While visiting a friend in Texas, I was struck with how many seemingly normal adults there like to play cowboy. By that I mean they like to wear a cowboy costume, with hat, boots and belt buckle, and for some reason this is all seen as normal.
I guess it is, except the fact that this cowboy character died out about, oh, 100 years or so back. Nonetheless, the idea that you can play dress up and call yourself a cowboy seems fine in Texas. There is a commentator on the Fox News site who writes about the cowboy way of doing things, noting the ethical and moral codes that cowboys live by. Did a cowboy committee - maybe Wyatt Earp, Jesse James and Hopalong Cassidy - get together and write these rules? Also, I think Billy the Kid was a cowboy and his moral standing seems a bit dubious to me.
Along the same line, I notice that one of the most popular country songs in recent history is “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).” That’s great advice – where’s the time machine parked, so I can get right on this? Country stars, take Clint Black for example, love to dress like they’re going to a shootout with Black Bart. I would venture to say that most of these “cowboys” have a) never ridden a horse, b) never rustled cattle, and c) live in a suburb of Dallas.
Would it be okay if I start playing dress-up too? Will these cowboys criticize me? I want to play colonial settler. I’ll sing hymns, drink mulled cider and practice a strict form of Puritanism (except when I sing my theme song – “Save a Mule, Let a Godfearing Colonial Plow Your Field”).
I'll wear the hat with the buckle on it – the whole deal. Maybe people in Minnesota will start dressing as Norse explorers. You can really pick the character that works for you – ninja, pharaoh, peasant. I’m assuming no one in Texas will have a problem with this, as they are already way ahead on the plan. If they do, show them who’s boss, then tell them they got their ass kicked by a real American peasant – USA! USA! USA!
Howdy Partner! Best get you a holster for that there cell phone on your hip! 
What the hell does "Cowboy Up" mean? I plan to "Colonial Up." Does that trump this, since colonials came first?Mulled cider for everyone!
Posts
I've always wanted to date a Colonial type. That way I can tell my friends: "I started dating one of those Colonial boys..you know how they are....always hanging out in colonial bars, drinking mulled cider and writing in their daily logs until dawn! For my birthday, he bought me a real sharp bonnet to wear..it's not my thing, but hey, it's what is considered hot ass in his crew!"....."and they don't call it the 'ye bulge' for nothing...those tights make any man look gifted!"
ReplyDeleteDear Windy City Blow (Don't worry, I won't take the cheap shot at that one),
ReplyDeleteI just spent the last few days in Montreal (it's in a foreign country called Canada and an even more foreign province called Quebec). They have lots of pagentry, historical and otherwise, in Montreal, and this weekend was the start of the Francofollies (look it up). Lots of people were dressed up in all kinds of costumes roaming the streets and having a ball and no one seemed perturbed by their choice of dress code. For that matter, in Le Village, Montreal's extensive and very festive LGBT neighbourhood, costuming is often the norm.
So get off your high horse, cowboy, and let the Texans and everyone else do their thing. DiverseCity is what keeps this third rock from the sun spinning.
Oh, a note of encouragement for your colonial tendencies. It is also the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's explorations in North America so lots of Montrealers are also dressed in period costumes as French colonists at this very moment. Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk, Colonial Plowboy :)
Maybe it's time to re-start an underground railroad escape route for runaway American slaves of fashion north to Oh Canada.