Texas

After living a peripatetic existence for the last three months, I am finally settled in Georgetown, Texas to start my new job as visiting assistant professor in the history department at Southwestern University. A few notes:

1. I am looking forward to taking my tour of weird Texas. Of course, there is a lot of weird places here. The Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Park is clearly a place to go. I'm not too far from Crawford so obviously I'm checking that out. I'm about an hour south of Waco. I'm hoping for a bronze statue of David Koresh. Even if they haven't done that, Waco does have the Texas Rangers Museum, the Dr. Pepper Museum, and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. All should be weird. Near Brownsville, there is a fairly recent National Park site commemorating some battle in the Mexican War. On the anniversary, they do reenactments. It's far but probably worth it for a laugh. There is Huntsville, aka, Executionville. Jasper, home of the lynching several years ago when they dragged that guy behind a truck is not too far. Neither is White Settlement, outside of Fort Worth. They voted on whether to change the name a few years ago since it is so obviously racist. That only failed by a 92 percent to 8 margin. The George H.W. Bush museum in College Station should be fascinating as well. Equally strange would be attending a Texas A&M football game. This public institution is basically a military school. Good times. They stopped doing the big fire before games after those kids died a few years ago. High school football is also on my agenda.

And then there's West Texas.

2. My first visit though will be to the LBJ Ranch. LBJ is the best politician ever to come out of Texas and I can't wait to see the ranch. I visited the LBJ Library at the University of Texas a few years ago. I definitely recommend it.

3. Even though this is just a visiting position, I have to say that it feels really good not being treated as a graduate student. I know that faculty life is not always a life of joy, but for now, I like it an awful lot.

4. It's kind of hot here.