"The Alamo, San Antonio, TX - 03/19/2010..."

From my journal entry of Friday Morning, March 19, 2010 - 10:20 AM...

"I am at the Alamo... I have wanted to see this forever!!  Ever since I was a boy, I've been in love with Davy Crockett and the Alamo... San Antonio is built up all around it... it is a small structure and already a very long line of people waiting to get into the chapel structure...

It is amazing to be here...

This morning on the news, it was announced that Fess Parker had died overnight... he used to play 'Davy Crockett' in the 'Walt Disney' TV series... what an ironic twist on the day that I get to visit..."

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When I was little, Davy Crockett was just a cultural hero...  As I wrote in my journal, I used to watch 'Walt Disney' on Sunday nights because they would have Davy Crockett segments... I even had a coonskin cap... and my sister (the one I take to dinner several evenings a week now) found some Davy Crockett material somewhere and made a Davy Crockett shirt for me... 

Mom and Dad would drive us to Memphis on occassion... and for those of you that don't know, the Mississippi Delta is table-top flat... but right outside of Memphis, you start to run into some hills... and Mom and Dad would keep us occupied by telling us to look for the 'Davy Crockett Hills'... Mom and Dad were sharp... haha...

There is a long storied history about the Alamo...  The name, Alamo, came from what the Spanish soldiers who were stationed there called it... 'alamo' being Spanish for 'cottonwood'...  It was believed that the volunteers who held the Alamo were vital to the battle for Texas' independence from Mexico.  Among the volunteers at the Alamo were William Barret Travis, Jim Bowie (Bowie Knife fame), and Davy Crockett.  I learned that Travis was only 26 years old when he assumed command of the Alamo and died there.  I tend to think of our military leaders as being 'older'... but then, the average age of a B-17 bomber crew in WWII was only 22... 

The Mexican army... led by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, surrounded the volunteers at the Alamo for about 13 days... probably the reason that the siege lasted 13 days was to give the Mexican Army  time to amass the troops that they wanted to use for the attack.  On March 6, at about 5:00 AM, the attack was ordered... and it is believed that it lasted 90 minutes...  

I've seen several movies about the Alamo... the one with John Wayne... and more recently the one with Billy Bob Thornton, each portraying Davy Crockett... although the critics didn't like it, I really thought the newer one was really nicely done... and seemed to be more historically accurate... 

It is believed that as many as thirteen of the volunteers survived that 1 1/2 hour battle, but, since Santa Anna had ordered 'No Quarter'... everyone would die, they were summarily executed... and all bodies were cremated in huge funeral pyres...


There is a great scene in 'Lonesome Dove' where Gus and Call are riding into San Antonio... and you can see the Alamo in the background... Call turns to his left and looks has he rides past... and says nothing... a great moment in the series, I thought...

This was a great trip... I got to see two historically significant places that I have wanted to see for a long time...

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I have mentioned prior, that I had been contacted by my high school girl friend... and that she wanted to meet... and about how I wasn't sure about what her status was...

We did meet... and I will write about that soon...

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~shoes~