Beech Tree News Network

Deep down, we all knew the difference in a movie and TV cowboy, but we liked the movie cowboy better.  There were more romantic, ridin' down the canyon on horseback, strumin' a guitar, singing about tumbleweeds or cactus plants bloomin'.
The real cowboys got down and dirty; was kicked and smeared with seven different kinds and consistencies of "cow patties"---cow patties on his hat, matching the cow patty on his shirt.  The only time you ever saw dirt on a movie cowboy is when he'd been in a fight...although he seldom lost his hat.
The Cartwrights on TV's Bonanza supposedly owned and operated thousands of acres of land and boo-coo cattle, yet you never see them do any kind ranch work or wear a speck of dirt.  The all carry pistols, which the average working cowboy couldn't even afford to own and most couldn't hit the side of a barn with one anyway.  Working cattle in a corral, a pistol would get in the way.
A cowboy's vest did serve a purpose.  In it he cigarette makins', matches and other small necessities.  Cowboys gave the trail cook a wide birth--you never threw out wash water around the cook's wagon; you never fouled the cook in any way if you wanted to live and do well-most cooks were cantankerous and grouchy and jealous of their domain.
The cook's fare was usually beans, of course; son-of-a-gun stew, dutch oven biscuits; dried fruit for dessert and throat-scalding black coffee. And they didn't all shovel spoon their good like in the movies.
In high, rough country, mules were used to work cattle rather than horses, they were less skittish and more sure-footed.
In the old west we're told one-fourth of the cowboys were black and made superb cowboys.
I got mad at  a kid down at the Palace one Saturday afternoon. "Nevada"(Johnny Mac Brown) and his sidekick rode out at the end of the movie.  Just out of town, the sidekick headed for Texas;  Nevada head for Nevada.  The kid said you couldn't ride a horse all the way to Nevada.  Well, Johnny Mac Brown could, he played football at Alabama.

Kindest regards