Christmas Gift Fair for Cowpokes

Looks like a Levi's convention to me

I had planned to attend this today; I just hadn’t planned to do it so early.

As you may recall, I didn’t get a chance to see the cowboys in action at the Wrangler Championship Rodeo – at the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Thomas and Mack Arena – yesterday because I was unwilling to buy a mad-dash ticket.

And that’s why I hit the Cowboy Christmas Gift Fair early. And as luck may have it, the Fates stepped in. Almost as soon as I entered the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot, somebody pulled out only two row s from the crosswalk, and one space from the end. Yeehaw!

Jeeze Louise … every cowboy and cowboy wanna-be, every cowgirl and cowgirl wanna-be, every significant other and all their kids were jamming into the hall. I saw more blue jeans than a Levis convention, I saw more cowboy hats than a Western movie, and I heard more country-western music than I ever have in my life.

You know what whopped my jaws? The young girls. They were getting silly over who was scheduled to give autographs. I mean, I never heard of these people. They may be stars, but not to me. And whenever a new song came blaring out over the speakers, those young girls were singing away at the top of their lungs.

It kind of reminded me of when I went to the movie, Grease, and sat behind some junior high girls. It was eerie. When the characters started singing on-screen, there was this faint background singing in the theater … the young girls. That’s kind of what it was like in the big hall.

Talk about western stuff. There were hats, boots, belts, saddles, horse statues, Indian garb, knives, rifles, tee-shirts, socks, hankies, fur jackets for men, fur jackets for women, fur jackets for their kids, leather steering wheel covers, hardware belts, fishing rods and reels, lures and creels, salsa by the jar, longhorn heads, bison heads, wolf fur, stuffed birds, stuffed wildcats, teepees, beef jerky, sheep jerky, what looked like mule jerky, snakeskin holsters, lariats, bullwhips, spurs going jingle-jangle-jingle, ladies with big hair and kerchiefs, girls with big hair and kerchiefs … ah lordie, it was a cowboy paradise.

I almost expected Roy Rogers and Gene Autry to materialize out of thin air whenever I turned a corner. And if you don’t know who they are, then … then … get out of my face, ya young whipper-snapper.

Gotta say, I felt a little out of it – didn’t know anything or anybody cowboy or country-western related. But as Burt Reynolds told Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit, I guess how stupid you are depends on what part of the country you’re from.

I can take some solace from that wise observation. It ain’t my fault that I felt stupid.

How ‘bout a few pictures of some cowboy-related stuff:

American Indian stuff, plus stuffed stuff

Bison and Texas Longhorn heads

Looks like wolf fur to me

Cowboy hats on a rack and in stacks