing forth prematurely and it is traditional in West Texas that spring isn't safely abroad in the land until the mesquite acknowledges it. The late Frank Grimes, editor of the Abilene Reporter-News, made an annual affair of running his poem warning those who would disregard this prophet:

'We see signs or returning spring ---
The redbird's back and the grackles sing,
The ground's plowed up and the creeks run clean,
The onions sprout and the rosebud's near;
And yet they's a point worth thinkin' about ----
We note that the old mesquites ain't out!'

---- A.C. Greene, 1969, "A Personal Country"
 
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