Texas Standard » Stories From Texas

I’ve been sad lately noticing how the oral tradition seems to be dying. Twenty years ago friends would often come up to me on the street and say, “Hey, I got a story for you.” But now they just come up to me and hold out their phone and say, “Seen this?” And laugh. Not […] The post Three Texas Pride Stories appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Quanah Parker was the most feared of the Comanche chiefs on the Texas frontier. He was half white and half Comanche. He was taller and stronger and faster and more clever than any other chief of his time. The fact that he never lost a battle to soldiers who relentlessly pursued him … The fact […] The post Quanah Parker: A Mother’s Day Story appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

New York City has held over 200 ticker-tape parades since the first one in 1886, which honored the Statue of Liberty. Lindbergh got a ticker-tape parade for his solo transatlantic flight. Jesse Owens was celebrated for his 4 gold medals with a parade in 1936. Churchill had a blizzard of ticker tape float down on […] The post The One Musician To Get A Ticker Tape Parade Was A Texan appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

There’s more than one Texas bridge that can be especially troubling for those with gephyrophobia – fear of bridges. The Pecos railroad bridge can certainly give you the willies from the right perspective. The Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge can give you pause if you’re hit with the outer bands of a tropical storm when you’re […] The post This Is The Scariest Bridge In Texas appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

In Texas we are mighty big on the word “mighty.” Mighty is used as a ubiquitous adjective. Mighty pretty, mighty ugly, mighty expensive, etc. The word “might” (mighty’s cousin) is popular, too. It is used in place of maybe. Instead of saying, “maybe I can help you Sunday,” we say, “I might be able to […] The post Might Oughta Talk About Texas Grammar appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

When Admiral Perry arrived at the North Pole, according to legend, he said, “Must be a cold day in Amarillo!” He was referring of course to the old Texas saying that there is nothing between Amarillo and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence. Amarillo and the Panhandle are not just famous for arctic […] The post Texas Weather is Never Normal appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

This was the situation: the new immigrants to Texas were becoming quite a problem. They were coming across the river in droves. Some were legal and some were undocumented. Some were living on land they had legally acquired and some were squatters, living on land that belonged to others. The legal immigrants were being followed […] The post Anglo Settlers Were Texas’ Original Undocumented Immigrants appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

In Texas, we have a lot of towns with cool names. There is actually a town named Cool. And Cut and Shoot. And Valentine. Yes, Valentine. How cool is that? Especially if it’s February. The story goes that a railroad crew, in 1882, had finished laying the tracks to the point where a water and […] The post The How, Where and Why of Valentine, Texas appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

When Tony Romo joined the Dallas Cowboys back in 2003, some people confused his name with that of Tony Roma’s, the restaurant chain. They thought maybe Tony Romo was related to the Tony Roma family, perhaps heir to the baby back ribs fortune, even though there was an important one letter of difference at the […] The post The Weird Connection Between Tony Romo and Tony Roma’s appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

One of my favorite, but now largely unknown speakers in American history was Robert Green Ingersoll. Redwater, Texas was originally named Ingersoll – after him. He was a philosopher and a popular intellectual, the most sought after orator of his time. He left us many fine proverbs. One of my favorites is this: “The greatest […] The post What It Means to Be a Texas Gentleman appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

I’m not an expert on many things, but when it comes to judging the quality of Texas literature, or Texana as it is called, I am as confident as a bronc rider still upright at seven seconds. That last second of the eight is reserved for humility. Chance needs scant time to have one spittin’ […] The post Here’s Your Texas-Themed Reading List for 2017 appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Texas has a great number of Texas brands: Southwest Airlines. Texas Instruments. Lone Star Beer. Dell Computer. Imperial Sugar. The King Ranch. Now, The King Ranch is a brand that came, quite literally, from a brand. King Ranch even has its own brand of Ford Pickup. The King Ranch also helped launch another old Texas […] The post The Story Behind Texas’ Favorite Butter appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

This is the story of a boy who loved Christmas so much that he grew up to make it more magical for the rest of us. That is, if you have ever had the good fortune to see his paintings – and if you haven’t, I’m here to make sure your luck changes. The artist’s […] The post Jack Sorenson’s Paintings Capture the Simple Joy of Christmas appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

A nice lady wrote to me not long ago and said that she was happy to have a son with a good, solid, two-syllable Texas name. “His name is ‘Ben,’”she wrote. I loved that. We do that, don’t we? Well, many of us do, anyway. There are 30 million Texans so there are many dialects […] The post Trying to Talk Texan? Let Your Words Lean Into Each Other appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

When Richard King, the founder of the King Ranch, was on his deathbed, he told his wife, Henrietta Chamberlain King “Don’t let any of that land get away from you.” At the time of his death in 1885, King’s famous ranch consisted of about half a million acres. He had amassed this land on the […] The post The Queen of King Ranch appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

My favorite snack as a teenager was a Dr Pepper with salty peanuts. You remember: you pour the peanuts into the Dr Pepper and let them float around and season the drink. Didn’t get much better than that. Dr Pepper is the oldest soft drink in America. Older than Coca-Cola, in fact, by a full […] The post Dr Pepper: The Story of Texas’ Favorite Soft Drink appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Texans have a kind of proverb that goes like this: “Driving across Texas isn’t a trip; it’s a damn career.” Texas is big, no doubt about that. But it used to be a lot bigger – about a fourth bigger. When Texas joined the United States in 1845, Texas’ borders (and shape) were quite different. […] The post Sure, Texas Is Big – But It Used to Be Even Bigger appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

In the mini-series Lonesome Dove, Charles Goodnight was immortalized loosely as Captain Woodrow F. Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones. In truth, Charles Goodnight in real life was even more fascinating than the fictional Woodrow Call. Goodnight, who is the most famous rancher in Texas history, and the most ubiquitous Texan of his time, became […] The post The Real Texan Who Inspired Captain Woodrow F. Call appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

To my mind, the signature song about longing for Texas is this one: I wanna go home with the Armadillo; Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene; The friendliest people and the prettiest women you’ve ever seen. That’s “London Homesick Blues” sung by Jerry Jeff Walker and written by Gary P. Nunn. But there are […] The post Homesick for Texas: Songs & Tributes to the Lone Star State appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

This is a biography of a word. It is about a word that was essentially born in Texas, grew up to achieve success here, and eventually became famous the world over. It has now gone well beyond its modest roots as a simple noun and transformed itself into impressive, symbolic fame as a metaphor. The […] The post The Texan Origins of the Word Maverick appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.