Quotable Quotes from Sam Rayburn

When I visited Bonham, TX I also stopped by at Sam Rayburn museum. This museum built in the memory of Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the house, and congressman from Bonham, TX is full of his memorabilia. There are books, personal effects, a recreation of his office at the White House and a bunch of pictures. A few quotes were etched in stone outside the museum which were quite impressive, I'd like to share them on this blog.

Earthy Images

It is common for to equate the earth to the mother, the concept becomes specially relevant when one examines nature. In nature everything originates and thrives from the earth. My pictures below depict the diversity of the earth in a natural setting. The banks of Bonham State Park lake is a clear example of this kind of diversity.

Sam Rayburn Museum, Bonham, TX

Fort Inglish Historical Park, Bonham, TX

I recently visited Bonham, TX. One of the attractions in the city is the recreation of the first few homes built in the city by Bailey Inglish one of the founders of Bonham who brought the first settlers to claim the homesteads in this area. Of course local people i.e. Native Americans who had lived on this land for thousands of years didn't like outsiders coming and staking claim on their lands so they offered resistance and raided these settlements often.

In a bid to protect themselves and their families the newly arrived but more powerful settlers were influenced by the Inglish to build a fort and stockade to provide a safe haven for the families of the area. This place was used until 1843 after which the native Americans were successfully wiped out by invading Europeans. Now there are no Native Americans in this area.

This museum and gift shop is the proud replication of the original fort which helped the invaders establish their reign and destroy and wipe out the Native American tribes. Looking at it from a purely tourist perspective I would say it is a good attraction for families visiting the area. Kids can play around the grounds and have a good time during the day.

Here are some pictures for you to get a feel of what American forts looked like... built of wood and mud not the rock solid forts that we see in India built around the same time or earlier.

Lessons in Discipline!

Anywhere there is a lot of people gathered together it is imperative that there is a necessity for law enforcement or some kind of group of people to ensure safety and smooth functioning of the event. Growing up in India I would see how people waiting in the Bus stop would forget all civility and rush toward the door when the bus arrived. They would not think even for a moment about forming a line, the priority was to get in first and take their place. The same phenomenon I noticed in America when a sale takes place in any of the super stores. For example during the Black Friday sale people go to the extent of pepper spraying competing shoppers to get what they want. My own experience recently was that even though I was first in line for petrol before I could reverse the car and get it into place for fueling up, another person (middle aged white man) pulled into the bay and started fueling up his car. I had to wait and fuel up after he finished because of his lack of civility.

Recently I came upon a similar scene in nature. A group of water fowl were on the shore of lake at Bonham State Park. They were feeding on insects on the ground in a random group. As I approached them to get a closer picture they sensed my presence and started back towards the waters of the lake. There was enough space for the birds to go in a parallel formation and get into the water, but the birds chose to follow their leader and walked toward the lake in a single file. There was no one to enforce discipline, no limitation of space, nothing but these birds naturally followed the discipline and displayed civility that humans often don't show.

We humans are after all more animal than we think we are, and definitely being well groomed and wearing sharp clothes doesn't make us any better.

Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Bonham, Texas is a small town with just over 10,000 population, but it has enough attractions to sustain a tourist inflow of many times its population. The Bonham State Park with its beautiful lake; the Sam Rayburn library and museum, the Fort Inglish Park and then the Lake Bonham Recreation Area. Each one of these places attract several visitors during the summer when the weather is nice and warm.

Lake Bonham is particularly interesting because it is a huge lake, with several channels and recreational opportunities. Sprawling over 1,000 surface acres the lake's azure waters are a treat to the eye and its fish are a treat to those who catch them and eat. The of course like every other recreation area there are camping, walking, hiking, boating and other recreational facilities.

Entrance to the Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Picinic area Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Fishing Pier at Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Lake Bonham facade

Swimming beach in Lake Bonham Recreation Area

Bonham State Park

Last week I visited Bonham State Park in North Texas area. This is a comparatively small park with a 261 acre lake in the center. The park offers the usual activities such as bicycling, walking, hiking, some wilderness, camping, swimming, canoeing, boating, fishing, among others. Anyway now it is winter and coupled with the bad economy, there were hardly any visitors in the park. It seemed as if apart from the staff I had the park all for myself. I drove around the lake, took some short walks along the trails and departed.
Here are some pictures of the Bonham State Park.

Fall Colors in North Texas

Fall Colors is a beautiful phenomenon that takes place in the entire United States. It is specially beautiful in the east coast region and the northern states where the weather changes are pretty drastic. Texas also has its own share of fall colors but it is not famous for various reasons. One is that Texas has always been promoted as a flat, prairie land full of cattle ranches, cowboys, bars and barbeque places. Well actually that is quite a deceptive picture of Texas. The Lone Star State has several unique attractions such as large fresh water lakes, mountains, deserts, etc.

Anyway yesterday I visited Bonham State Park about 50 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area. The highly wooded parkland area was truly a riot of color. Trees presented a multitude of hues from pale yellow to blazing red. Here are some pictures of the colors I saw yesterday.