This year our nation will be celebrating 250 years as an independent nation. I have just recently turned 79 and was thinking about what 80 years would mean in the grand scheme of things. I got to doing some figurin' and contemplating and it was quite revealing.
So 80 years adds up to be about a third of our nation's existence as a republic. Just think about that for a minute.
I did, but for much more than a minute. Only three of my lifetimes and that's it?
I thought about the passing of that first 80 years and it brought me to 1856 Texas and our being just a mere 20 years past the battle of the Alamo and our independence from Mexico.
1856 was also the time when all the Polish immigrants were just getting settled in and working in the Bandera cypress mill on the Medina River.
A load of camels landed at Indianola barely a year after those immigrants to begin an experiment that didn't work out as planned. Then in just five short years the Civil War broke out.
80 more years passed and we arrived at 1936 and celebrated our 100 years of independence from Mexico.
There was a big Centennial Celebration held in Dallas, but I don't recall my parents ever mentioning it. I guess they didn't attend but they were only ten years old so that might explain why.
History says it was visited by over six million people and President F. D. Roosevelt. It's also been said that it created a buffer for the Dallas area protecting it from The Great Depression.
Judging by stories told to me by older family members, there was no trickle down to Bandera from that buffer. The Greatest Generation was being raised during those years and they would survive the depression and lead us to victory in WW II. Eleven more years and I arrived on the scene in 1947 to begin my 80 year run of living.
The passing of 80 more years after 1936 brought us to 2016. This was a significant year in the town of Bandera.
Governor Greg Abbott officially recognized Bandera as the 'Cowboy Capital of the World' in 2016 with a historical marker honoring its role as a key staging area for the Great Western Cattle Trail. It created quite a bit of hootin' and hollerin' from the folks over in Stephenville, but we have a state approved marker installed. Besides, I read it on the internet so it's gotta be true.
So there you have it. I have lived for a third of our nation's life since its creation as a constitutional republic and to think I did it all while growing up in Bandera.
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