"The Cowboy Way"

[Bugscuffle]

I posted thisover at the SASS Saloon, but i thought that I'd getyour opinions too.

     I don't want to start any arguments and I hope that I don't insult your favorite cowboy. I only want to know how some of you feel about what it means to live life "The Cowboy Way". It would be nice if we could all be Gene Autry or Roy Rodgers. But what if we were all like John Wayne or Lee Van Cleef or Clint Eastwood? How many of us would be left after a few months of the O.K. Corral every day?
     I have pondered what it means to live life "The Cowboy Way". To me I would like it to mean to not do some things, such as, do not lie, do not steal, do not cheat, do not be judgemental of others, do not abide those that do these things. To me, It also means to do some things like be tolerant of others and accept their right to disagree with you, be ready to hold out a helping hand to those that may need it, speak your mind clearly and without equivocation or reservation. I say "I would like it to mean", that doesn't mean that I'm a Hoot Gibson, it means I would like to be more like him.
     Then again I have noted that others have a somewhat different idea of what "The Cowboy Way" is. It seems to me that they believe that "The Cowboy Way" is a fixed, ridgid dogma that must be adhered to without deviation and anyone that does not "follow the rules" that these people hold in such esteem must be castigated and silenced. To them it means that you must be hard, rough and tough and don't take any lip from anyone and if they don't like it, you shoot that varmit down like a dog! 
     So let's be honest. Tell us how you feel about this and do you see these trends in the people around you? How do you react to it? Is it good or bad or ugly? Maybe all of the above? Do you leave the fantasy game at the shooting range or do you take some of it home with you and make it part of your life?

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I have the pleasure of having known many real cowboys (make their living on horseback, usually with cattle involved).  Most were like your description, rather than the second.  Starting in 1985 or so, we became involved heavily with horse when our kids got into 4 H horses.  This has continued by choice, even after the kids were long gone from the home.  Until recently we did trail riding, a bit of endurance (on horseback), team penning, and Civil War cavalry re-enacting.  I even did a stint on the board of directors of Nevada County Horseman's Assoc. Our daughter still has a remuda of riding and polo horses, and out best friends are still active with horses and rodeo. 

In short, I feel most at home with horse people and cowboys.  There is a certain decency about the horse and cowboy culture.  They are helpful, willing to give you the shirt off their back, and help a neighbor without question.  We were at a High School Rodeo event watching our friends daughter last week end.  As I walked around, I felt that this was an example of what is right with America.

People who ascribe to the second description are "drug store cowboys".  They have no clue what the horse/cowboy culture really is.  Unfortunately, the SASS wire is full of the later: rude, opinionated, know it all, jerks.  I seldom go their.

[Shotgun Franklin]

I hope I can tolerate the different beliefs of others to a point. I like to think I can disagree without being disagreeable. There are things I won't compromise on, like my Rights as I believe in them or a physical attack on me or on another person. It takes a lot before I take any kind of physical action against anyone. It's a big step from disagreeing to shooting at each other, or it ought to be. I have as much as possible lived my life this way. I may have taken more verbal abuse than I might have but most words don't hurt me that bad. I do find, might be because I'm getting older, that I'm willing to argue my point more than I used to, used to I'd just walk away, now not so much.
I hope I'm the same person at the Range, at home, at church or wherever.

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[Camille Eonich]

I have little tolerance for people that are intolerant.   

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

I have a set of values and morals I live my life by.  I do not waver and I do not break them. 

I believe in letting any other person live their life as they choose and to believe what they want, as long as it does not infringe on my right to do the same.  When it does there is no compromise.

[Trailrider]

I have a set of values and morals I live my life by.  I do not waver and I do not break them. 

I believe in letting any other person live their life as they choose and to believe what they want, as long as it does not infringe on my right to do the same.  When it does there is no compromise.

I'll float my stick with yours!

[GunClick Rick]

Sharin my jug a corn and not wipin the top when it's my pull
if i wake up in the middle of the night i'll stir the fire,
i promise never to use a used sock when i filter the coffee,
last piece of bacon goes to the dog(s)
when the jug hits bottom you get to kill the spider
 

See Ten Commandments,i reckon that god made "em" that hard so if ya at least try,you can grease the the gates.

