05-07-04

Email to Kathy

Unapologetically, I am a Texan.  I will be a Texan all my life on matter where I live.  I now live in north Mississippi and so I am a "Misplaced" Texan.

I was born and raised in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  My husband jokes that if Dad had made a wrong turn on the way to the hospital, I would’ve been born in Mexico.  For those who don’t know, the Lower Rio Grande Valley consists of  the 4 southernmost counties in Texas.  They are cut off from the rest of Texas mostly by the King Ranch.  

When I was young, we got plenty of rain and were actually a semi-tropical paradise, full of citrus trees and palm trees.  Now, after 20 years of drought, the rains are coming back and so is the lush green growth.

I love Texas.  To me, normal is hot and humid and windy.  I graduated college in South Texas.  A very proud college when I was there.  We had NAIA championship football teams 5 years in the 1970’s.  Unlike NCAA at the time, you had to win playoffs to be a champion in the NAIA.  We even initiated the University of Hawaii’s new stadium by beating them severely by a margin of about 35 points two years in a row.  They cancelled the last year or two of the contract because they got tired of being beaten so badly by a little NAIA team.

When I go to visit in Texas, all I have to do is cross the river and I am home.  Anywhere in Texas.  My husband’s best friend lives in Port Acres, Texas (near Beaumont).  My best friend lives in San Antonio. She is a naturalized Texan.  She was raised in Maryland but saw the error of her ways and married a Texan and moved home.

 I love where I live (6 acres, 20 miles from any incorporated town) with my husband and son but Texas will always be home.