TEXAS

When we entered Texas from New Mexico, we quickly understood that we were entering “the great state of Texas”.  Wide, concrete, good highways where the speed limit is 80mph.  A road sign said: El Paso 6 miles; Beaumont 854 miles. (West to East.) After miles and miles of oilfields we arrived in Dallas on October 15 where we spent of couple of days with our good friends John and Lynn Beimers. It was wonderful to spend some time with them.

The 6^th floor museum was awesome.  Like all people over 58, we remember the day of the JFK assassination very well.  It was amazing to be in the very spot where Lee Harvey Oswald (according to the Warren Commission – all conspiracy theories aside) took his three shots that felled JFK.  What was the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository has been converted into a museum where all the angles of the Kennedy assassination are thoroughly covered.   The audio guide, visual displays and videos which also included coverage of the three years of the JFK presidency and his legacy were very engaging.

J&L standing on the grassy knoll. Many people who were there said that the gun shots came from behind the grassy knoll. It is forever referred to as the grassy knoll because a reporter called it that after the shooting.

Peter pointing to the sixth floor window on the 
far right from which the shot was taken.

                                                                                   View that Oswald had from the 6th 

                                                                                   floor window. (Trees have grown!)

The set for Raisin in the Sun. 

The night we arrived, we went to the Dallas Theatre Center to see Raisin in the Sun the 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry – the first African American woman to write a play produced on Broadway.  It’s about a 1950’s black family who, in their quest to follow the American Dream in Chicago’s south side, wants to move to a white neighbourhood, but is prevented from doing so by the “neighbourhood association” of the white community. Very well done.  In the 60’s the movie version came out (starring Sidney Poitier) which I remember seeing in high school.  Hansberry’s own family made this move in the 50’s and contested  “restrictive covenants” (preventing blacks from moving into white neighbourhoods) all the way to the US Supreme Court making them illegal. Two nights later we were back to see Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park which deals with that same neighbourhood 50 years later and wonders how much things have really changed in race relations.  Thought provoking, but not as well done as Raisin – we both thought.                                                      
   

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

                                        By Langston Hughes

                                                                 
                                                                                                                                        

The front facade of the Alamo

On to San Antonio.  The main attraction here is the Alamo.  Tremendous place.  Learned a lot about Texan, Mexican and US history here and the story of the siege and capture of the Alamo.   But just as interesting for us, was the demonstration by the local gun lobby right in front of the Alamo that just happened to be going on that morning.   Already when we parked the RV, an Iraqi war vet was telling us that we just had to see this demonstration, that our second amendment rights have been slipping away, and that it was time to take a stand.  He then went on to explain that Obamacare was a disaster, etc.  I tried to point out that socialized medical care is working well in Western Europe and Canada, and hoped that the US would eventually be able to make that transition. I don't know the details of why it's "not working", but do know that a well-run government health care saves the taxpayer a lot of money and provides health care for all.  He was not convinced and for him it was an intense conversation. 

When we got to the Alamo, there must have been a couple hundred people, many carrying guns to express their right to bear arms. During a rant by Alex Jones, a popular radio talk show host, we were interviewed by a couple of journalists from The Texas Observer.  They included  a few of our comments in their write-up – which you can read at http://www.texasobserver.org/alamo-protesters-get-arms/ .   San Antonio police were on hand as well just in case things got out of hand.  

Gun toting American citizens taking the Pledge of Allegiance

The number one attraction in San Antonio - The River Walk. The  River Walk is two parallel sidewalks
 along the San Antonio River lined with many restaurants and shops.

On one of the bridges that allow you to get to the 'other side'.

                

We are in Houston for a few days before we head down to the Gulf Coast towards New Orleans.  We have been accepted by World Renew’s Disaster Relief Service to volunteer for two weeks in early November in La Place, Louisiana – very close to New Orleans, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isaac in 2012. You can google that. Hope you are all well. We'd love to hear from you.

Had a fabulous Texan steak dinner with nephew Bruce Stol in Houston.