Those Nice Folk in El Paso

[Mr. Robot]

During the last two days I met some great people from university of Texas El Paso down here in Melbourne Australia

Really nice bunch of people -but no cowboy boots or ten gallon hats Didnt talk about Southfork or a gal called Sue Ellen

 

Damn! I'd practiced all my JR Ewing lines for days All wasted[biggrin]

[craigh]

I was in Austin earlier this year. Texans are some of the nicest people I ever met. Everyone was nice except for one taxi driver & he was not from Texas.

 

Craig

[S t e v e]

During the last two days I met some great people from university of Texas El Paso down here in Melbourne Australia

Really nice bunch of people -but no cowboy boots or ten gallon hats Didnt talk about Southfork or a gal called Sue Ellen

 

Damn! I'd practiced all my JR Ewing lines for days All wasted[biggrin]

 

 

mr robot' date=' i didn't know you were from oz?...never been but is my dream destination

[Mr. Robot]

mr robot' date=' i didn't know you were from oz?...never been but is my dream destination [cool']

 

Hi Steve. Sure am. Dont miss the opportunity to visit if you get the chance.

 

Despite the distance, lifestyle and culture is pretty similar to the US, if not a little more laid back here.

 

The folk from El Paso went to an Australian Rules Football game and loved it - and got to meet our Prime Minister!

 

Hell, I havent met our Prime Minister.

[BoyVader]

Melbourne!? Let's all sing the Sydney FC chant....

 

"We hate you cos your Victorian!"

 

Sydney is better Steve....warmer, better looking women, beaches...we have it all...

 

Dont let those Victorians tell you any different...

[Rewddawg1]

I know the women from Texas are sure nice. Can't really comment much on the men, I assume they have the same southern style of courtesy.

[flyingarmadillo]

During the last two days I met some great people from university of Texas El Paso down here in Melbourne Australia

Really nice bunch of people -but no cowboy boots or ten gallon hats Didnt talk about Southfork or a gal called Sue Ellen

 

Damn! I'd practiced all my JR Ewing lines for days All wasted[biggrin]

 

 

Well there's an old joke that Texans don't wear boots that often because they'd look too much like New York truckers. And 10 gallons went out a while back although I do have some friends who still wear them on formal occasions. Southfork is near Dallas and about 700 miles east of El Paso - that makes them from "back east" if you live in El Paso. Dallas is also where the Sue Ellens hang out. El Paso is pretty much senioritas (much nicer IMO). FWIW, JR wouldn't have lasted a week in the real oil business - he was too nice.

[Mr. Natural]

El Paso and Dallas are sure enough in the same state, but they are worlds apart in every other respect.

[Mr. Robot]

Melbourne!? Let's all sing the Sydney FC chant....

 

"We hate you cos your Victorian!"

 

Sydney is better Steve....warmer' date=' better looking women, beaches...we have it all...

 

Dont let those Victorians tell you any different...

 

Ah - I didnt think I would get a bite, but there you go - the Sydney Melbourne rivalry spills out in the Gibson Website, Tennessee. My God!!

 

Dont let him fool you guys - Sydney has a beach and a Harbor Bridge. Finito! The rest is urbal sprawl. They cant make coffee, their restaurants are crap and the yuppies are driving live music out of Sydney because it is too loud for them.

 

As for the girls, well lets just say that they have adopted the California Botox like its going out of fashion. [biggrin]

 

 

I prefer girls to be au naturale

[milod]

Actually most of my friends in Oz are in or around Queensland.

 

Wrote a piece a while back on a girl from Queensland who was here learning cowboyology. Did really well until she ran into ice on the the mountain. Never saw much of that sorta thing before.

 

m

[Mr. Robot]

El Paso and Dallas are sure enough in the same state' date=' but they are worlds apart in every other respect.[/quote']

 

Too true. But lets not let the facts get in the way of a good stereotype!!

 

It's a bit like Oz - Brits and Americans expect to see Kangaroos running down the main street.

 

You might see that if you go to a hamlet in the country - but not in the cities.

