This fuzzy picture of my Great-Uncle Franklin is one of my favorite faded Colorado memories.
“His cowboy persona was no act. He had the horsemanship and cowpunching skills to prove it. The town recognized his uniqueness and frequently appointed him grand marshal of the July 4 parade. My grandmother would dutifully clip his picture from the Gazette and show all her grandkids. “Here’s Uncle Franklin on his best quarter horse,” she would observe. “I think the town wanted to make sure he was still alive, so they invited him to be grand marshal again this year!” (p. 107)
Three cowboys figure most prominently in my memories from the High Plains. One was Uncle Franklin–the isolated bachelor rancher. Another was a Northwest Kansas cowboy artist and musician from the same era as Franklin. The third was my elementary school classmate: easy-going but phenomenally skilled cattleman. These three came from different backgrounds and circumstances, but they all arrived at a similar demeanor, carrying themselves with a certain patience, carefulness, and circumspection. Perhaps these cowboys’ cautious respect stemmed from a lifetime spent around thousand-pound animals that could kill you in a blink, even if they weren’t trying.
Counter to the sentimentalism and stylized, cinematized images which bubble up from the recesses of my mind, to read the history of the High Plains in any depth is to understand that life was hard–dirty, dangerous, lonely, and sometimes desperate. Honestly, more farmers and ranchers failed than succeeded, which is one of the themes I’ve written about. Nonetheless, we can rely on the old cliche that sometimes hardship brings out individual courage, strength, and perseverance. The cowboys I knew in a more modern era carried forward the style, culture, attitudes, and legend of a bygone America (and I’m sure they do even today).
If you’re willing, please share your cowboy and cowgirl stories, your own and those of your ancestors, handed down to you. I always appreciate ideas, feedback, spears, barbs, witticisms, criticisms, and comments, provided they improve our shared understanding of our amazing High Plains past. (warts and all)
