Tío Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman

9 World War II Adjustments

9 World War II Adjustments The Salinas brothers were rodeo performers, but they were also cattle raisers. The cattle raising got them an exemption from the military draft during World War II. True, they spent a lot of their time traveling around the country roping and having a good time, but back home they were producing beef for the nation. World War II changed everyone’s habits. Rodeo participants were no exception. Gasoline and rubber tires, among other commodities were rationed. The Armed Forces got first pick over the public, the consumer. Rationing stopped people from traveling in the way they were accustomed to. Stamps or tokens were needed to buy gasoline and tires. The war curtailed traveling all over the nation. Juan and Tony could drive to some rodeos within the state of Texas, but they could not travel throughout the nation, and this held true for all cowboys, not just the Salinas brothers. Nevertheless, as the adage goes, “where there is a will, there is a way.” In an article by Art Chapman in the Fort Worth Star Telegram , the author explains that for years, in the fall of each year, Everett Colborn, the promoter of the Madison Square Garden Championship Rodeo, produced a huge rodeo in Dublin, Texas. After the Dublin rodeo, all of the rodeo stock animals and cowboys would take a train trip to New York City to the Championship Rodeo at Madison Square Garden. This went on for years. When World War II came around, it was a natural for Tío Juan and Tío Tony to hook up with the rodeo train. Tío told me that after the Dublin rodeo they were to meet in nearby Stephenville, Texas. That is where everyone boarded the 104 Tío Cowboy trainduringtheWorldWarIIyearsforthetriptoMadisonSquare Garden. Try to imagine a trainload of cowboys and cowgirls on the train for several days. Tío explained that they boarded the horses in several cars, and the equipment went in a baggage car. They slept in Pullman cars and spent all their spare time in the club cars. He said it was a roaring, railroad party for the duration; they had a ball, and could not wait until next year. After the war, the trip was by car again. I say car, because Tío always preferred a car to a pickup . It provided more room for riders like Toots and Tony, and more room for luggage. One of today’s fully loaded pick-up trucks with four doors, lots and lots of room, and a huge engine would have been great. Nevertheless, Tío always had a new Chevrolet auto. The same Fort Worth Star Telegram article gives an excellent account of the train trips. In an interview with first-time participant Lanham Riley, he explains about the first calf roper he ever saw at the Garden, “his name was Juan Salinas, and I’ll never forget it. He was a big man, 6-foot-3 and weighed about 200 pounds. He runs out there and ropes this big blue heifer and he never did get her on the ground. That bell rang at the end of the 65 seconds and Tying up World War II Adjustments 105 she had kicked all his britches off. He wore khaki britches and the material was completely gone on one leg. The people just hooped and hollered.” On one of the Sunday drives I took with Tío Juan, we drove down a country road and passed a sign on a ranch gate, and Tío provided another of his stories. “Those people there, they had one Clowning around at tourist court. Juan Salinas (left) and Toots Mansfield (right) 106 Tío Cowboy son that was drafted during World War II. They just simple peoples , and they ain’t got no schooling. The boy he ain’t never even been outta the county. All his life he spent on the ranch, working cattle, chopping wood, and the like. Well he got his draft notice, and they asked around town about it, and they were told that the young man had to go report to San Antonio on a certain day, and then they was gonna take him somewhere for boot camp. “On the day he was scheduled to go, he got on the train in Encinal , at the old depot, with a bunch of other cowboys from Encinal, and...