Texas Pledge of Allegiance

"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." (See here.)

I remember reciting this pledge (without the "one state under God," which was apparently added in 2007) when I was in grade school.  It's amazing how little things can stay with you (and subliminally affect you) the rest of your life.  I left Texas in 2001, but I've still got this sense of patriotism for my home state.  Here are the first things that came to my mind when I thought about just what in my childhood could possibly make me still want to pledge allegiance to the flag of Texas.

Where else would childhood recollections include (in no particular order):

1.) Using a cattle prod to zap 3 inch tadpoles in a horse trough;
2.) Shooting a several-days-old dead cow with a Glock handgun and watching it explode;
3.) Cutting off snake heads to nail above the entrance to your clubhouse;
4.) Naming your favorite pet after a girl in school and then eating it;
5.) Calling the rodeo kids "hicks" and then going home to feed your livestock;
6.) Thinking your teacher was a liberal hippie because she had a picture of then-President Clinton in her classroom;
7.) Hearing that your classmate races lawnmowers and thinking it's cool;
8.) Thinking that anyone who didn't two-step couldn't dance;
9.) Collecting garbage bags full of cow pies for $1.00 a bag (for fertilizer) and thinking it was a heckuva deal;
10.) Having the temperature hit 119 degrees and your coaches still not cancelling football practice.