 

It was funny, the folks in El Paso told me that even Americans in other states expect to see the boots and hats!!

 

Now I'd like to meet some of those Senioritas some day.

[Mr. Robot]

Actually most of my friends in Oz are in or around Queensland.

 

Wrote a piece a while back on a girl from Queensland who was here learning cowboyology. Did really well until she ran into ice on the the mountain. Never saw much of that sorta thing before.

 

m

 

Milod - What is "cowboyology"? Is that a real word?

[milod]

It's just one of those words... <grin> Yeah, it gets used occasionally. Then there's cowboyography.

 

Yeah, it's kinda real; has to do with the study and learning of the cowboy's trade - and many of the better cowboys nowadays do tend to be girls. I even know some who still chew snoose (ground up tobacco). <grin>

 

We've had some rodeo riders from Oz up here, too. It's great country for bronc riders and such. It's also among the last "open range" areas in the US historically - the last open range roundup around here was somewhere around 1907 as I recall off the top of my head. Where I live was at least the largest livestock shipping point in the US, if not the world as cattle were driven in from Wyoming, southeast Montana, North Dakota and most of northwest South Dakota.

 

Ed Lemmon even wrote for the local newspaper. He grew up and old throughout the birth, heyday and death of the U.S. Northern Plains open range cattle business. His newspaper columns now are a book, "Boss Cowman."

 

Never got in a gunfight, but one roundup he roped and brought in something over 700 calves for branding and such. Figure that's a nonstop 12-hour day catching a calf per minute. No electric lights or anything so... you do the math and figure the physical effort involved if you've ever tossed a loop to move a calf to a branding fire. His record holds today. He also knew pretty much all the trails, the grass, the waterholes in an area bigger than most states in the U.S., which is why the railroad hired him as kinda a guide for trail herds via telegraph.

 

There's a town named after him now, btw.

 

Ian Tyson CD includes:

Cowboyography

 

1. Claude Dallas 2. Cowboy Pride 3. Fifty Years Ago 4. Navajo Rug 5. Old Cheyenne 6. Own Heart's Delight

7. Rockies Turn Rose 8. Springtime 9. Summer Wages 10. The Coyote & The Cowboy

 

#10 = "The coyote is a survivor, everybody knows, lives in the snow at 40 below, or in Malibu by the sea ... as I get high on a bottle of rye, the coyote gets drunk on the moon."

 

The late Chris Ledoux, a darned good bronc rider, had some good 'uns too.

 

m

[NeoConMan]

All the years I lived in Texas, the tourists were easy to spot.

 

THEY were the ones wearing the ten-gallon hats - Mom, Dad, and all the kids.

 

Nothing like seeing a loaded-down minivan with out of state plates - full of cowboy hats....

[BoyVader]

Melbourne is pants....coffee?! we drink beer in Oz..lol

 

Better gang's and more chance of a mugging than Sydney though I will give you that...:)

[milod]

Neo...

 

Actually I think the Texas "hat" thing has something to do with the state being quite urbanized in comparison to the Northern Plans rural areas such as where I live. Certainly not all wear hats, but those in the more rural areas, especially, who are outside a lot tend to. Those who don't, tend to get skin cancer.

 

I don't care for the caps some wear since my formerly frozen ears reeeeally get burned without a bit of shade.

 

==== BTW... my bud in Brisbane also is an academic type, although retired. Originally from Scotland, worked in Africa, ended up at U. of Q. as I recall probably still messing with insects. <grin> Never quite understood that since he also was a reeeeally good scholar of history of Scotland and some other stuff.

 

m

[Mr. Robot]

All the years I lived in Texas' date=' the tourists were easy to spot.

 

[i']THEY[/i] were the ones wearing the ten-gallon hats - Mom, Dad, and all the kids.

 

Nothing like seeing a loaded-down minivan with out of state plates - full of cowboy hats....

 

Very true. My mate just came back from El Paso - avec cowboy boots!!!!!!

[dem00n]

You guys dont know bad tourists. :)

[NeoConMan]

I've been to New York.

