July 28, 2006
Redneck Penny Loafers
It's been a long couple of weeks. So I give you my tuff guy picture in which I am both tuff and taking care of my little sister, all at once.
Mom made me that vest ... fortunately the skirt she made me will NEVER appear on this blog. I think she made me wear the skirt all of twice, so she could take pictures of her prowess as a seamstress. I insisted that cowboys wore JEANS not jean SKIRTS. Sheesh.
We were living in Austin and I wanted to be a cowboy. My grandfather, as I understood it at the time, was a cowboy. What I discovered later on is that while he did work in the cattle industry, he was a buyer of cattle for Armor meat packing ... and he wasn't really a "cowboy" in the strictest sense. However, I begged to go to work with him one summer day because I was certain he was a real cowboy. He kept telling me that he was not a real cowboy, but I was positive ... who else but a cowboy would spend that much time with cows??? And besides, while he didn't live in in Texas like a real cowboy, Oklahoma was close ... probably close enough to work.
As we drove into his work, he began shooting down my ideas one by one. He did not ride a horse. (He did have on a cowboy hat, though ... and boots.) We drove a bit further. There were no horses at work. This I refused to believe for several, several miles. Finally, he got it through my thick head that there really weren't any horses at the "ranch."
"Can I ride a cow, then?"
Well, I mean, hey ... if I couldn't ride a horse, cows were kinda horse shaped, right?
It was several more miles before he convinced me that I would not be riding a cow, either.
Apparently cows, according to Grandpa, are too stupid to be ridden like horse. Any thought of ever being a vegetarian completely went out the window at that point. To my mind, cows will always be too stupid to be anything but meat. (Not meant to be offensive to vegetarians ... just the way I was raised.)
It was the summer after that little episode when Mom made my cowboy outfit ... to go with the six-shooter that Grandma had already gotten me. A trip to Shepler's later led to not one, but TWO cowboy hats and a pair of boots.
Now, my mother was convinced that I would not become some li'l redneck chile. So, anytime I began to evidence a touch of an accent, Mom and Dad both corrected my pronunciation. Repeatedly. And the cowboy boots and cowboy hats were definitely NOT to be everyday wear. In fact, the cowboy boots weren't even leather ... Mom insisted that I get the bluejeans boots. Now, I was just as enthralled with them as with "regular" boots ... largely because the boots had a "back pocket" in which I could put a penny. I guess they were really redneck penny loafers of a sort.
At any rate, I certainly thought I was more than cool in that outfit. Ready to save the whole world.
Posted by Red Monkey at July 28, 2006 7:29 PM |
Storytelling: She was, of course, supposed to be sleeping.
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I still love your sense of humor and writing even if I tell you only once in a blue moon (heck, I haven't even updated my main squeeze babble in a month... now that's sick for me)... I came to send love and happiness your way (and catch up a bit)... thanks for the Sci-Fi author, I'll look for her when I start reading more)... and most importantly, here's to a great check up and lots more years of enjoying a healthy life... thanks for the fun reading and inspiration you are :)
July 30, 2006 5:03 AMshane said:
cute lil tykes
August 6, 2006 9:54 PM
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candoor said: