Cowboys

We live on a pretty big hill. One of the Osage Hills in Northeast Oklahoma near Tulsa. All this land out here is on the Osage Indian Reservation. Go South and you run into Skiatook Lake. Go West and you'll find tall grass prairie and then in about 20 miles is Hominy and Pawhuska, the county seat. East down the 2 lane Highway 20 is Skiatook. That's where our address says we live. North even fewer miles is open range and the town of Avant, that's where we vote. Why the difference? Ahdunno.

Ninety percent of the land around here is oil leases (mostly owned by the Osage Indians unless they got cheated out of it sometime in the past) or cattle ranches. Beef people. This is Cowboy country.

This is where you find, at the Walmart, at the Sonic, at the Tractor Supply, fresh(?) from the range, real honest to God cowboys. These aint the flashy boys with cheap shinys on their blouses. These aint well dressed, meticulously primped and perfectly combed sweet smellies that you find in the bigger cities (unless of course, they're Hispanics out for a Saturday night). These are Oklahoma cowboys.

They smell like cows. Go figger. Have shit on their boots. Sweat down their back. Leather skinned faces and mustaches a real man can be proud of. Everybody in Avant and everybody in Skiatook wears cowboy boots. Wranglers, Texas hats and the finest footery that a poor-boy's money can buy. At G and M Grainery (sorry guys, it finally did close down) or at Tractor Supply Company or Atwoods. Those are the places to get your Justins. Shop for hours and you'll still not see them all. Got fifty bucks? Too bad. Only a hundred will get you into some decent boots without any frills at all. One-fifty moves you up to decent boots with prints. Five, six or more hundred will get you the ones to show off on the dance floor. For steer herding and horseback riding a couple hundred will do nicely. Most guys er gals around here have a pair for the range, one for messing around and at least one good pair for Saturday night swingin or Sunday morning apologizing.

Most of the good ole boys out here hang their Wranglers over the boots so all you see is the toes and a little above. Most of them are worn for work. Or for everyday. If you're in from the range, from working on the land or riding, you tuck them into your boots. If you're young and cockey, you might even just tuck only one side of your Wranglers into your boots. The other side hangs down. Why? I really don't know for sure. I asked a lady horseperson once and she said "When they spend that much money on their boots they want you to see them".

I always thought that they tucked jeans down into their boots to keep the rattlesnakes out. Ticks too. And chiggers and other bugs. You really don't want the prairie country crawling up your leg while you're trying to get a day's work done. I think I'll stick with that belief. Sounds more like a cowboy to me.