KFDM COOP Posted June 27, 2009 Report Posted June 27, 2009 Representing Texas at PCB Van Wade The Orange Leader What a place to kick back and relax. Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. Why not go back to the place you proposed to your wife to celebrate an anniversary. If you haven’t been there, it’s a paradise. They don’t call it the Redneck Riviera for nothing and Kelly and I love it. The trip is great, once you get Louisiana in your rearview mirror. Every time I go, I pack all my Texas gear up. You have to do that, just to see how many stares you get. There are a few Texas stragglers but most of the folks that hit PCB this time of year are Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee fans. I sported my Texas Longhorn gear with pride. I even ran across a Florida Gator fan and told him proudly with my “Hook’em Horns†shirt that we would be playing his team in the BCS National Championship Game come January. He gave me a stern look and said “We’ll see you there.†I didn’t really want to argue with the guy and pick a fight. After all, the 10-year-old’s Dad was right around the corner. I went into a couple university clothing stores at a strip mall there. That was pure “foreign†for this Texas “cat†who is used to seeing Texas and A&M gear all over the place. All you see there is “Roll Tide†shirts. Of course there are the Gators and Hurricanes but even more Florida State Seminoles gear. Each day we’d also hit the beach. Covering local high school sports for 16 years, you know I’ve been blessed with at least 120 T-shirts that the schools have dished out. It’s fun to get the comments from 530 miles away too. One day I adorned a Bridge City Basketball T-shirt that Bridge City boys basketball coach Tony Knight gave me last season. The comment I received was about Hurricane Ike. A lady, that lives in Foley, Alabama, had a cousin that lived in Bridge City and her and her husband talked about the devastation but also how quickly her cousin and family bounced back quickly due to a tremendous amount of help from the surrounding communities. I just told her that’s what Southeast Texas is all about. The next day, we’re in line at a Marble Slab when I was supporting a “Chain Gang†T-Shirt that long-time West Orange-Stark coordinator Cornel Thompson gave me at some point in the mid-1990s. Sure enough, a gentleman, who looked to be in his late 40s approached me. He said, “Man, is that program as good as it was back in the 1980s.†The man had relatives that live in McKinney. He said his nephew played on the McKinney JV in 1986 but remembered with great detail, the 21-9 victory WO-S put up against them in the 1986 Class 4A State Championship tilt. He brought up how the Mustang defense shackled Randy Simmons, their All-American tailback. On Tuesday night, we ventured into a club called Tootsies, that name sticks because that’s our miniature pincher’s name. Texas had already dropped Game One to LSU in the College Baseball World Series Championship on Monday. However, it was Texas’ night to shine Tuesday. So there I am, sporting a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt and a 2006 Texas National Championship football cap and having staredowns with a two couples covered with LSU gear as we watched the big screen TV. Nothing like one-upping somebody on vacation with you wife telling you to quit staring at people. Texas shut down the Tigers that night, forcing a Game Three Wednesday. Unfortunately, that third game didn’t go so well for our boys of the “Forty Acres.†LSU, which truly seemed to be the best team throughout the Series, went on to win the thing, which made the traffic jam in Baton Rouge coming home rough with all the Geaux Tigers and national title signs that were hanging everywhere. The funny thing about the beach is that folks are so relaxed. It’s not just the men that sport their favorite schools, the ladies that were there represented well too, though I didn’t see any two-piece “Gig’em†bathing suits. I’m about ready to hang out in a Texas Academy store to feel like I’m truly home again. However, I just might head over to the Sulphur Wal-Mart soon. Trust me, I’m not getting anything that says LSU on it anytime soon. Maybe a Sulphur Tors cap for the next time I go see LC-M head coach Randy Crouch, who is a Sulphur grad.
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