I Should Have Been A Cowboy!(Ed DeRousse) Those of us who grew up in the 1950’s are member of what is commonly referred to as the “Baby Boomer” generation. It really was different back then. Life was simpler, less hectic, and mellower. I think the fifties decade was the best time to be a kid growing up.
It was John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, cowboys, Indians, the neighbor kids, and of course TV.
The television Western was a big part our life. It dominated the airwaves. I remember watching Saturday morning serials, like Lone Ranger, Annie Oakley, Fury, Roy Rogers, Sky King, Gene Autry, and others. They were the American Cowboy.

Those words convey an image of a man wearing a wide brimmed hat, boots, gun belt, and sitting on a horse. He is tall in the saddle, alone, and faces danger head on. He’s one man against nature and the outlaws. He is a folk hero: half real, half mythological. For many of us, he represents the true spirit of America.
We enjoyed good cowboy classic westerns whether they were a series on TV or a movie at the local theatre. Those cowboys were superhuman. They were fun to watch and presented a moral message our parents appreciated.
It was those Westerns that influenced our interest in all things cowboy. Legends and myths were created about them and around them. The American cowboy, depicted in those shows, lived an adventurous life, and we wanted to emulate that daring lifestyle when we played.
We played outdoors. Sometimes from sunup to sundown! All we had to do was strap on our cap pistols and go fight the bad guys.

Back then, the neighbor kids were most likely at war with the bad guys or Indians. We’d draw our guns, hide behind trees, buildings, bushes, and other things, trying not to get shot. When one of us was the unfortunate one to get shot, our death scenes were often quite dramatic.
We never gave any thought to how many times we could shoot our six guns without reloading, or how many times or how many different places in the yard we could die. Or how many times the bad guy or good guy could stand a couple of feet in front of you, shoot you in the chest, and you would yell “Ya missed me!”
It was cool to draw your six guns out of the holster or grab your rifle off your pretend horse and be the hero.

There was a great deal of world tension in the adult reality back then, but the neighborhood cowboys were too busy clearing the West of the bad elements to be much aware of that tension.
I, like many of the baby boomers of the1950s, owned the toy pistols and holsters I played with. Many of us have never actually fired a real pistol, let alone draw one from a holster. Sometimes though, we find ourselves returning to those days of yester-year and wonder what it would have been like to have been a cowboy.

After I retired, I gave some thought to joining a Cowboy Action Shooting club. I had a horse, the wardrobe, and the “should have been” attitude. I even assigned myself a cowboy nickname. I was going to be “Pistol Pete”.
Today I live the Cowboy life through the various classic Westerns shown on television and my equestrian life and think:

“I Should Have Been A Cowboy!”

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