When she entered, the president presented her with a bouquet of roses. The night Martie was designated this year’s queen by the festival president, who has sole discretion, her parents and brother had gathered in the living room. And girls who would be queen start practicing their bows in grammar school. The elite families, rich in the oil money that has purchased their grand antebellum homes and country club memberships, start planning a year in advance. Life in Tyler, a town of 80,000 people about 100 miles east of Dallas, revolves around the Rose Festival. ``They make something so social such an important part of their lives.″ It’s like something out of the Civil War days,″ says Julia Sweeney, former society editor at the Dallas Times Herald. In an age when many a teen-ager isn’t cool without a tattoo, grungy clothes or a pierced nose, Tyler is a place where young ladies are still presented to society in white gowns and kid leather gloves. With the exception of the World War II years, the pomp and pageantry of Texas festivals and their royalty have survived and even flourished through the anti-establishment ’60s, the oil-busted late ‘80s and the downsized ’90s. It’s a nose-to-the-floor ``full court bow,″ also known as the ``Texas Bow,″ or modified ``Dallas Dip.″ It isn’t just a demure nod, a coy little dip or a flouncy curtsy.

On Thursday night, Martie Wolf will perform the Tyler time-honored tradition she has been perfecting for months _ a reverential bow to the high society that has cradled her. Rising slowly under the weight of her gown, she then will descend the stage’s grand staircase, holding her rhinestone-encrusted scepter, wrist slightly cocked. She will turn to the Rose Festival president, decked out in tuxedo and tails, and kneel before him as he crowns her, tapping her shoulders left and then right. A raised drawbridge hiding her will slowly fall, and the crowd will catch its first glimpse of her bejeweled dress _ the color and design kept top secret for months. The orchestra will play the first notes of ``Pomp and Circumstance″ as the lights come up on stage. TYLER, Texas (AP) _ In her 100-pound gown with the 17-foot train, the queen of the Texas Rose Festival will take her bow. When it was over, he turned to me and said, `As long as we can have the Tyler Rose Festival, there will always be an America.′ ″ _ Julia Sweeney, former Dallas Times Herald society columnist. ``One year, the man sitting next to me at the Rose Festival coronation had a granddaughter that was a lady-in-waiting.

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