July 13, 2015 (Monday)
Frank Sinatra sang, “There goes that song again..we’d sing it over and over and over, over again…” Well, I woke up this morning with a song in my head–sung over and over again: “Ragtime Cowboy Joe.” The footnotes of this blog list three versions of it. There are many more.
The song is about a cowboy in Arizona, sometimes Wyoming, who sings as he rides. He wears a cowboy’s clothes, but he sings a ragtime tune. The song has been around a very long time. And, of course, so have cowboys–real and make-believe.
My first encounter with a horse was when I was five or six years old. A photographer with a small pony and some western costumes came by our house and took my picture “riding” the horse. I suppose I would have forgotten all about it, but I still have the picture to remind me.
Not long after that, we visited a little amusement park on South Main Street in Houston, where Shetland ponies walked around a small carousel and small kids could ride. I don’t remember enjoying it; I’m very sure the horses didn’t like it either. I think that park attraction was ultimately made illegal.
My next time to mount a horse was at Herman Park when I was in high school. The guy I worked with at a grocery store suggested we go riding. The horse could tell I knew nothing about horses, so he ran as fast as he could under low branches. Somehow I remained in the saddle, but that’s how I learned that horses are very smart.
Years later I joined my father-in-law as he and several more men on horses rounded up some cows for auction. They put me on old “Buttons,” who knew right away that he was carrying a “greenhorn.” Buttons knew a lot about cows, though, and when I finally let him do his own thing, he did fine, and so did I. When the job was over, he headed for the barn at a fast pace, and nothing I could do would slow him down. I was so sore afterwards it’s difficult even now to think about it. My father-in-law loved seeing me try to walk or sit; he laughed and laughed. I can still hear him today. He had fun. I guess I did, too, come to think of it.
A few years before that, I worked at a feed store in Fort Worth, and made deliveries to several stables in the area, enjoying the horses. Part of my job was to feed the owner’s horse every day. The horse and I were on good terms. He was one of the first horses in the Rodeo and Stock Show parade every year. A proud animal, indeed.
You may like to hear “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” sung by (choose one):
The Tune Wranglers
The Chipmunks
Dean Martin and Jimmy Stewart
