Cicero said, “If you have a library and a garden, you have all that you need.” Texas Standard commentator WF Strong says you can begin to understand that wisdom when you enter the gates of Quinta Mazatlan. It’s an urban oasis in south McAllen.
Episodes
November 20, 2024
How some donated land became a bounty for a small town’s students
Texas Standard commentator WF Strong says the Gruver Farm Scholarship Foundation has already made a multi-generational impact.
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November 7, 2024
Could Napoleon have ruled over Texas?
A strongman politician is something we’ve heard a lot about recently. This Stories From Texas is about a strongman from history and a plan to set him up anew in Texas. Texas Standard Commentator W.F. Strong dug up this story — one that you probably didn’t hear about in Texas history, for one, because it […]
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October 23, 2024
Even though the words “Remember the Alamo” are available on t-shirts, bumper-stickers, and kitchen kitsch, the Alamo wasn’t always remembered with the reverence it is today. For a long time, the Alamo was used mostly as a warehouse. Even the church, which people rather universally think of as the Alamo, was used as an army […]
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October 10, 2024
My brush with fate or serendipity
Sometimes things happen in the world that just seem too coincidental to be coincidental. We have lots of words to describe these moments — luck, serendipity, maybe fate or destiny, perhaps a miracle? Texas Standard Commentator WF Strong remembers one of these moments he just can’t explain.
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August 28, 2024
Some of the best Texans have been Californians – on film
These five Californians, including John Wayne and Robert Duvall, have made great Texans in movies.
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August 14, 2024
The recipe is a mainstay under the Friday night lights and has morphed – and gotten more portable – since its debut in 1949.
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July 3, 2024
He who has the gold, makes the rules
Stories of lost gold have long dominated Texas lore. Coronado looped around what’s now the Texas Panhandle in search of it. And there’s that allegedly lost gold mine in the Guadalupe Mountains of far west Texas. Texas Standard commentator WF Strong has had his own experience with reportedly lost treasure. And he recalls another story […]
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June 19, 2024
The craziest race you’ve never heard of happened on Padre Island
Texas Standard commentator WF Strong says that, starting in the 1950s, participants in the Padre Island Walkathon covered 110 miles – all walking, no running – over three days.
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