Post by sloanrodgers on Oct 14, 2008 23:27:55 GMT -5
For those that know me and as my username/ moniker implies, I'm a Texas ranger buff. I have many
connections ( just check out my home page ) to this old law enforcement organization, although no
close relatives that served as Texas rangers. While I was growing up in San Marcos and Austin, TX.
in the late 60s and 70s, I loved The Lone Ranger, Batman, Spiderman, Big Foot Wallace and later a
few other heroes. Even though parents and grandparents took me to the Alamo remains and Mission
San Jose ( they took a lot of pics of San Jose, but none of the Alamo ) when I was five years old, I
have no real childhood memories of the mission, story or great men that were killed within it. I recall
seeing the noted John Wayne and Fess Parker films in the mid 70s, but don't remember being overly
impressed by them. My interest in the Alamo Siege was a very slow process as I studied many other
subjects. Over the years, I perused a Crockett book here, an Alamo movie there until I joined a now
defunct Alamo forum, where I often felt like an outsider. Many forum members seemed to have deep
emotional and some down right fanatical connections to the Alamo from childhood, where I thought
I had none. It was quite a contrast in some discussions.
Last weekend, I got the notion to visit my first home on Cornell Street in San Marcos. Since I had
not seen it since I was three years old I had to take my mom along to identify the home. Once we
got in the general area, we discovered that Cornell Street no longer exists and the road was now
called West Sessom. I also found it very interesting and coincidental that the nearest cross street
was named Alamo Street. I later learned that my old home was on the southeast tip of the Alamo
District in San Marcos and that W. Sessom Street was named for Texas Revolutionary soldier Mike
Sessom ( of course he was also a ranger ), who served in the area around San Antonio. While we
walked around the property, my mother had a memory that at some point when I was a little kid,
I actually had a coonskin cap like Ol' Davy Crockett. This got me thinking that maybe others have
long forgotten or not so forgotten connections to the Alamo and that it might make a good topic
to drive them out. It's interesting how things come full circle in your life. What's your connection
to the Alamo or what got people interested in the shrine and its heroic defenders?
connections ( just check out my home page ) to this old law enforcement organization, although no
close relatives that served as Texas rangers. While I was growing up in San Marcos and Austin, TX.
in the late 60s and 70s, I loved The Lone Ranger, Batman, Spiderman, Big Foot Wallace and later a
few other heroes. Even though parents and grandparents took me to the Alamo remains and Mission
San Jose ( they took a lot of pics of San Jose, but none of the Alamo ) when I was five years old, I
have no real childhood memories of the mission, story or great men that were killed within it. I recall
seeing the noted John Wayne and Fess Parker films in the mid 70s, but don't remember being overly
impressed by them. My interest in the Alamo Siege was a very slow process as I studied many other
subjects. Over the years, I perused a Crockett book here, an Alamo movie there until I joined a now
defunct Alamo forum, where I often felt like an outsider. Many forum members seemed to have deep
emotional and some down right fanatical connections to the Alamo from childhood, where I thought
I had none. It was quite a contrast in some discussions.
Last weekend, I got the notion to visit my first home on Cornell Street in San Marcos. Since I had
not seen it since I was three years old I had to take my mom along to identify the home. Once we
got in the general area, we discovered that Cornell Street no longer exists and the road was now
called West Sessom. I also found it very interesting and coincidental that the nearest cross street
was named Alamo Street. I later learned that my old home was on the southeast tip of the Alamo
District in San Marcos and that W. Sessom Street was named for Texas Revolutionary soldier Mike
Sessom ( of course he was also a ranger ), who served in the area around San Antonio. While we
walked around the property, my mother had a memory that at some point when I was a little kid,
I actually had a coonskin cap like Ol' Davy Crockett. This got me thinking that maybe others have
long forgotten or not so forgotten connections to the Alamo and that it might make a good topic
to drive them out. It's interesting how things come full circle in your life. What's your connection
to the Alamo or what got people interested in the shrine and its heroic defenders?