Up On The Clear Fork

Just before the great war called the Civil War today, once known down here as the War of Northern Aggression, the first white settlers tried to settle the land where Rick Perry was born. Those people were either killed by Indians, both Kickapoo and Comanche. The land was quiet again until well after the war. After the Comanche were finally subdued and the rest of the tribes sent up to the Indian Territory, later stolen from them and renamed Oklahoma, northwest Texas was finally settled by white folks. And they were white folks, there were very few freed slaves or what were then known as Mexicans.

 The land was mostly arid plains with just a few creeks flowing into the forks of the Brazos. Cattle was king back then, the small farms were impractical, the water wasn't there. And that's the way it stayed until they dammed the river. This brought practical irrigation in with cotton replacing cattle in places. There was also some oil discovered not long after the turn of the Twentieth Century.

 Somehow places were named with no regard to Twenty-first Century ideals, the nerve of those oldtimers! A pasture of a cattle ranch was named "Niggerhead, after a particular rock. Later the rock had that name painted on it. Years, decades after that a northwest Texas farmer and Democrat politician leased that pasture for hunting. That Democrat was Rick Perry's dad. Eventually Dad Perry painted over the offending name. Please bear in mind that Dad Perry did not own the rock and may have well gotten in trouble over  painting over the name, had the rancher who did own that rock so chosen. The rancher did not, although the lawsuit would have been interesting. Still, had the rancher complained, loudly, that still would not have satisfied the pearl clutchers at the Washington Post.

 Later Dad Perry even turned the rock with the offending overpainted name over, further hiding the offending name. Still, the Grandees of the Washington Post are flipping their aprons in front of their faces in horror. If only Rick Perry had not got in that time machine and rode it back to the Nineteenth Century and forced those ol' boys to name that rock so offensively! Or something. I
m really having a problem figuring out why this is a news story. We already knew folks in the past did things and used words that we do not do or use anymore. Well, mostly. Slavery does not exist here anymore although it is still extant in some Muslim areas. We do not use the term "Nigger" much anymore although it is still in use in the black neighborhoods. Funny that.

 I would probably do better ignoring this, like I would probably do better never noticing anything that comes from the Washington Post.