Geography Lesson

Down at the library they have been giving out maps of the United States without names of the states on it. People, who want to, are given a page and a ball point pen and asked to write in the name of as many states as they know. And you know what? Most of the older people can get most of the names right. One seventy year old lady even wrote in the capitals of the states. The young people, not so much. I asked some of them what state New York City was in and about half gave me the wrong answer. When I was in school geography was a big deal. The teachers thought if we didn't know our own country we would not be able to understand how it works. The state that was written in correctly most often--with the exception of Mississippi--was Texas. I reckon that's because it's the biggest and the picture of the map of Texas appears on a jar of salsa that's real popular among folks around here.