Texas: Football and Brimstone and Oil and Cotton....

"Football's so important in Texas. On the West Coast, it's a social. On the East Coast, it's a culture. Here, it's a religion." ~Major Applewhite

As I mentioned previously, I took a quick trip to Texas a couple weekends ago for one of the Animal House boy's wedding. Because none of my friends seem to get married at places with good airports, I ended up flying into Midland, renting a car, and driving to San Angelo for the wedding. I arrived in Midland about 9:00 on Friday evening, got all set up with my little Hundai and hit the road. As I was driving, I decided that a blog about my small town west Texas observations was probably necessary.

First.....the radio. I'm not too picky about radio stations. I grew up in the middle of nowhere myself, and we had two radio stations. One country, one something that resembled pop and/or rock (I just remember they would play Love Shack over and over and over it seemed like!) So I hate to bash on radio selection giving my humble roots.

However, as I hit the road and kept pushing the "Seek" button, I thought my finger might fall off from exhaustion. Apparently a person driving through west Texas on a Friday night has two options for radio: high school football and fire and brimstone preachers.

Now, I do love me some football of any sort. But listenting to high school games of kids and schools you don't know, and then after the game listening to the analysis from the old has beens on the radio is not very exciting. It does totally remind me of the tv show "Friday Night Lights" however. And I've said for years that is the most real show on television. This experience only cemented that belief.

Watch here for a taste of what I heard on just about every station in west Texas.



As for the second option of fire and brimstone yelling/preaching, understan that I enjoy a good sermon. I think I've said before I frequently listen to sermons from my old church in Stillwater online. But I'm not sure how effective it is when a preacher (or one on each station actually) gets on the radio on Friday night to yell at you and tell you that you're going to hell. I think that there are probably far better ways to tell the world about Jesus.

And finally on my trip back home, I captured a picture of quintessential Texas. As I was hurrying to get to the airport on time on Sunday morning (fyi--early flight after a wedding with an open bar all afternoon--not the best call). But I knew I had to stop an snap this picture. Here we have an oil derrick in the middle of a cotton field. Seriously, this should probably be on the Texas flag.

Hope you enjoyed getting to share a little part of my journey into west Texas. Football, preachers, oil dereks and cotton fields. That pretty much sums it up!