Today's Apocalypse Sign: What Else...Dig "D"

Dallas skyline reflected in the Trinity river

                   


When you live in the DFW area there is no bigger "D" than Dallas, TX. Straight line, pedal to the metal, across the metroplex is an hour drive (55 miles). After New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles I believe the DFW Metroplex is the fourth largest gaggle of people in the USA. Houston maybe the fourth largest city but we don't really talk about them.

                               Click to enlarge

I moved to Texas from Ohio 30 years ago. I have lived here more than half my life. I have lived in the DFW area for the last 23 years. As with most major metropolitan cities we have a great mix of everything.

Places to eat and drink are too numerous to count. Swanky clubs like the Ghost Bar draw the rich and famous.

Sporting franchises like the Dallas Cowboys (not my favorite team), the Dallas Mavericks (continual NBA heartbreak team), the Texas Rangers (so close in the World Series last season), the Dallas Stars (another annual heartbreak team) always seem to offer at least a chance for a world championship every year. Unlike the Cubs, the Clippers, or the Mets. (That's Chicago, LA, and New York by the way)

New sports arenas like the American Airlines center (or the AAC if you're local) and the megalopolis billion dollar Dallas Cowboys Stadium (with the game's largest video screen, I think it's the size of Rhode Island) in Arlington that hosted this year's Super Bowl in which my favorite team the Green Bay Packers dominated.

We have tremendous arts districts, eclectic underground downtown clubs (like Trees, which has actual trees growing from the floor up through the roof). Massive highway infrastructure that never seems to stop expanding (mostly as tollroads). Dallas has Fair Park which hosts the state fair each year with the giant Big Tex greeting all vistors. Every year the fair has the newest thing in wacky fried food. Last year was deep fried ice cream or butter or something equally cardiac-arrest inducing. Ft Worth has Billy Bob's (worlds largest honky tonk). We have Troy Aikman, Pat Summeral, President Bush (W), and a host of other celebs as residents.

We have crime and stupid shit like every big city but for the most part it is confined to an area of the city you would never be in. Although Fair Park is in a really crappy part of town it still draws massive crowds every year. The old outdoor Cotton Bowl stadium is at Fair Park as well.

We have infamy. November 23rd, 1963...where were you? President John F Kennedy was assinated in Dealy Plaza. I have driven these roads of the Presidential route every time I have jury duty. The Sixth Floor Museum is one of the quietest most somber tours you will ever take. You cannot carry anything with you. Purses and bags, phones, cameras all have to be checked at the entrance. It is really errie to be standing in the exact spot with a crosshair on the window that Oswald fired from. The scene from the window has not changed much at all in almost 50 years. Here you can sit where the motorcade was.

The economy is better here than in most parts of the country and no state income tax is a big draw, as is the great weather. I believe I am a Texan now even though I was born a Yankee. There is an old saying here, "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could".

Let me know when you are in town and we'll have an ice cold Shiner Bock!