Why Texans Dress Like Cowboys

[LWolf]

187. I see people dressed like cowboys every day.

I don't live in Texas, and it's not a costume.

I live rurally. Many of my students live on ranches. They drive tractors, they cut and bale hay, they have horses and cattle.

They show up for school wearing their jeans. They aren't always wearing their boots, because they know they've got PE, but if they were out doing chores before they headed off on the bus, they'll have their boots on.

They don't always wear traditional cowboy hats; those are big and awkward to fit in their lockers, so they tend to wear baseball caps. So do their ranching dads. If they are going to be out working on fences and cows and hay all day, though, they'll put on the bigger hats with a bigger brim for shade and rain run-off.

They don't show up in spurs, because most don't ride with them anyway, and they wouldn't be allowed in school. Some do sometimes forget to empty their pockets of pocket knives and other sharp implements, though. If they forgot, they stop by my desk and give them to me to hold until the school day is done.

I see people dressed "like cowboys" because they are ranchers. It's not a costume. It's their work attire. Modern working versions of "cowboy" attire.

I will say that they find "urban cowboys" who adopt faux ranch wear as fashion to be amusing.

I can't speak for Texas. I've been there twice, for very short visits. I don't remember the people from 1965, when I was only 5. I wasn't paying attention to the people in 2001, but I remember that the mall attached to the hotel I stayed in was displaying local art: cow statues.

I don't know what Texans dress like. I know that "cowboys" weren't, and aren't, just in Texas, and that there are still ranching families and ranch hands, not just in Texas, in 2014.