There haven't been too many cowboy movies made for the last few years, at least not many I would go to see, but the Hollywood concept of the cowboy has forever colored the reality of living in the old west with the primary occupation of tending cows. If you needed to know what a real cowboy looked like, here is an almost hundred year old photo of one. You will notice the hat, but if you look closely, you can see the chaps. You may miss the closed toe stirrups. Which by the way, are coming back into style. The front enclosure is now called, by some manufacturers, the "safety cage."
Years ago when I was out with one of my friends riding horses out on the Colorado Plateau, a car load of tourists stopped and got out of their cars and took our picture. When they left we laughed so hard we almost fell off our horses, here were two boys from Phoenix, right in the middle of a large city, who the tourists thought looked like typical cowboys.
Being a cowboy was no great honor. It was dirty, hard work with little or no reward. There is nothing romantic about living outdoors with cows. The stylized version of the Old West, was a fiction. My grandparents grew up in the Old West, and they were nothing at all like any of the fictional accounts. They were tough characters physically, but my great-grandfather, who was a real cowboy, was described in his obituary in major newspapers as "a man of remarkable industry, temperate habits, generous disposition, and unswerving integrity." Does that remind you of any Hollywood cowboys?
Years ago when I was out with one of my friends riding horses out on the Colorado Plateau, a car load of tourists stopped and got out of their cars and took our picture. When they left we laughed so hard we almost fell off our horses, here were two boys from Phoenix, right in the middle of a large city, who the tourists thought looked like typical cowboys.
Being a cowboy was no great honor. It was dirty, hard work with little or no reward. There is nothing romantic about living outdoors with cows. The stylized version of the Old West, was a fiction. My grandparents grew up in the Old West, and they were nothing at all like any of the fictional accounts. They were tough characters physically, but my great-grandfather, who was a real cowboy, was described in his obituary in major newspapers as "a man of remarkable industry, temperate habits, generous disposition, and unswerving integrity." Does that remind you of any Hollywood cowboys?
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