Essay:
Kathy Rieken
An Amarilloan is a special breed of Texan. Like all Texans, we like things BIG - trucks and SUVs, ranches and feedlots, and 72 oz. steaks - but we like our town not so big.
An Amarilloan appreciates that we have lots of room and some big ideas. The wind that blows our tumbleweeds is harnessed to turn gigantic wind turbines to power up the rest of the state. We grow and pack enough beef to feed the world. And we step up and take care of the biggest weapons of them all (weapons that wouldn't be necessary if everyone minded their own business and respected other people's freedoms like Amarilloans do.).
An Amarilloan enjoys our town's unique things: Colorful quarter horses standing patiently on street corners for little cowboys to ride them. A performing arts center with world-class acoustics and a cattle-truck-panel ceiling. Cadillacs with their noses buried in the dirt and their tail fins pointing toward the stars. Twin-rotor ospreys circling like eagles over the prairie. A lone rider trailing a Texas flag across the rim of a Spanish-skirted canyon.
An Amarilloan realizes there're some things we don't have much of - rain, trees, predictable weather - but we also don't have much bumper-to-bumper traffic, shortage of parking or smog. We have everything we need right here, but we're also close to the mountains and right at the midpoint of the Mother Road, Route 66. Being closer to four other state's capitals than our own has some challenges, but Amarilloans are used to being independent.
In the world's estimation, it's a little town, with fewer than 200,000 people. But if you're an Amarilloan, like I am, you thank God you live in this place - the biggest little town in Texas.
1 comment:
Awwww. What cute pictures! I can see them in a frame up on the wall somewhere. :)
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