Even Cowboys Carry Cell Phones

Foreword

1 t e r e s a m i l b r o d t Foreword L ike any legendary figure, the cowboy is part myth and part reality, memorialized by history and Hollywood, envied by those who spend days at desks and dream of trading swivel chairs for saddles. The writings in this anthology serve as testament to the cultural love, bordering on obsession, of the American cowboy. These works cover the gamut from the romanticized movie cowboy to ranchers, freelancers, and contemporary wranglers who wear hoodies and work in massive feedlot pens. The cowboy that emerges from this collection is multi-faceted, as the book juxtaposes longhorns being sprayed at a car wash with cowboys advertising services on Craigslist and Pepsi-drinking cowboys met on Amtrak trains. There are portraits of the old cowboys, crotchety coffee-swigging men with too many stories about how things were better four decades ago. However, the figure remains one constructed of loyalties—loyalty to work, loyalty to family, loyalty to animals, loyalty to the land. This profession defines the individual because of the level of dedication and commitment required. These jobs are part career and part compulsion but always blend work and life, an avocation that is assumed because one can’t not do it. This identity is accepted along with barbed-wire-fence stringing , manure-spreading, and a variety of malodorous tasks that demand the stamina and endurance of a professional athlete, even for those who don’t ride bulls. The cowboy still represents the independent be-your-own boss spirit that we like to consider American (though as essayist Robert Rebein points out, much of the jargon has Mexican origins). This collection also conveys a deep respect for nature and the elements that is owned only by those who have to work in them every day. The cowboy is an unromantic, a part-time scientist and veterinarian who can help a cow during a breech birth, understand the roots of biology, deal with everyday blood, shit, and mud, and know where beef comes from but willingly eat a steak and shrug. The deep relationship between people and horses is also a prevalent theme in these works, as the horse emerges repeatedly as friend, work partner, and 2 occasional confidant. The close attention and care given to the horse, and the way horses care for their humans in return, speaks to a relationship between animals and people seen in few other lines of work. To some, riding a horse can become an addiction—once you’ve started, you’re hooked. Perhaps this is part of the continued attraction to the cowboy way of life, though like family farms, the family ranch and cowboying as a profession is dying out and making way for large corporate feed lots. Yet despite this tenuous status, this anthology is a testament to the fact that some people will always continue and cherish this way of life. The image of the cowboy will likewise remain vivid in our imagination, unable to be separated from Western mythology, a means to connect ourselves with the wild and rugged individuals we dream we used to be. In this age of computers and cubicles we want to touch and preserve that history, but we must allow for shifting traditions. Even cowboys carry cell phones. ...