All My
Heroes Were Cowboys
Watching old 1930s westerns is me reliving my childhood. The Good Guys wore white hats and many rode white horses or palominos.
Ken Maynard is a favorite. “Come on, Tarzan” was the most recently watched. Oh, if life were that simple. These early westerns starred many real-life cowboys fresh off the rodeo circuit. Yakima Canutt, Hoot Gibson, Tom Tyler, Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Steele, and Buck Jones are just a few of the old ones, but all are familiar.
Watching Ken Maynard do some trick riding by jumping onto the back of the outlaw’s horse or horses standing up till he brought them to a stop, and seemingly always they’d fall down a dirt bank, ending in a fisticuff.
On a recent visit to my 91-year-old Aunt, she relayed a story previously unknown to me. Back in the early farm days, all farming used horse drawn implements. She said Daddy had a special way with the horses. He could work them with a gentle nudge or whistle and a quick ‘git up.’ Grandpa, on the other hand, was of a short-tempered variety, and his results with the animals reflected such. There was a garden ‘tween the house and the barn, which they tilled with a small horse drawn cultivator. Aunt Jerry said Grandpa was trying his best to get the horse to start, but Prince wouldn’t budge. He’d slap the reins against Prince’s rump to no effect. Prince only balked. Frustrated, he called to Daddy, “Junior, come here!” Daddy came, took the reins, pursed his lips calling “Git up Prince,” and off he went, pulling the cultivator without any other prodding.
Aunt Jerri said Daddy would ride Prince standing barefoot on his back simply calling to go this way or that. He’d go out to the road and off he’d ride, atop Prince standing the whole way out of sight. This was in the 1930s, and I have every notion if Daddy hadn’t seen Ken Maynard ride Tarzan standing up, he’d heard about it. Daddy’s my Cowboy. He’s my Hero!
