You know thinking of " Cowboy Service" reminds me of the Steak House in Oklahoma City down at the stock yards. Boy they just pour it on and when you walk, or waddle, out of there you are a glowing from all them protien cells. But we all probably have examples of good " Cowboy Service".
It means walking the long way around the barn to satisfy that special customer. It means "please" and " Thank you, Mam" (or Sir or young man or young lady).  It means yeilding the right of way to folks carrying a saddle or giving a lady an open door and "a good morning or afternoon" to boot.

Some folks have been around some of them cities back East, and sometimes they can be East of State Line, and have forgotten "Cowboy Service" and you can't really blame 'em; they have been watching too many of them shows on TV where everyone's rude and gotta a whole heap of issues every day.

They really need a dose of good old "Cowboy Service". That way when they are back East, they can deal with all those big political issues that them folks seem to knot up into a big old heaping mess.

Let's say they are at the car wash and they miss a spot or two ( its probably a black truck them is hardest to keep clean. ) Well you aint much of a cowboy if your pickup aint got a little mud around the fenders, and wet hay gets blown all over when you go through that drier. So relax, and tip the little fellar. You are driving a Cowboy Classic and he is just a keeping you out of trouble with your other rodeo hounds.

Another good example is going to the Feed Store. It aint like it used to be. They ain't got no yard sticks or them free whirly fans for the kids. Funny, it just dont smell right with all them vapor lock bags and high prices. But, if you ask 'em nice they might help you load a few bags and not over charge you for your kid tearing down the hat display. The funny thing is I can't get any of my horses to pay attention to the pretty pictures they have on them bags now. I always thought it was kinda insulting feeding a mule out of a bag with some big stallion on the front. But what the heck, it's making meat in some parts of the World. For the most part, you have to educate them on what you want and how many and then endure the "Gestapo look" when you take out a pen and write a check. Regardless, I always thank them and wish them a pleasant day.

Now right here in our area you can find a restaurant that thinks "Cowboy Service" is waiting 45 minutes to an hour before you are waited on, then another hour before you get the toughest beef steak I have ever tasted, (and I have et a few). Now the fact that the place has a horse outside might lure you in thinking they are folks like me, but I think them folks long left the country or checked into a retirement home. You're hooked on "Cowboy Service" you chew it and wash it down with a warm beer and when you are through, you should still tip the young lady for her amzing service experience.

Nothing makes a cowboy more awkward than having to wait in line to eat at a place he wouldnt be caught dead in lessn he werent there fer a friend.

For the most part we all got our training in "Cowboy Service" from several reputable sources. For example your mother would whip you to a pub if she caught you being rude or dressed improperly, not standing straight, not helping "Aunt Bessy" out of the car even when you know steer wrestling isnt suppose to be practiced on humans. 

We also learned from our fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles ( other than my Uncle B who coaxed me into a nip of whiskey at to early an age before church).  We are so fortunate to have this special line of folks that watch and report every move we make growing up to our folks so that when you get home from that Parish picnic you get to go out and transfer the manure pile over a 1/2 mile in the dark all night , or recreate the stump removal scene from "Shane". Yes folks, it happened just like that. But we did not have them mules to pull it out.

Well I am kinda straying away from my real message. " Cowboy Service " has no rule book, or catchy tv show it is what we do because we know it is the right thing to do in the treatment of our fellow man. Mr Obama and the rest of the Bowery Boys in Congress have lost touch with why they are there and what they are suppose to be doing . They are for the most part like the Duke once said "short on ears and long on mouth". It has been some time since a Canidate understood the West, and I aint talking about the ones that drag out that new Stetson once a year for a publicity shot.

Theodore Roosevelt left his Eastern digs and immersed himself into the Western culture. It took a series of traumatic  events, the loss of his mother and wife within days, but I believe the President got a good old education in " Cowboy Service" and he made sure he got some pretty good legislation passed to protect what was left of our West at the time.

It is up to all of us to insure that the West that Bill Cody brought to the East continues to live. And not just in fiction but in the reality of our beloved Heartland. We are the morality, the voice for fair play and " if you see a snake kill it don't form a commitee on Snakes " ...Ross Perot.

Stand firm and lets get some folks up there that have been raised in a rural lifestyle and understand the work ethic behind a milking operation.

Remember what Woodrow told Gus, "Lets go to Montana... before all the lawyers and bankers show up". They were right and they still had the dignity to show the simple "Cowboy Service " to all they encountered. Heck, they even hanged Jake Spoon, their best friend, you just can't ask for any better than that.

So here is you mission for the week, take on one of these lost folks and reintroduce them to " Cowboy Service". If you are having some difficulty then haul em on out and I will find them a manure pile, an old stump  or some fence to clear, and I assure you they will have visions of this in their sleep that night that will not involve a corruption of thier brain cells on the idiot box. Unless it be a rerun of Gene Autry singing "Don' t Fence Me In".

Til next week, " it is best to dig the privy downstream of the camp"

Dave