Calling All Cowboys
In the US we have a “mini” holiday every day. For instance “take you cat to work day" or “potato farmers’ appreciation day”. Well, this weekend is Cowboy Appreciation Day. Here, in the west, we take our cowboys seriously. When I was growing up every boy and girl had, at one time or another, a cowboy/cowgirl outfit complete with hat, boots, fringed jacket, sheriff’s badge and a holstered cap gun.
TV shows made life on the ranch seem glamorous, exciting and a bit dangerous.
This part of Americana has left us a legacy of designer cowboy boots and hats, which fetch a tidy sum, for wannabe wranglers. We wear jeans with designer labels and western embroidered motifs (even though Levis were initially manufactured for laborers, not cowboys). Some of our best occasions for entertaining are rodeos and, in Santa Fe, the upcoming “Buckaroo Ball”, a charity event.
"The cowboy is America's most prominent and enduring symbolic figure. He has come to represent American manhood and a spirit of self-reliance and independence"
Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West, Russel Martin, Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Pub., NY, 1983
"No cowboy history is complete without accessories ... from the Stetson and flowing neckerchief to the lavishly embroidered and fringed shirts."
Cowboy: How Hollywood invented The Wild West, Holly George-Warren, Reader's Digest Assoc., Inc., NY, 2002
Art of the Boot, Tyler Beard, Gibbs-Smith Pub., Salt Lake City, 1999
The American Bandanna:: Culture on Cloth from George Washington to Elvis, Hillary Weiss, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1990
So dust off those chaps and spurs!!
Happy Trails
In the US we have a “mini” holiday every day. For instance “take you cat to work day" or “potato farmers’ appreciation day”. Well, this weekend is Cowboy Appreciation Day. Here, in the west, we take our cowboys seriously. When I was growing up every boy and girl had, at one time or another, a cowboy/cowgirl outfit complete with hat, boots, fringed jacket, sheriff’s badge and a holstered cap gun.
TV shows made life on the ranch seem glamorous, exciting and a bit dangerous.
This part of Americana has left us a legacy of designer cowboy boots and hats, which fetch a tidy sum, for wannabe wranglers. We wear jeans with designer labels and western embroidered motifs (even though Levis were initially manufactured for laborers, not cowboys). Some of our best occasions for entertaining are rodeos and, in Santa Fe, the upcoming “Buckaroo Ball”, a charity event.
"The cowboy is America's most prominent and enduring symbolic figure. He has come to represent American manhood and a spirit of self-reliance and independence"
Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West, Russel Martin, Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Pub., NY, 1983
Cowboy: How Hollywood invented The Wild West, Holly George-Warren, Reader's Digest Assoc., Inc., NY, 2002
Art of the Boot, Tyler Beard, Gibbs-Smith Pub., Salt Lake City, 1999
The American Bandanna:: Culture on Cloth from George Washington to Elvis, Hillary Weiss, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1990
So dust off those chaps and spurs!!
Happy Trails
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