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Show Endangered Species The Wild West is noted for the cowboy and his mount, the backbone of the country in all the ways that count. The standard garb for cowboys was worn by everyone; boots and spurs, levis and chaps, in "Olden Days", a six gun. A western shirt with neckerchief, a wide brimmed Stetson hat, a denim jacket when it was cool, the boys all dressed like that. Before we had vehicles propelled by gasoline, cattle had to walk for miles to find the pastures green. Trailing to the market was a special sight, the cowboys had to drive them, and camp with them at night Bake ovens on the red hot coals cooked the tasty food. They ate it all with gusto, grumbling was rude. Anyway, the grumbler was punished in a way, forced to cook the next meal for what he had to say. The fellows swapped their salty yarns with guffaws loud and long, at times a bit off-color, but nothing really wrong.. Some carried a harmonica and brought it out at night and played the old time melodies, enhanced by firelight. And as the music floated in the evening atmosphere, coyotes howled accompaniment, causing chills of fear. This describes conditions a few years in the past Now there're trucks and trailers and they can travel fast and haul the critters everywhere, trailing is obsolete, it's easier on the cowboys, and on the cattle's feet You'd think we'd all be happy and really, we would be, but there's a blight among us, upsetting as can be. The Environmentalists want control of all the cattle range, they'd use it for back-packing. They demand a change. All domestic animals, they say, must be taboo. They murdered some and let them lay, a criminal thing to do. They say, "We don't need cattle, no difference do they make, beef is not essential, our preference is chicken fried steak." If all the cattle disappear, cowboys will be annoyed, and worse than that, the poor guys will all be unemployed. There're clubs and other civic groups who vow to save the owls, the whales, coyotes, prairie dogs, specific fish and fowls. Why doesn't someone have a heart and do their very best to save the endangered cowboy, the symbol of the West? Fay Alvey June 1991 |