Corpus Christi, Texas 1952Judging from two photographs of myself, taken 37 years apart, I have always wanted to be a cowboy (cowgirl, for those who insist upon gender-accurate labeling). When I was five, in the 1952 photo, that amounted to sitting on a pony, wearing chaps and a Stetson. My daddy had Stetsons, so that red felt thing on my head was a Stetson, too...had to be.
By the time I was 42, in the second photo (face added to John Wayne movie poster in PhotoShop), I had further defined my desire, moving from range-riding, cattle-driving cowboy to Sheriff, champion of law-and-order, defender of Truth, Justice - and the American Way (whatever the hell that means.)
...
I don't know what happened to those two people, but I can't find either of them today. Maybe I'm evolving; maybe I'm lost.
(c) 2009 Martha McLemore
27 comments:
Clever photo-shopping! Aren't we always evolving? They say every cell in our body replaces and renews itself in, I forget, so may hours or days or weeks. Hope you are taking good care of yourself...
I have always been a horse woman. I never owned one myself, but one of my best friends growing up started a stable that ended up being one of the best ever. She taught all the Equestrian classes for the University of Utah. So I always got to ride for free. I gave basic western lessons, but learned to ride English and to ride really well. I used to take kids from the reform school on trail rides and when the boys got cocky and into cowboying I took them straight up a steep trail and then over then top and down a very steep narrow trail with a drop off close to the trail. That usually scared the crap out of them and got all their macho out of their systems. Then I felt safe letting them canter for awhile.
I was still riding almost every day into my fifties. I got to ride the best horses that were boarded at her stable because owners of these great horses were to lazy to do it. Lucky me. I've been on overnight camp trips with horses, packing in food and sleeping gear. I've been on endurance races. But the most thrilling thing I've ever done was learn to play polo in my fifties. That was truly grand. So I know what you mean when you say you've always been a Cowgirl. Me too.
I've always wanted to be the indian. I wanted to wear buckskins and feathers and war- paint and ride bare-back. Maybe we know each other from some previous wild-west lifetime?
So did the pony take a bite of your leg?
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened.
- T.S. Eliot
I love T.S. Eliot and loved horses too. I never got to be an equestrienne like Utah but was lucky enough over a couple of summers to have riding and jumping lessons. Then the farm behind our house took to boarding horses and they'd come to the fence for fallen apples and we'd catch them and ride bare back. I felt like a Mongol queen.
What wonders photoshop can do! I've never been on a horse..not that I want to..he he
I see from the text you now use, you've decided to cater for the partially sighted. Very honourable. But however large the type, and however eloquently you write, nothing will will bridge the gap between me and horses. I was just about to write something terribly witty (and wounding) about horses but I see that one of your commenters is keen on them (as I suppose you are) so ah'll shet my marf.
There's a briefer PC option for the cowboy/cowgirl dilemma. If chairman can become chair then... Hey, I'm only teasing.
There is on old photo of me in a cowboy outfit; Zorro. Remember him. A dashing Mexican in black with a cloak.
I'm about five and look far from dashing in my National helath glasses conmplete with eye patch and toothless grin......my front teeth had dropped out.
It's cowboy. Cowgirl is more about rodeos and parades. I know this because I worked as a cowboy for a few years. It is physically demanding, relentless, low paid, long hours... but, yes, there are good times. When you are on a horse that you like, moving the cattle from corrals to pasture, a good dog rounding up the wanderers ~ yeah. Then it's worth it.
Marja-Leena:
I think it is every 28 days, if I'm remembering correctly.
When my computer crashed last year, I lost my photoshop file. Don't have the original disc anymore. I really miss the fun of editing photographs.
Utah:
Wow, what a wonderful set of skills to have. I am a wee bit envious.
Love how you set those boys to right. Unless you know what you are doing, horsing about on a horse (no pun meant, sorry) is not the wisest thing to do.
