Faye, I think the way people dress can come from where they live and their lifestyleWhen we lived in Jacksonville, Florida, we only seen people wearing Levis or shorts, but here I've seen a number of men, and some women, wearing Wrangler jeans. All I have is Cowboy Cut Wrangler Jeans and a few pair of cargo shorts. The Wrangler jeans are worn all thru our winter, while during the summer months, unless at a fair/rodeo, livestock sale or some kind of horse event, I'm always in the cargo shorts. Especially on our boat. It just like using Copenhagen, Skoal and even Red Man. It can depend on where a person lives, to see men, and even women, using it. I wouldn't think of anyone using it that lives in Los Angeles, NYC, but in any part of Montana, Wyoming and surrounding States I definitely would see it. Even in Texas and Oklahoma. Actually, wife and I were watching a "live" rodeo, on the Cowboy Channel, yesterday, from North Dakota and I seen one of the rodeo Judges taking a pinch of tobacco from his can. I don't know about today, but when I was active in pro-rodeo, Copenhagen, Skoal and Red Man were extremely popular in the horse/cattle/rodeo community. Wife and I talked to a Ranch Foreman, at a major Team Roping event in Pueblo, CO, some years ago, and he was using Copenhagen. He was in-charge of a fairly big cow-calf operation in southeast Colorado. Now, this is funny: I remember, back in the late 80's, when a saddle bronc rider and myself were sponsored by a nightclub in So. California, we were both at the nightclub. I ran out of Skoal, seen this dude in the Club and noticed the imprint of a Cope or Skoal can on his back pocket. I ask him if I could get a pinch. What did he say to me? He pulled out the can, opened it and it was empty! He said, "I only carry the can to look like you rodeo guys. I'd never use this stuff."
I don't know where you live, Faye, but our County Fairs and State Fair have an enormous amount of livestock and display farm/ranch equipment. Greeley, Colorado has a major rodeo and a big display of farm/ranch stuff, as does The National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver, Colorado each year. And, when talking about the "old" and "new" West, Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming is huge. Dodge City, Kansas, where we plan on going this coming August is the same............big rodeo and Western celebration. No matter what anyone thinks of how we like to dress, ect., wife and I simply won't "give up" on what we love to do/see.
Well, we are 72 and 73 and absolutely love our display. We're not like little kids and play with these figurines, they are on display. Like like our miniature wildlife figurines of Bull Elk, Bear/Cubs, Male/Female White-Tail Deer & Fawn, etc.
How people dress is a reflection of many things. As you mentioned where you live is one thing as is the change of seasons. How one dresses can also be a cultural thing or religious thing, but I still think how one dresses is not a true reflection of their lifestyle or dictated by their lifestyle unless used to perform work and worn in the performance of that work. Real working cowboys don't wear their chaps and spurs to town and if a lot of walking is involved, they wear athletic shoes and not heeled boots. You must not read much of what I write. I live East of the Cascades in Oregon where the wetter climate meets the desert and irrigated ranch and farmland of Eastern Oregon. A 3-hour drive east lands me in Pendleton, Oregon as I mentioned above. If you are watching PBR bull riding as I am now, you will see Pendleton Whiskey advertised and a sponsor of bull riding. Pendleton is world-famous for its yearly Roundup, old woolen mills, and now whiskey. Not even Cheyenne compares to the old cowboy culture you will find in Pendleton. The town hasn't evolved like Cheyenne. You still find boot and saddle makers working in their shops and also taylors that custom-fit jeans, suits, and dresses. Several antique shops selling spurs, chaps, hats, Indian jewelry, old ranch and farm tools, kitchen tools, glassware, enamel range pots, cast iron cookware, and anything you can imagine. You might be surprised that few of the shopkeepers or shoppers are dressed what you consider western. If you are really serious about living a western lifestyle, then a visit to Pendleton is paramount as is a trip to John Day and across HWY 26 to Prineville. You will see vast ranches that have been in families for years. Unspoiled, unlike Montana, much of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado that attracts big money people from California that buy up ranches and don't care if they lose money. No big cities or big city influence for hundreds of miles. To say I don't choose to live the western lifestyle because of my dress and how I decorate my home or what events I attend is silly because my love and respect for my 40 years of rural ranch and mountain living doesn't disappear. My heart is the same and has always accepted people for what is in their hearts and not the garments on their bodies. You would be correct to say I don't live the STEREOTYPICAL western lifestyle and never did, but I was born into a western ranch lifestyle and still live that style every day as I live and breathe. A stereotypical western lifestyle and a real western lifestyle are two different things. While the stereotypical is somewhat based on the real, it lacks the realistic credential and is based on show and big money profit rather than making an everyday living. Defining a western lifestyle by the way one dresses, way they decorate their house. rodeos they attend, or big chain stores they shop, going to cowboy church, etc., is superficial.
Yes, sort of. We did collect (buy) all of our miniature farm equipment, animals and corrals online and at a local farm/ranch supply store.
Will have to, again..........agree to disagree! To you this stuff is "superficial", but to many, like us, it's real. We love the places we go to and our Western wear. We love how our how we have our apartment decorated. I don't do the "rodeo" thing anymore, but we live the lifestyle the best we can, by attending rodeos and other things that are Western related. There are rodeo cowboys that base their living on going to rodeos, just like there are ranch cowboys who base their living on raising/selling cattle.
Pardon me for interrupting your thread, but I thought this type of behavior, or exhibitions, if i may call it was prevalent only in third world countries. I take comfort in knowing we were not alone.
No interruption at all but I am puzzled what you are saying here. What behavior or exhibition is happening here that is prevalent only in 3rd world countries? Did you post on the wrong thread? I am confused, please clarify.
My dad used Copenhagen. He was in Michigan. I don't remember ever actually seeing him chew tobacco but I have seen the cans around. That was some nasty stuff; I stole a pinch one day. It was like smoking, I suppose. He smoked Winstons, but never around anyone, He smoked in the car when he was alone because I could smell it and the ashtray wasn't always emptied but he never smoked when anyone was in the car with him, and he didn't smoke in the house. He'd light up a cigarette outdoors at night, sometimes, I know, because I saw him through the window. It wasn't a secret, but I think he mostly smoked at work or while he was working in the fields or in the woods. I worked with him around the farm and in the woods several times, and I don't remember him smoking, though. Interestingly, we attended a church where smoking, drinking, and even dancing and playing cards were prohibited activities, but a group of men in the church would light up cigarettes a few steps from the front door before services, then come in when they heard the first song playing. Although everyone else was in church whenever anything was going on there, my dad generally only attended church on Christmas and Easter, although he was usually there when there was work to be done.
@Faye Fox Spitting tobacco, snus? or the bettle leaf was not uncommon in our part of the country. So it was not just the east but the west too, that had these glorious competitions. In relation to Tobacco and Texas that's where the irrelevance come in.
If you read my original post on this thread under Tall Tales, then you will see the relevance if you understand my humor and poke at the idea that everything is bigger and better in Texas. Sadly this thread went astray and took on a tone of seriousness.
Well, the idea of......."everything is bigger and better in Texas" is somewhat true, but then again those that have moved from Texas to some other state, definitely don't believe in the "better" word, unless it was a job transfer that had them move.