Ma Married a Cowboy

                             Three days before the opening of the 2014 sharptail grouse season I had to make a trip to Bismarck for supplies. This is a bi monthly trek that takes me on a route around the city starting at Menards for hardware needs and ending up at Sam's Club for food supplies stopping for dog food in between and maybe a haircut if my patience holds out. God forbid I ever need anything from Walmart! It's still quite warm with the temperatures in the upper 70's so I left the Setters lounging in air conditioned comfort at home for this run. No complaints from them.

I've discovered no matter what's on my list as I travel from place to place a built in timer tells me when it's time to get the hell out of the city. The over exposure to the sheer number of idiots on any given day is the cause for my timer going off. So I try not to let my eyes focus on people to long or look at what's in their cart. This seems to help not feeling humanity is truly doomed and that there is really no hope! As for why I don't shop locally in my little rural paradise well that's a fallacy I don't buy into for the majority of my needs. After all what's the benefit to the consumer for being over charged? Do I get a Christmas card for the holidays or a hello at the Post Office? Hell no. I've nothing against anybody making money but also believe in spending it wisely and know the older folks that can't travel struggle with what are very high prices for the most part.

The phenomenon that I wanted to share on these days is one I've seen time and again. It causes me to pause and stare no matter how hard I try not to! Here's how it goes. This is cattle country. The culture and roles people play domestically is the subject of this post and observation. I could be anywhere and I see these couples time and again as I've said. They're ranchers husband and wife usually of retirement age I expect but most of them still actively in the business. These people never really retire it seems. Anyway as a couple there's a stark contrast as they walk along. The husband is the Cowboy of course always dressed to the hilt from head to toe. Fancy boots,new blue jeans,tooled belt and western shirt. Yes, of course there's the white cattleman's cowboy hat. Easily an outfit worth several hundred if not a couple thousand dollars if the boots are ostrich skin and the hat full beaver custom made which many happen to be. These older men are in remarkably good physical condition for having spent a lifetime ranching. Having come from dairy country myself I know any man that spends his lifetime milking dairy cows is lucky to be able to walk upright at this age! Most of them suffer from joint damage and chronic back ailments let alone have the cash to get decked out in such an outfit just to go to town!

In stark contrast walking usually a half step behind the Cowboy is his wife. Ma. The mother of his children. The keeper of the castle. The maid. The seamstress. The cook. His accountant. Seasonal field hand and parts runner. These old girls dutifully walk along with the Cowboys with a slight rock back and forth to their gait. Ranch life you see has taken a much harder toll on them. Legs bowed from worn out knees and hips wide these work horses seem mismatched to the man beside them ready to take any willing woman for a spin two stepping around the ball room. From sun up to sun down they have toiled their entire lives at the beckon call of the Cowboy. Most of what they have done all those years has been simply hard labor day in and day out. They're outfits are not the same. These women usually wear cheap tennis shoes,stretch pants and if they have one a nice car coat. It seems the only luxury they afford themselves is a regular perm at the beauty shop. The fact is that despite these efforts nothing can hide the toll their role in this culture has taken on them. Yet they dutifully walk along as the Cowboy struts.

So along side many of these Cowboys is a woman that works in servitude to this culture. That's what I see. What I know is that from generation to generation these roles have stayed the same in many cases but as more and more women work off the farm and ranch it's also evolved. There are many great partnerships that help to perpetuate this way of life. Willing participants in both roles. But the old school roles truth be told  took a noticeable toll on the women. Coming from the large first generation homestead families they knew no different way of life. They value the place they came from and the values they lived by. That's why they dutifully walk, slightly rocking back and forth, a half step behind the Cowboy.