Texas

Heading to Texas week after next for the Texas Jack Association Round-Up got me to thinking about the great state of Texas and the role it has played in my life. My family moved to Ft. Worth when I was about four, for my dad's job as Dean of Tarrant County Junior College (he later became president and had that post for twenty years). So, I spent my childhood and formative years in Ft. Worth, until 1978, when my mom and I moved to Santa Barbara. I've been back many times, and it still has a special place in my heart.

It is an incredibly diverse state that defies that stereotype that many people have of cowboys and oilmen. In addition to deserts and plains (which it has in abundance), it also has hundreds of miles of beaches, beautiful hill country, swamps and piney woods, and several of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation. Like the state tourism board's slogan: "It's a whole 'nother country."