This Cowboy's Hat
You can be easy going (aka tolerant) of a whole lotta things. You can let a lot of things not rankle you. You can put up with a certain degree of name calling, having dirt done to you, and general discourteous behaviors-well, if you're either quite mature and secure in yourself and your standing with the man in the mirror and the Man on the other side of the Judgment Bar OR if you're plain out of touch with reality. However, there are some things that you just can't sit there and take and that you have to take a stand on.
Each of us has that limit/line that cannot be crossed without not just an eyebrow being lifted but also the adrenalin level start to rise. For me it's a LOT of different things. Treat children with respect. Children-treat adults with respect. Treat God with respect. Treat animals with respect. Treat Mother Earth with respect. Treat yourself with respect. Yeah-those are the big ones.
One day as a Brownie Girl Scout Leader I was bringing a car load (they each had a seat belt on-but back then they could ride in the front seat) of Brownies back from a Discovery Day at Lagoon. We stopped at a Safeway grocery store in Salt Lake (long gone now) to get something to nibble on-it was late-getting dark and home was an hour away and I had a lot of little lives depending on me to get them home safely. Never mind that one of those poor little Brownies got dumped on by a seagull while she was waiting in line to buy some food! How rude!
As I was getting out of the car one of the Brownies told me to look at a car a few stalls away-there was an older man (probably in his 70's) who was yelling (belittling words) and swinging at a woman (about his peer-age-frame) sitting in his car. My Brownie told me that it wasn't a good thing. I was fearful-not for myself so much, but for the victim and for the trauma my Brownie felt for watching this. I could NOT stand by and do nothing.
I went over to the man and basically told him that what he was doing was not okay and if he didn't stop I would go into the store, use the phone and call the police (this was pre-cell phone days and most people didn't have a brick phone-satellite phone). The adrenalin was flowing. Right or wrong to interfere, good or bad for the woman (did she get it worse afterward?), I did what I felt I needed to do. It was one of those areas where someone crossed the line I had drawn in my sandbox long ago.
This brings me to another favorite song-the kind you have to listen to 100 times to start to get to where your ears don't have to be so intent on it that everything else plays second fiddle to it.
Another from Chris LeDoux, This Cowboy's Hat
(Spoken) Well there's always been groups of people that could never see eye to eye... an' I always thought if they'd get the chance to sit down and talk face to face they might realize they got a lot in common.....
Well I was sittin' in a coffee shop, just havin' a cup to pass the time.
Swappin' rodeo stories with this ole cowboy friend of mine.
When some motor-cycle riders started snickerin' in the back
started pokin' fun at my friend's hat.
Now one ole boy said hey Tex, where'd you park your horse.
My friend just pulled his hat down low, but they couldn't be ignored.
One husky fellow said, I think I'll rip that hat right off your head.
That's when my friend turned around, and this is what he said.....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, cross the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Said partner, now this ole hat it's better left alone,
Ya see it used to be my daddy's, but last year he passed on.
My nephew skinned the Rattler that makes up this here ole hatband,
But in 69 he died in Viet_Nam
Now the eagle feather was given to me by an Indian friend of mine
But somebody ran him down somewhere around that Arizona line
And a real special lady gave me this here hat pin
But I don't know if I'll ever see her again.
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue northern and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat
Now if your leather jacket means to you what this ole hat means to me
Then I guess we understand each other, and we'll just let it be.
But if you still think it's funny, my back's against the wall.
But you touch my hat, you gotta fight us all...
Right then I caught a little sadness in that gang leaders eyes,
And he turned back to the others and they all just shuffled on outside
But when my friend turned back t'wards me, I noticed his old hat brim
Well it looked like it was turned up.. in a big ole Texas grin
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg
Each of us has that limit/line that cannot be crossed without not just an eyebrow being lifted but also the adrenalin level start to rise. For me it's a LOT of different things. Treat children with respect. Children-treat adults with respect. Treat God with respect. Treat animals with respect. Treat Mother Earth with respect. Treat yourself with respect. Yeah-those are the big ones.
One day as a Brownie Girl Scout Leader I was bringing a car load (they each had a seat belt on-but back then they could ride in the front seat) of Brownies back from a Discovery Day at Lagoon. We stopped at a Safeway grocery store in Salt Lake (long gone now) to get something to nibble on-it was late-getting dark and home was an hour away and I had a lot of little lives depending on me to get them home safely. Never mind that one of those poor little Brownies got dumped on by a seagull while she was waiting in line to buy some food! How rude!
As I was getting out of the car one of the Brownies told me to look at a car a few stalls away-there was an older man (probably in his 70's) who was yelling (belittling words) and swinging at a woman (about his peer-age-frame) sitting in his car. My Brownie told me that it wasn't a good thing. I was fearful-not for myself so much, but for the victim and for the trauma my Brownie felt for watching this. I could NOT stand by and do nothing.
I went over to the man and basically told him that what he was doing was not okay and if he didn't stop I would go into the store, use the phone and call the police (this was pre-cell phone days and most people didn't have a brick phone-satellite phone). The adrenalin was flowing. Right or wrong to interfere, good or bad for the woman (did she get it worse afterward?), I did what I felt I needed to do. It was one of those areas where someone crossed the line I had drawn in my sandbox long ago.
This brings me to another favorite song-the kind you have to listen to 100 times to start to get to where your ears don't have to be so intent on it that everything else plays second fiddle to it.
Another from Chris LeDoux, This Cowboy's Hat
(Spoken) Well there's always been groups of people that could never see eye to eye... an' I always thought if they'd get the chance to sit down and talk face to face they might realize they got a lot in common.....
Well I was sittin' in a coffee shop, just havin' a cup to pass the time.
Swappin' rodeo stories with this ole cowboy friend of mine.
When some motor-cycle riders started snickerin' in the back
started pokin' fun at my friend's hat.
Now one ole boy said hey Tex, where'd you park your horse.
My friend just pulled his hat down low, but they couldn't be ignored.
One husky fellow said, I think I'll rip that hat right off your head.
That's when my friend turned around, and this is what he said.....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, cross the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Said partner, now this ole hat it's better left alone,
Ya see it used to be my daddy's, but last year he passed on.
My nephew skinned the Rattler that makes up this here ole hatband,
But in 69 he died in Viet_Nam
Now the eagle feather was given to me by an Indian friend of mine
But somebody ran him down somewhere around that Arizona line
And a real special lady gave me this here hat pin
But I don't know if I'll ever see her again.
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue northern and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat
Now if your leather jacket means to you what this ole hat means to me
Then I guess we understand each other, and we'll just let it be.
But if you still think it's funny, my back's against the wall.
But you touch my hat, you gotta fight us all...
Right then I caught a little sadness in that gang leaders eyes,
And he turned back to the others and they all just shuffled on outside
But when my friend turned back t'wards me, I noticed his old hat brim
Well it looked like it was turned up.. in a big ole Texas grin
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat...
Long before you take this cowboy's hat....
Chorus:
You'll ride a black tornado, across the western sky
You'll rope an ole blue norther and milk it till it's dry
Bull dawg
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