Why Texas? Well, the total eclipse of the sun, of course. Which we did see, despite the weather. (Harvey summarized our Eclipse Day well in this photo album, so I don't feel the need to tell you about that. Click on the first image to show it full size, then click the i icon to display the caption.)
Otherwise, I've never felt a strong desire to visit Texas. But here we are. So what have we found? What's interested me so far? What's surprised me?
One thing of note is that every small town of any antiquity seems to have an overwhelmingly large central courthouse.
Are courthouses really that necessary? Or important? Is crime in Texas so rampant and significant? For comparison, there isn't a single public building that impressive and central in Wakaw Saskatchewan (population 985 or 9,850 in US terms).
Harvey pointed out that the courthouse in each town might originally have been constructed as a symbol of imperial colonial power -- which makes sense when you realize that Texas was the literal Wild West frontier at the time that the older courthouses were constructed. (We viewed the eclipse from Hico, Texas, home of the Billy the Kid museum and neighbour to Hamilton Texas, the location of Billy the Kid's grave.) So perhaps the courthouse looms large in the Texas imagination because the courthouse symbolizes law and order and the creation of the state. It would make a certain amount of sense.
But speaking of colonial power, another thing that's really struck me is the way that Texas history is discussed in public places. Canada has a lot to answer for and a long way to go, but at least we've begun the process of decolonializing our public history. Here every insignificant settler and trader is somehow notable, but even the names of the local First Nations are not deemed to be important -- except very occasionally when they are mentioned in the context of having been "savage enemies" that colonial heroes needed to defend themselves from. I haven't seen a single thing that acknowledges these peoples' continuing presence, or that describes places, things, or historical events from the perspective of the First Peoples whose lands these have always been.
It reminds me of how history was told in my childhood.
To end on a high note, the most unexpected and beautiful thing that we've encountered are the Texas spring wildflowers. The department of highways plants them on roadsides, but they also grow in ditches and pastures and parks. They're everywhere! They're gorgeous. They're also hard to capture in photos, especially at their most impressive, when they cover large areas with blooms. But here are a few examples.
I noticed this in the State of Victoria in Australia too. Every little town had a very elaborate courthouse. They also had a lot more heritage buildings than Western Canada, which is a bit weird given they settled at roughly the same time.
ReplyDeleteYes, what's with that? Although I wonder if Australia also tended to the "imposing order" kind of public narrative, what with the convict population? Doesn't explain the rest of the heritage buildings though.
DeleteThe spring wildflowers are very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThey really are! We'd planned a visit to a wildflower centre in Austin before our trip, so we made an excursion there but were disappointed at their displays. But only because wildflowers were so profuse everywhere else! No special trip to see them was required.
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