My Love for Texas

I am often asked, "Why Texas?"  I still need to figure out a pat answer that I can use over and over again.  It's almost an obsession.  My own kids call me on it all the time.  I dare you to find someone else (not from Texas) who has a postcard of the state flag hanging in her library, more Texas t-shirts than from any other state and whose working on her twang.  I'm proud to be from NoNo Texas.

Where did it stem from?  I can't exactly pinpoint the date but somewhere between a #txlchat and a book stand.  I had already been mildly obsessed when I posted on Twitter a picture of a new book from my library.  It happened to be on a book stand that caught Fort Worth librarian, Kirsten Murphy's eye.  The conversation went something like this:

"Where did you get that book stand?"

"Borders.  When it went out of business, I snagged a bunch of them."

"Can you take a few pictures of it from different angles for me?  Maybe my husband can build me some."

And so our friendship began and so did my love for Texas and all the Texas librarians, authors and illustrators. (I did love Barbara Jordan way before that, Chris Barton). That was nearly three years ago. Since then I have attended two TLAs, made many more Texas friends, fall hard for any character or book that takes place in Texas (thank you, authors Julie Murphy and Benjamin Alire Saenz) and know how to eat queso the right way.

You can only imagine my feeling when I opened up my New York Times Book Review (yes, I am still a Queens native at heart who thinks the NYT is the only paper to read) this morning to see the cover article. It's a review by David Oshinsky of God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.  It has ME written all over it. Even if you don't read the article, check out this pool I NEED to swim in!

♥

The article (and book that is already on my TBR pile) just validates all the reasons why I love Texas and why my liberal Yankee self belongs there.  Maybe not to live but certainly to visit often.

A side and very embarrassing anecdote

On Friday, Mrs. DeMassio's class held their "Celebrity Ball."  We worked for a month on this project, reading biographies, diving deep into one special person's life and then ultimately dressing up and sharing ourselves as that person to families and friends.  It was a great event.  And no surprise here, the biography I chose to introduce and model the project to the class was of course, a Texan, Lady Bird Johnson.

When Dolley Madison came up to the mic to be interviewed by me, I could tell she was nervous. And maybe I was too.  Or just distracted by the SHeDAISY version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" Whatever it was Dolley ultimately became a mashup of Dolley and Lady Bird.  I asked her about the parties she hosted and her fourth president husband, James.  We talked about the War of 1812.  It was all going so well until I looked down at her paper and saw the student had written she went to the University of Texas.  Oh boy.  You know where this is going! In that moment, it didn't seem odd to me. So just like that I said, "You went to the University of Texas? You know I love Texas! Go Longhorns!"  Parents laughed and no one said anything afterwards.  Maybe they didn't catch it. It was only yesterday that I realized what happened and so today, rather than die of embarrassment, I will just chalk it up to my ongoing Texas obsession. Lone Star State rules!