by Alan B. Combs

Jealousy is described as the green demon. Indeed, it can be the undoing of otherwise well-fated folks. Thus it was with the people that lived in Texas’s fair cities of Bryan and College Station.

To understand this occurrence, you must also realize that the folks from this part of Texas are deeply and religiously into country music. They would not feel this as an obsession, however, but rather as a normal way of living. So be it.

Jealousy got them into trouble when one of Roger Miller’s songs went high in the country music charts. This was the song that extolled the virtues of Great Britain and especially the fun and high jinks in which one could participate there. The Better Business Bureaus of the two cities immediately created a song comparing their part of Texas to the beautiful island of the song.

“Aggieland swings like a pendulum, too!”

Alas, it turned out to be another one of those Agro-American ethnic jokes.