suburban cowboy/2

suburban cowboy/2

fiction
edward w pritchard

Where are the heroes of old, riding the ranges alone, the cowboy of the American west of days gone by?

The cowboy is still about but now he's the suburban cowboy. Still a loner, the suburban cowboy is  more likely to be building a wood kayak in the garage after work, spending weekends riding his motorcycle, or driving his old truck out to the beach to surf a little on Sundays. After his recreation, the modern cowboy stops at the Tractor Supply to look at the  new one piece metal hatchet to help as he gathers sticks from his yard to build the campfire to look at while he has a beer and thinks about the stars far off to the East of his home.

The suburban cowboy treats a woman like a lady, walks along side of her always when they go anywhere together and since he's alone a lot really looks forward to hearing a lady's voice so he listens with interest to what she has to say.

Suburban cowboys are sympathetic to Indian rights now days because they know cowboys and Indians were two sides of the same old coin. Likewise Suburban cowboys don't understand why we are fighting  several foreign wars, but that's about as far as his political awareness goes. Religion? Modern cowboys don't make it to church much preferring Sister Tharpe's "Down by the Riverside".

Suburban cowboy? He's just a stallion who got old, an anachronism from times gone by who makes coffee in a sauce pan and doesn't get to Starbucks much to wait on line.