Yesterday's news that 'Big Tex' had caught fire and burned, just 25 minutes after the Texas State Fair opened, caught me by surprise. Taylor, our daughter who works downtown, called to tell me. My throat caught - then she laughingly helped, "I told my friends 'my Dad will cry,'" and she kindly moved on.
Big Tex represents more than just a 'talking tall man' for me - this child of the 50s, he represents memories and awe. Born in 1950, 2 years before Big Tex himself, my beginnings were before computers and cell phones. My world consisted of TV with rabbit ears and only 3 channels, and color TV was something seen only at the store. I was a child of 'Mr. Peppermint,' 'Icky Twerp' and the 'Slam Bang Theater' (go look it up), and in my young days neither the Dallas Cowboys (nor Dallas Texans), existed - and when they did, they played in the Cotton Bowl, with fewer in the stands than when SMU played there. In other words, the Fair Grounds were everything to me - and BIG TEX, written always in CAPS and towering high over near east Dallas, became an icon of both our cultures past and its bright and bragg-adocious future yet to come. TEX saying, 'Welcome to the State Fair of Texas' was code for... "Welcome to Dallas, Y'all."
As a boy my Dad, who rarely took off work for anything, somehow always 'took off' on our school's 'Fair Day'. He'd meet us at the front gate, coming to join us from work, but once he did... the party began. This Dad was not the Dad of everyday, this was 'Fair Day Dad,' and he was amazing. There wasn't a ride he said 'NO' to, not one animal (at the LIVESTOCK SHOW) we did not stop to see, and Corny Dog's? their supply seemed limitless. Overlooking it all was BIG TEX, and the same admonition from Dad, "if we get separated, or you get lost, go to BIG TEX and wait for me there!" Word's that, even today, are hard for me to write without choking up. Dad is gone, and now...
Last evening I sat for a moment with Cody Jones, our Minister to Students whom I absolutely love, and we talked about BIG TEX and his burning. His reply was of comfort, "it was just clothes and a jaw, pastor, they will have him back up in no time, bigger and better." And, of course, Cody is right. I am sure that the unveiling of the new and improved BIGGER TEX will be a media sensation. Who wouldn't want to watch this. But, still... there's just something not right about his burning, at least for me. Something symbolic for this preacher, who's lived long enough to watch so much change - not only with our world at large, but with our world right here in Dallas.
I have a few Dallas Newspapers that I've saved. The day Tom Landry died and the last issue of Dallas Times Herald are among them. Both of these 'front pages' report on icons of the past - "Landry" and the "Herald" - two icons which really did make us better. I suspect I'll save today's Dallas News, as well.
"If we get separated or lost, go to BIG TEX and wait for me there!"
And, I will, Dad :-)
Pastor Sam
