Graduation at Sam Houston State University

We drove to Huntsville, TX on Friday to attend Seth's and Jen's graduation from SHSU. These are two of Michael's friends from SACS (really neat people), and we wanted to be there for the graduation. On the way we went through Bastrop, TX. It blew me away. What a beautiful place. Mae told me to watch for the location where the landscape juxtaposes from what I consider to be typical Texas to pine trees, hills and scenic vistas. Boom, there it was and we were on the edge of countryside I didn't know existed in this great state. Frankly I couldn't believe my eyes. The transition was so stark and quick, I almost didn't catch it. There was no warning at all as the surroundings quickly morphed from brown, dry earth to lush green. Incredible. In fact, it looked as though we were on Camano Island in Washington state where my parents lived. That is until you opened the doors of the car and stepped out. I don't think Camano Island has ever been that hot. Obviously we were still in Texas; just a completely different part. We took a short detour down a tree-lined road to take some pictures.

Then we were back on the trek to Huntsville. However, I also stopped to take a picture of the sign announcing our entrance to Old Dime Box, Texas. Unfortunately I stopped too far from the sign and the resulting picture doesn't show the name clearly.

Whenever I see an interesting town's name (or a town's interesting name) I'm curious as to what possessed the early settlers to call it that. Well, here's why...it comes from people leaving a dime in a box at Brown's Mill to get a letter delivered to Giddings, Texas. Who'd a thunk it?

I have to admit, the explanation I came up with was much more entertaining and I chuckled to myself for the next few miles as I came up with the definitive reason for the name: Back in the early 1800s when Dime Box was being settled, an entrepreneur known as "Fancy Francis" had a hankering that some day in the future there would be a saloon in town where cowboys (including Maverick), railroad workers, and the ubiquitous dance hall girls would all hang out. They'd play cards (canasta mostly), Shoots and Ladders, and Hungry Hungry Hippo. Fortunes would be made and lost on these games of chance. However, Fancy Francis foresaw that Shoots and Ladders would be especially dangerous because every man in town was packing heat and he didn't want anyone taking the game literally, so he put a box at the intersection of "Dang it's hot" and "Remind me why we moved here" streets. He put a sign on the box that said, "Put a dime in the box to save our town." No one knew what the heck he was talking about, but since he was an entrepreneur (and they had no idea what that was either, but it sure sounded fancy), they did his bidding. After he had $27.30, he wrote Milton Bradley and asked them to create a game called Chutes and Ladders, because Shoots and Ladders seemed too violent, and of course, he knew what would happen to the town otherwise. To this day, in Old Dime Box, Texas the only game of chance available at the saloon is Chutes and Ladders. In fact, due to Fancy Francis' ingenuity, there is only one recorded killing over a game of Chutes and Ladders in the town's history. Unfortunately, he had no idea how violent Hungry Hungry Hippo could get. But that's another story.

Then we finally arrived at our destination. Now I'll have to admit, I expected Huntsville to be a barren wasteland (because of the prison, naturally). I don't know about you, but having a prison in a barren wasteland seems rather poetic. Hold on there little buckaroo; Huntsville is gorgeous. No kidding, it's beautiful. More pine trees, rolling hills, and a La Quinta that, well, is quite all that.

Sam Houston State University has a very lovely campus, and the graduation was perfect. By perfect, I mean the speaker was a retired Army Brigadier General who talked maybe 10 minutes. And in my book, that makes for a perfect graduation. Seth and Jen were now all smiles and ready to press on to their next adventures.

Speaking of adventure, Mae and I visited the Sam Houston statue. Now I gotta say if you think Paul Bunyan was a large fellow, you ain't seen Sam Houston. It's no wonder he was so good in battle. He was a giant. I'm not kidding. I don't think I came up to his ankle. I'll bet he was really scary on the battlefield (if he'd only had an ox like Paul did).