In my limited observations, I was unable to discern who was visiting or who "belonged" there.

Appearances vary widely, accents even more so, but the courtesy and friendliness was all the same.

 

There's a lot more to the United States than Gotham City.

Maybe those folks would do well to spend a little time where there are dirt roads and no sidewalks or cell phones.

 

Here in Arizona, the tourists tend to move here.

More than NYC, nobody who lives here is actually from here.

Come winter, we're overrun with out-of-state plates & Blue-Hairs behind the wheel of their RV.

 

 

Yeah Milo,

I grew up on the Plains myself so I know the skin cancer risk.

SW Kansas, still have family there and the TX Panhandle where the sun does indeed get mean.

Get up where you are with a little more altitude and a little cleaner atmosphere...

 

I had lesions removed from both my ear lobes when I was a tender young 22.

[milod]

Well... I wear a hat and boots and I ain't a tourist. Been wearing 'em since I was a kid except when I lived in Memphis and I wore shoes and no hat or cap.

 

OTOH... as I said, where I live it's not urban like Texas.

 

Chop a Texas-size piece out of western South Dakota, Northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana and you've got the same size real estate with less than 10 percent of the population.

 

m

[NeoConMan]

Oh yeah, I hear ya.

I avoided the urban crap all I could.

Been up in Wyoming plenty, just not the Dakotas

 

And like Texas, you can still tell the natives who work outside for a living from the posers/tourists

wearing their cowboy "costumes" to the delight of the rest of us.

 

Arizona is the same way, it's a shame that people fly into Phoenix and think they've seen Arizona.

I would venture to say that we are almost as night/day as upstate New York is to NYC.

 

Two completely different worlds, and I'm closer to PHX than I want to be though I'm miles from the suburbs.

[milod]

Luckily my friends know I'm no horseman but I've tossed my share of bales when I was younger, moved some cows here and there over the years. As I've said before, I'm kinda the town-kid relative who's not hung up on getting green mud on his boots and can help with fence repair if you've gotta decent 4wd pickup. Even in my line of work I'm outside enough in enough variations of weather that the hat and boots are awfully practical.

 

I'm under 15 minutes from my house to the Wyoming line; a few more miles and it's Montana.

 

m

[NeoConMan]

Hah!

Not a horse guy either, my younger sister was.

 

I grew up in town like you describe, in high school we had a small place on 20 acres with cows.

The farm kids always wanted to stay in town, because there was nothing to do weekends/summer.

We always wanted to go out to the farms because there was nothing to do in town.

 

For excitement, we would strip down to our underdoggers and climb up on the center-pivot

irrigation sprinklers for a ride in the 55-degree "rain" water until we were sunburned to hell.

 

Always had good boots, but all my outdoor working years required a hard hat.

Leisure stuff - I usually grab whatever goofy-looking round brim hat I can find for airshows, car stuff.

I've said for decades I was gonna buy a nice Stetson, I've just never done it.

[milod]

Neo...

 

For what it's worth, Stetsons aren't necessarily the quality they used to be. But no felt hat is nowadays thanks to various regulations increasing over the past half century.

 

I've a nice Serratelli too. Their web site even has a country music lead-in.

 

There are some decent hatmakers around, but they mostly buy blanks and do the shaping and sizing. Figure around $150 for a decent felt - and more for better one. Sounds expensive, but a good one lasts and lasts and can be cleaned and new sweatbands and such replaced...

 

Baileys and Resistols are good hats.

 

How do they make 'em? Hey, it's handwork in America. To see how, here's a good "show" with rodeo announcer Bob Tallman doing the voice-over.

 

http://www.resistolhat.com/video.php

 

m

[NeoConMan]

Resistol it is!

 

Thanks Milo.

 

 

Still gonna wear Levi's though.

Never could get Wranglers to work with my dynamic physique.

 

As "generously endowed" as I may be elsewhere, from head to toe, I have no *** at all.

I'll say no more on the matter.

 

Move along folks, move along, nothing else to see here.

Move along to the next post please....