By Kelly A. Rushing

My second and final term as president of the Texas Historical Foundation ends on June 30 of this year. It is with a sense of elation and some regret that I note that this is my final “President’s Message.”

Readers of our magazine have been kind enough to either make favorable comments about my column or say nothing atall. In truth, I normally skip over that portion of an organization’s magazine written by its president, knowing that the “real”writers have penned the main articles.

This is certainly true of HERITAGE. Although I have gone to considerable effort to remind, inform, and amuse our readers interested in Texas history, I have done so without the slavish devotion to authenticity that our other writers maintain. This is not to say that I make this stuff up; the facts supporting our state’s history are so extraordinary that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between truthand myth. Texas has had more than it sshare of legendary characters, and it is human nature to embellish the exploits of a “hero.”

In keeping with the “collections” theme of this issue of HERITAGE, this final column attempts to examine one of the mythological aspects of our Texas legacy. Specifically, we will abandon any semblance of good taste and go “lower than a snake’s belly” to review the “collections”of Texas sayings and expressions.

You may wonder how I got this piece past our editor. Well, “This ain’t my firstrodeo.” I handed it in at the last minute when I knew she would be “busier than a one-armed paper hanger.” I feel certain that when she reads it she will be, “nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

I believe that many of the so-called Texas sayings immigrated here from some of the lesser states. Many of these expressions are corny and even stupid, as you may have noticed. The good ones probably originated here. I will let you judge which is which.

Being a city boy, I find it difficult to understand some of these expressions and even harder to know when to use them. For example, “Just cause you put a boot in the oven don’t mean it’s a biscuit” may have something to do with cognitive dissonance, but I would need school room instructions in colorful sayings to know when to use that phrase. “We’ve howdied but we haven’t shook” has a pretty clear meaning, but it would be difficult to break the habit of saying, “We have not been formally introduced.”

Many of these colorful metaphors are charming ways of insulting or putting someone down. “He’s all hat and no cattle.” “He don’t know come here from sic um.” “She looks like she’s been rode hard and put up wet.” And then there’s my personal favorite, “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”

There are also those Texas sayings that are a “whole nuther thing,” in that they do really aid communication. “Used to could” flows so much easier off the tongue than any phrase that might have the same meaning. “Over there” might refer to something on the table out of reach, while “over yonder” distinctly refers to a placeout of eyesight. As for “blue norther,” well there’s no confusion there if you’re from Texas. At Thanksgiving we have turkey and all the “fixens,” and everyone knows what that means. Now, I’m “fixen”to wrap up this article.

THF president-elect is Hal Jackson fromDallas. As an officer of Frost Bank, Hal knows that “Texas ain’t the jumpin’ offplace, it’s where you land.” And he is authentic. “If he tells you he has a chicken that dips snuff, look under that chicken’s wing, and you’ll find a little roundcan.”

May God bless Hal Jackson and hisleadership of the Texas HistoricalFoundation and may God bless Texas.

Send comments to Kelly Rushing, P.O. Box50314, Austin, TX 78763

A slate of new officers of the Texas HistoricalFoundation will begin their term of service onJuly 1, 2008.