From Larry McMurthy: Horsemen, Goodbye

In Texas Monthly's current issue on Texas cities - which I'll be pulling material from for a while - has thoughts from Texas author Larry McMurthy on changes he's noted in the major cities on Texas. It seems that Texans have grown more urban since the 1960s. The frontier mentality common then has waned.

My point, much reiterated, was that Texans in the main were not yet able to handle the pressures of urban life. I saw this demonstrated on a hot summer day on the Houston beltway, where traffic neither moved nor offered the slightest prospects of movement, when the two cars in front of me bumped fenders; their drivers, both wearing ties and pinstripes, got out and flung themselves at one another. Soon they were rolling around on the burning pavement, in the traffic. Several drivers, including myself, tried to reason with them, and eventually it took, up to a point. Neither car was hurt at all, but the two men got up, exchanged insurance info, shook hands, and got back in their cars. Twenty minutes or so later the traffic moved normally again. Terrible traffic is the price Houstonians pay for living in a real city.

When I published my essays with the Wittliffs, they had no interest in curbing my wordage; they wanted as much book as they could get. Not so the Monthly: it serves a readership whose attention span is far from limitless. More than forty years have passed since I took that first look at the cities of Texas. Now many of its citizens have shaken off the frontier ethic and become mature urbanites. In response to this change, most of the cities have gone to the trouble to provide their better-informed residents some of the trappings of high culture. There are several excellent museums and an opera house or two. In addition, these cities have produced a number of locally grown artists who are good in various spheres. This is no small thing

He does not speculate on what has lead this change, but a massive influx of residents from around the nation and world undoubtedly helps, in addition to the simple fact that many of us - though not all - are one or two additional generations separated from the farm. Are we growing more comfortable being in close proximity with others and in allowing courts to mediate our disputes? There comes a point where we may no longer be fit to be called Texans.

I wonder whether Texans' increased fixation with guns is related to a decline in the frontier. The decreased reality of the frontier leads to it becoming more prominent in our imagination. Just a thought.

Here's coincidental trivia: McMurthy is a three time winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Ny 2306s are readign up on Jones this semester.