Many years ago I went through Basic Training at Amarillo AFB in Texas. After Basic training was over, I went to my first Rodeo in Amarillo and remember it was a people friendly place. Had a good time there. Then onto Shaw AFB S.C. Good memories from Texas!
Love this thread and I'm in Arizona, jealous of the Texan spirit and while we have a bit of that here, nothing like Texas. We're changing fast, with so many Californians coming into the State. They just don't get that Pioneer spirit and sense of community.
It's most people, most anywhere, when you get down to it. The notion that some of us in a region are more or less hospitable than others doesn't usually bear out.
Where can I get a set of those rose colored glasses? No, never mind; I prefer to see the world as it really is. I visited Texas, this time last year; I was there for 10 days, and the only times I didn't experience hospitality & genuine friendliness was when I visited places where the newly-arrived people frequented. Having lived all over this country and traveled overseas, I can tell you that there are regions that are much less hospitable than others, and culture & community plays a very large part in that.
Way back in 1964 as a 15 year old I was lucky enough to join a school camping expedition to Morocco, N. Africa, -back then foreign travel was rare, it was a real adventure. I had never set foot outside England before. I worked hard all year delivering groceries and working in a restaurant after school and weekends to pay for the trip. 21 of us crammed everything into two mini-buses and we motored from London through France and Spain and then into the arid regions of Morocco. I noticed that there was so little technology at work...everything seems to be powered by animals and I was struck by how far less developed it was than my home country, the UK. Then one night we stopped to sleep in a vast expanse of desert. We lay down on our sleeping bags staring at an amazing amount of stars, -stars we never saw in smokey London back home. But then two guys on horseback appeared. They galloped around our camp a few times staring at us and having seen too many old movies, we had visions of BIG problems looming! But 20 minutes later the guys reappeared, walking over a hilltop carrying big silver teapots and trays of glasses. They welcomed us to their land and sat with us happily drinking mint tea. From my wild camping trips back home I knew that staying on someone's land without permission could cause big problems, and this was the reverse! So at 15 years old, thanks to the kindness of those guys, I found out that Technology and Civilisation are two completely different things.......and never to mistake a technologically advanced society for a civilised one ........... or vice versa! 73, y'all, Jeff
