Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Cowboys

I work with cowboys, several actually and since cowboys seem to be good fodder for romantic stories, I thought I'd write a blog about the cowboys in my life.  I work with farmers too.  They are a whole different breed, maybe I'll write a blog about farmers too...but first, here are my observations about cowboys.

They wear hats.  All the time.  They hardly ever take them off.  I have only seen them off only when they are in prayer or respectfully remembering. The hats came off on 9/11 for a full minute.This can be a bit of an irritation in a meeting, but they are who they are and the hats are a part of that. Most of them wear felt hats when they are working and you can see where the rain fell on them. You can tell where their fingers go to pull the hat off.  They bill has just the tiniest bit of a crinkly brim in the felt.  One of them does wear a straw hat, but I think he might also be a farmer...more on that in another post.

They don't wear sunglasses.  I have never seen a cowboy with sunglasses on...ever.  They just do that cute squinty thing under those felt cowboy hats.

They wear starched shirts.  The local dry cleaner has the heaviest starch possible named after a cowboy who was thrown by a horse and killed.  It is accurate; his shirts had tons of starch, no matter how dirty or rumpled the rest of him was, his shirt was always wrinkle free.

They wear very large belt buckles.  Most of them are wearing buckles they won at rodeos.  They are practically dinner plate sized and they don't have guts that hang over them either.  Nope, you can see the WHOLE buckle.

Boots..yep.  They have their work boot and their fancy boots.  They keep them in their offices and trade them out as required.  They also wear spurs, but mostly not inside because the spurs can tear up the floors.  They're considerate that way. Their cowboy hats might block your view, but they know better than to wear their spurs inside and tear up the floors.

They are amazingly well educated.  All the cowboys with whom I work have Master's degrees. (This sentence, though stilted, is grammatically correct in honor of those degrees.)

They aren't afraid to show their emotions, just a bit.  They lose it, but regain their composure really quickly.  It is endearing without making them seem unmanly in the least.  Usually when they tear up, they are talking about how honored they feel about something.  They take things like honor seriously and honoring someone's memory by how they behave.

They are polite to a fault.  Swear words are simply not said in mixed company, even though you know when it is just the guys, they are well acquainted with the more salty language.  They are careful about how they talk about others.  They might be complaining about somebody, but they chose their words carefully to not demean the person about whom they are speaking.  Two have pregnant wives.  They talk about them being big and not being able to sleep, but comments about the hormones of pregnant women have not been mentioned.  They talk only about how great their doing and how they just couldn't be a mom, because of how hard it is.  They are supportive and affirming because they know how important their words can be. While they recognize the power of words, there is very little that is out of bounds.  You realize that as soon as you have your first discussion about sires and dams and artificial insemination.

They are good talkers...boots up on the desk, leaning back in the chair conversationalists.  Quiet and reserved?  Not so much, but they do know when to be quiet and listen.

They are all really gentle people.  They take time to talk to the little kids that come in the door and marvel at whatever stories the kids tell them.  They speak not about breaking horses, but encouraging them to enjoy work and then they extend that analogy to raising children.  They are thoughtful too.  They have a natural grace when they stand up to offer you their seat, or bring you a new plastic fork without you even having to ask because yours broke (yes, they notice the needs of those around them and try to meet those needs) or throw you a grin and a wink that is a shared groan at the difficulties of the day.  They make fun of themselves, but when they tease you, it never get vicious or hurtful.

They are team players and will try to make sure everybody gets what they want, even if it costs them a bit.  They look for ways to help, even it if means trailering a horse to drive out and help you round up the cattle that got out of the pen and they don't mention that they could have been doing something else with their time.  They figure if they can help, they should. They apologize for inconveniencing you even if they are not at fault.

Yep, I'm beginning to see how it is that there are cowboys in romance novels. 

2 comments:

  1. Nicely said. I didn't know all those things.

    Humm...it would be rather neat if there happened to be a single cowboy out there for you!

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  2. Yeah, that sure would be nice, but no dice yet. They also seem to be the marrying kind...grin.

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