:)
DeeDee:
Maybe we do. Family legend has it that we are part Cherokee on both parents' sides, but I think it is only on my mother's side of the family.
:)
Jim:
As I remember, that poor pony was dehydrated and had to lean against the house between riders (Three of us had our pictures taken that day.) I took water out to the pony in one of my mother's best pots, which she was not happy about.
No, he didn't bite.
:)
Susan:
One of the times we lived in Texas, there was a small horse farm that butted to the back of our yard. We gave them carrots, until the owner yelled at us about giving them too many.
I've loved horses since I was at least five, maybe earlier. Never learned to ride well, though.
:)
HLiza:
My middle sister isn't keen on getting on a horse, either!
:)
BB: Text size was an accident; pushed the wrong button and didn't check the text after I posted it.
I'm not the horsewoman that Utah and others are, but I do admire them. We have a couple of internationally known horse-breeding farms here in Hanover, with pastures all along the highways between here and Gettysburg to the west. We sometimes visit the fence lines and feed grass to their horses.
I like the word cowpoke.
e:
Farm/ranch work is, indeed, hard, never-ending. My best memories are from the times we lived/worked on farms.
:)
I'd never before recognised that word's naughty potential. Thanks.
You'll find the person you seek when you stop looking in the mirror.
We had a couple of horses when we had some land. I even rode one of them, (the other was too small for my big frame). I played with guns and holsters as a kid too. The cowboy thing never grabbed me. I was more of a squirt gun kind of guy, being a nuisance rather than shooting Indians.
Nice to be home.
Peace to you.
A trip down memory lane as in childhood we often dressed up in cowboy suits since a lot of our culture came from the US.
I loved the weekly visit to the movies, as later we feasted on chips, smothered in salt and dripping with fat, wrapped up unceremoniously in old newspapers- manna from heaven to me. Did you do that ? But when I returned home it was time to re enact the scenes, playing with imaginary guns drawn from our gleaming holsters.
best wishes
BB
Hey! Aren't you in the middle of a rewrite? What are you doing here? You devil, you!
:D
Joe/Spadoman:
I wasn't looking in the mirror, but that's sage advise. I was looking in my soul, trying find the spirit of those two 'other me.'
When we played cowboys and Indians, I was the Indian to my brothers' cowboys. Mostly it was an excuse to run around and yell. Sometimes we played cowboy and Indian against the other cowboy.
Glad you are home safe and sound. I'll be over in a bit to read about your latest venture.
:)
Lindsaylobe:
Ah, yes...Saturday morning matinees, though I guess that's being redundant.
We enjoyed hot buttered popcorn and jujubes, sometimes a licorice whip with our movies. I remember that 25-cents paid for everything.
We watched serial movies, with great cliff-hangers. Sometimes we saw Roy Rogers movies. Other favorites were Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder and Little Beaver, Sky King and Penny.
What movies did you watch, Lindsay?
:)
The idea of the cowboy and horses says freedom to me. For all you evolve I suspect that understandable desire for freedom will always be there and will evolve with you. I certainly hope so.
Steve:
You have hit the nail on the head, so to speak. The undercurrent of my thoughts recently (last year or so, especially) has been freedom.
I think I was looking for the fearlessness I had when younger, and the imagination to see me through tough times like I had when a child.
Very perceptive comment.
:)
AWB/John:
Yes, I remember Zorro. I liked Sergeant Garcia, the precursor to Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes, years later.
I bet you were a dashing fellow in your cape!
:)
Reference: What movies did you watch, Lindsay?
Not only did I like the Roy Rogers movies, I enjoyed his books and stories with “Trigger” and similar favorites to you such as Hopalong Cassidy, Zorro ? , weekly serials, Peter Pan and a variety of comic book heroes such as the Phantom, Flash Gordon, Ginger Meggs and such English characters as Billy Bunter.
I remember walking home after seeing “ The King and I “ and saying over and over etc…etc….etc !
Best wishes
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