[Bugscuffle]

Thanks for the replies. They bolster my impression that most of the pards on this and other cowboy oriented forums wear whiite hats. It's just that I keep running into some, and more than a few that seem to think that they can run the whole planet. I just don't know of another way to catalog who is wearing what color hat.

I don't want to whine about this, but I want to know. Did I do something terribly wrong? The instigation of this was that I posted to the SASS Wire forum. I have since found out that It was an inappropriate post, a subject not allowed. Oh, well, I consider this no harm, no foul, and yes I did apologize to the forum although the apology was deleted with the rest of the thread. A couple pards took offense to it and went to my profile and noted that I had listed The Alamo Area Moderators as my affiliated club, and it is. They even went so far as to write nasty E-Mails to the Secretary of the club about me. No, I don't pay dues to that club. I cannot shoot right now because of two year long, very involved involved treatment for a cripling hand disease, but I have and do attend many of the monthly shoots as a spectator and count a few of the members as friends. As soon as the Doctor clears me to shoot I will join my pards on the firing line. For this I was called a liar, a poseur (although the illiterate fool mispelled it) and a couple of other choice names. Now help me out here. I ask you, is this the Cowboy Way? Was I that far off base?

[Shotgun Franklin]

I've had poor experiences on the Wire. Enough that I avoid it like a Rattlesnake in an outhouse.

[GunClick Rick]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYa0jpGFUeY[/youtube]

[Camille Eonich]

We meet so many great people in this sport and the good ones out weigh the bad by far.  Compared to the general population there is a disproportionately high number of "the good ones" involved in Cowboy Action Shooting but we are still a group of people and there are some "bad seeds" among us.  When we find them they are so unexpected that it hits us harder.  How dare they invade our sanctuaries.


I cannot tell you how very disappointed that I was the first time that I saw someone "cheat" in this game.  I was a fairly new shooter as far as cowboy action shooting goes and I was watching the unloading table.  A shooter, a match director at a local club, got done shooting and came over to unload his weapons.  When he got to the point to clear his rifle a loaded round popped out.  He snatched it up real quick and shoved it in his pocket and mumbled something about the loading table officer let him load too many.  It happened so quick and he was so well known that I doubted what I saw and didn't know what to do.  I could never look him in the eyes again after that.

[Danny Bear Claw]

I left the SASS wire years ago and haven't looked back. 

[Bugscuffle]

I left the SASS wire years ago and haven't looked back. 

Yes Sir, I can see why. This same thread was deleted by the forum leader.I don't know why. Was it something that I said? Was it something that a respondent said? We don't know, but if they want to do things that way, then they can go forward without me. AMF SASS Wire

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I'm not surprised your thread was deleted from the SASS wire.  The atmosphere over there is absolutely "toxic" and seems to attract negative, nasty, and ignorant people.  You will find very few old timers with low SASS numbers there.  I started in 1994, and my number is #6127 (life).

[Howdy Doody]

I still post now and then on the Wire. I always keep it civil myself and if I don't like what is written, I just press on to another thread that is more my liking. The Wire has a feature that lets you eliminate folks that get under your skin and I have some blocked and never see their self promoting, uncivil, know it all posts at all.
I have mixed feelings about the Wire. It has brought some in to the CAS fold, but the new shooters class in Norco does more for the sport than anything I have witnessed.
I got into cowboy internet when I got my first computer and it was Toulemne Lawman that mentioned the old CAS-L list. It was an email kind of thing started up by Marshal Halloway and we had some good smiles and stuff like that via email versus a regular website. Then Cas City got started and the CAS-L lost some of its regulars. Then the SASS Wire came along and in the early days it was so much more fun to get to know each other than it seems to be these days.
Of course I along with many pards are getting long in the tooth and there might even be a generation gap thing happening, but I still enjoy the company of my many friends I have made on the boards and what really warms me up is when I meet a long time pen pal in person. I really get a kick out of stuff like that.
I am of course expressing my own thoughts and we are individuals after all, but still it seems that once you make a friend on the net that you enjoy, I seem to enjoy having them as a friend even more when I meet them face to face and over the years I have met a lot of folks that I never thought I would ever have. My first alias was kind of mundane and when I was forced to change it and came up with the Howdy Doody moniker, between the silly name and the even sillier outfit I wear at bigger matches, folks seemed to come up and introduce themselves a lot more and I have made some great friends and I cherish them all.
Just sayin'