February 2023

First Observation: Since moving to Texas three years ago, I’ve noticed that for curious reasons, noticeable deposits of discarded drinking cups, paper, empty beer cans, beer and soda bottles mysteriously appear alongside the back roads and highways in Sherman and adjacent cities, disregarding the “Don’t Mess With Texas” program established to spread the word about keeping Texas litter-free. These discarded items obviously are thrown from passing vehicles…which is really confusing to me because Texans are typically eager to demonstrate pride in their state. They tend to wear branded T-shirts and ball caps and sweatshirts in proud display of their Lone Star State residency. And it’s not unusual to see special Texas-edition trucks on our very own Texas streets! I don’t recall ever seeing a non-Texas state-edition badge slapped on any pickup truck in or around any of the other 49 states. “Alabama” t-shirts and ball caps and jackets are fairly common in Alabama, but I suspect that loyalty to The Crimson Tide –not to the state of Alabama–explains that trend. Come to think of it, while I don’t recall ever seeing any Alabama-edition trucks on the highways in The Heart of Dixie state, I do recall seeing a few Texas-edition trucks there, but I can’t say that I remember seeing any beer bottles hurled from those Texas-editions. Maybe hurling beer cans is a Texas thing, done only in Texas. I was driving along Hwy 75 last week on my way to Plano, and all the debris along the side of the road reminded me of a service road leading to a city dump. When I reached the Collin County line, things improved a bit, but conditions there were also an embarrassment to our great state.