Working on the road many years ago there was no cable TV. The motels had antennas and not many channels to see.

When we came to a new town to work on a job, we used to look for a used book store. You could buy a grocery bag of used Westerns for a dollar or two! Louie Manure (aka Louis L’Amour) had the best ones. It was common at night to see a crew member or 2 sitting in a chair or lying on their bed deep in the middle of a paper back, their mind somewhere out West who knows either fighting some bad guys or kissing his horse?

When motels and TV’s got better years later the Westerns in a bag disappeared, but talk of cowboys and ways of the old West seemed to stick around.

Well one day Guido (our pardner Mikey) who wore a big Stetson had taken it off and laid it on the front seat between himself and Big Bob who was driving. We happened to stop at a gas station on the way to lunch and Guido went into the station for smokes. Well I always wondered what it would be like to be a cowboy, so I reached into the front seat and put that cowboy hat on and asked Big Bob if I looked like a cowboy?

He laughed and said, “NOT REALLY” but he did say, “You better not get caught with that on your head!”  

So, when our pardner got back, we went on to the OLD COUNTRY BUFFET you see that’s kind of a Westerny place.

Big Bob told the Cowboy that I had his hat on when he went into the gas station!!!

Well now pardner that didn’t go over well.

This is when we all got out of the truck and on our walk, I got told that one thing you never do out West is mess with another cowboy’s hat, you can get in serious trouble?

I asked what would they do to ya he replied, “YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!” 

Then Big Bob said, “YOU BEEN READIN’ TO MANY OF THEM LOUIE MANURE WESTERNS.”

Then Guido told us, “YOU MESS WITH A COWBOY’S HAT YOU COULD GET SHOT!!!!” 

Big Bob replied back, “AW BUNK!”

Then as we walked on Big Bob said, “There is one thing, I do know about cowboys though.”

Our cowboy turned to him and said, “WHAT’S THAT?”   

Big Bob reached over and snatched the Stetson off his head and punched the top of the hat up so it was round, now it looked like Hoss Cartwright’s hat on Bonanza. He starts filling it with grass from along the sidewalk and he says after he filled it and gave it back, he said, “A COWBOY ALWAYS FEEDS HIS HORSE FIRST BEFORE HE EATS!!” 

This was a very humorous and a well learned lesson for me who had never been out West or read a Louie Manure Western. It is a lesson I still remember today! 

Now years later I took the family out West, heading to Oregon and we stayed overnight at a motel that was near a truck stop. You wouldn’t believe it, they had big Stetsons for sale, about $20 dollars, so I asked my wife if I could get one as I tried it on.

All she said was, “NO! I’M NOT RIDING IN THE CAR WITH YOU WEARING THAT STUPID LOOKING THING!”

Well, I never told her but I did have one at one time.

Our pardner Mikey, or Guido as I nicknamed him, at times would wear his hat tilted forward. With his glasses on and wearing his purple satin Silver Dollar western bar jacket he reminded me of Father Guido Sarducci!

My friends are both gone now but they are still here in the stories I share with others!

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU PARDNER!