Stetsons

Stetsons

Growing up I wanted to be a cowboy. I remember a childhood photo dressed in cowboy shirt, jeans, holster with cap guns and a cowboy hat. At age seven, I certainly looked like a cowboy. In those days playing cowboys and Indians (Native Americans) was a favorite pastime.

Cowboys were my heroes. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, Sky King and John Wayne to name a few. These were the good guys I saw on the silver screen Saturday afternoon at the local movie theatre. I wanted to be one of the guys who did good, punished the bad and always got his girl!

You could tell the good guys because they wore white cowboy hats (the exception being Hop Along Cassidy who wore a black one). The bad guys wore black hats. Back then it was easy to distinguish the bad from the good by the color of their cowboy hat. Things were simpler back in the old days.

I never lost my dream of being a cowboy. When I moved to Montana it was a must to have a cowboy hat, boots and a real revolver. I have two off white Stetson xxxx cowboy hats, a comfortable pair of Ariat cowboy boots and a nice collection of firearms. For you greenhorns the xxxx stand for quality beaver fur used in expensive Stetsons.

On Sunday mornings, you can see me arrive at church with cowboy boots, western vest and Stetson; the firearm is optional depending on my sermon topic. You may think I have finally gone over the edge. The truth is that I still look pretty good in that outfit and, at least in part, living out my dream.

At the end of every Roy Rogers movie, Roy and his wife Dale Evans (in white cowboy hats) sang these words: “Some trails are happy ones, others are blue. It’s the way you ride the trail that counts, here’s a happy one for you. Happy trails to you, until we meet again. Happy trails to you, keep smiling until then.”

Adios!