Exploring American History, Wednesday, October 30, 2024

[heroic_jawline]

Welcome to San Antonio, class, much to your teachers' relief because until they'd started looking, the Alamo was "Texas, somewhere" and they were both decidedly more comfortable in a large city than out in the wilderness.

"Remember the Alamo," Steve said. "A phrase that's caught in our country's collective consciousness, but we don't necessarily remember why we should remember."

"And it serves as a pretty concise explanation for why Texas is the way it is," Tony added. "The territory that Texas occupies was under Spanish control before Mexico gained their independence in 1821. But American settlers moved into the area rapidly until they decided to gain independence from both America and Mexico to form the Republic of Texas. Which lasted all of about a decade. But Mexico didn't really take to having their land being taken from them again."

"We're going to go on a tour with experts who will explain in more detail, but the short version of this was that the 200 Texans inside this mission faced off against between 1800 and 6,000 Mexican troops--the numbers are very vague--for 13 days before the Mexican army overran them and killed most of them, including famous historical figures Davy Crockett and James Bowie," Steve said.

"Which then became a rally cry for the other Texans around the area, causing more to join their cause rather than disenfranchising them as the Mexican army had hoped," Tony added. "But let's just get into exploring the site. And there will, of course, be lunch provided, don't worry."

Comments

Eat barbecue!

[heroic_jawline]

The true reason to go to Texas.

Re: Eat barbecue!

[what_big_teeth]

Eleanor had done her civic student duty by paying attention and learning about the Alamo (and she might even try not to forget any of it, too!), but as soon as barbecue was in the air, it became increasingly difficult to pay much attention to anything else, so she was feeling extremely glad when it finally came to be time to eat.

Re: Eat barbecue!

[slothbabyproductions]

"Enjoying yourself?" Kamala teased, looking at Eleanor enjoying her barbecue. "Does it meet your level of meaty goodness?"

Then she frowned.

"Okay, that sounded weird but you know what I mean."

Re: Eat barbecue!

[what_big_teeth]

It had come from Kamala, so, in Eleanor's opinion, it was still pretty much perfect.

"Meaty goodness levels sufficiently met," she assured her, with a soft smile as she carefully made sure none of that meaty goodness was sticking around her face. "Hpw about you? There's some you can have, right?"

Re: Eat barbecue!

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala held up her giant sized portion of Mexican street corn. "I am definitely happy with my choice," Kamala said, her mouth partially full. "I've had it in Jersey but it does not do it justice."

Re: Eat barbecue!

[what_big_teeth]

"You know," Eleanor pointed out with a small laugh, "Jersey seems to be having trouble keeping up to all these other things we've been trying lately..."

Re: Eat barbecue!

[slothbabyproductions]

"Well, Jersey has many fine attributes," Kamala said with a laugh. "I mean, I'd probably have to pump my gas here in Texas and I know that they don't have any Wawa's. But I'm going to have to say Elote is not their strong suit."

At least in Jersey City.

Re: Eat barbecue!

[what_big_teeth]

"Everywhere's got its good points and bad, I guess," Eleanor decided, with just an amused fondness on her face as she looked at Kamala and her corn, and then picked a little more at her own barbecue.

"Were you thinking," she then asked, "of going to that Halloween party tomorrow?"

Re: Eat barbecue!

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala beamed. “Who? Me? Put on a costume?” She joked. “Oh, hells yeah. I live for Halloween. Plus my mother won’t be around to demand changes to my costume.”