Famous for its cowboy heritage and Tarleton State University (my mother's alma mater, BTW), Stephenville is a typical small town in central Texas - Friday nights are football, rodeo is both a creed and a way of life, and people treat their neighbors with respect. A look at the front page of the town website says it all, headlines are about upcoming Girl Scout cookies sales and senior citizens' activities.
Here's the deal: good old country boys and cowboys aren't in the habit of opening themselves up for ridicule. They are often reticent about discussing anything of a personal nature at all. If a Stephenville cowboy has come forward with the admission he's seen something strange in the sky, then I'm here to tell you, I believe him.
Stephenville is at least able to take this all in stride with typical Texas humor, the town's city secretary recently wore some strange Mary Kay makeup to work:
For what it's worth, I am open-minded about the possibility of, for want of a better word, extraterrestials. I can't and don't want to imagine earth humans are the only intelligent (and I take great liberties with that adjective) beings in the whole big Enchilada.
Mostly, it just pisses me off for some over-educated but ignorant non-Texan to denigrate my small town neighbors as some kind of stunted offspring with a warped dna helix. No, we don't all live in mobile homes, neglect our dental hygience, marry our relatives, and drink cheap beer.
I will acknowledge that living in the bible belt assures me that all the "end of days" nutjobs will be out in full force thumping those bibles like they were checking an overripe watermelon and quoting scripture to bolster their branded-with-fire admonitions that the Four Horsemen just bought new spurs at the local Tractor Supply Store on Hwy. 377.
Just for grins, while we're on the subject, here's a short story I wrote a while back with a little UFO twist.
6 comments:
I'll believe anybody when they saw a UFO ... an unidentified flying object. I saw one the other day, and it appeared to be following my line of vision. I turned my head and it would zip across the sky.
Then realized I needed to clean off my glasses.
I've been accused by my wife of being from another planet. Maybe it was mars
Oh, Pattie, what a spirited defense of the good citizens of Stephenville, Texas. Well done.
I totally understand the "pissed off" feelings you have on behalf of your fellow Texans.
It's bad enough when people from other high falutin (sp?) places do this, but here I live in Va., not 30 minutes away from the state where I was raised: West-By-God- stand-up-and-shout-it Virginia, and you'd think the people in this county were from New York City when they speak of WVA! There's a whole big thing about Virginians and West Virginians; but, you may have already figured the controversy there because of the separation of the state during civil war times.
Other folks who think they don't put their panties on the same way as we do, just lump all of us southerners into one "pitiful" pot--heh. It's their loss, eh?
Very witty post Miss Pattie!
Well said, Pattie!
Pattie ( mom ) you left out that the fine folks of Stephenville were riding horses at the time of the sighting because all of us poor folk in Texas still don't have cars
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