Viewing page 6 of 19

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:18:22]
[[voices off]]

[00:18:29]
{SPEAKER name="John"}
Well I can tell from the small, but eager audience that the people here know exactly what they're here for.
[00:18:36]
Now, all week we've been talking about conserving culture, that is, how to keep this culture alive.

[00:18:42]
Certainly when you look at these cowboys you know that cowboy culture is certainly alive and well represented.
[00:18:48]
Now, one of the images of cowboys that's all around us, is that it's a hard life, a tough life, and that there's a lot of melancholy among cowboys,
[00:18:59]
and certainly all of that's true but there's a lot more to it than that.

[00:19:03]
And we decided that in fact we're on orders from the head of NEA to make sure that we get on the good side of culture today to talk about what makes people keep doing these things.
[00:19:14]
And part of it is that there's a lot of fun out there.
[00:19:16]
Now uh, although the sign out there says cowboy culture, what we're really going to be dealing with here is cowboy humor, which is,
[00:19:24]
which is jokes and tall tales, and Windie sometimes we just call them lies.
[00:19:30]
And we've got a bunch of experts.
[00:19:33]
And we're just going to go up and down the line here in some kind of order to begin with,
[00:19:38]
and then after all, all that order falls apart as it's sure to,
[00:19:42]
we'll have a regular Donnybrook and I'll just play referee.
[00:19:45]
But to begin with we'll have Glenn Orley at the far end start out with, with an offering. Glenn?
[00:19:51]
{SPEAKER name="Glen"}
Thank you. I didn't know we had to make an offering.
[00:19:57]
What is this anyway?
[00:20:00]
Anyway, usually I talk about animal husbandry, that's the only thing I know anything about.
[00:20:06]
But, I'm going to start off this proceedings with a poem.
[00:20:13]
And there's lots of cowboy poems and this one is from Nevada.
[00:20:18]
Right. Don't grin yet! [[laughter]]
[00:20:24]
Actually it's from Winnemucca, Nevada.
[00:20:27]
[[laughs]] Thumbs down -- she's from Elko!
[00:20:31]
And it's a poem about a cowboy, as well as I can understand what it's about,
[00:20:36]
it's about a cowboy that liked to dance with chickens.
[00:20:39]
That seems to me like an odd thing to do, but we've been here two weeks and we're kinda drying up,
[00:20:46]
so [[laughter]] we're kinda scraping the bottom, you see.
[00:20:50]
So here it is about Ma's old chicken coop, where this guy liked to dance with chickens, goes like this.
[00:20:57]
When I was just a saddle bum and roamin' o'er the range,
[00:21:01]
I rode 'em high and handsome and I blew in all my change.
[00:21:04]
I loved to drink and gamble for women I wasn't due.
[00:21:07]
That's why I'd often ramble, down to Ma's old chicken coop.
[00:21:12]
Now anything went in Winnemucca in the days of gold and clover
[00:21:16]
And when the cowboys come to town, we'd stop in and look 'em over.
[00:21:19]
There was Billie, there was Betty, now they was my kind of soup;
[00:21:24]
Sally, Sue and Nettie, down at Ma's old chicken coop.
[00:21:27]
I'd travel this world over from the Battery to the Barbary Coast,
[00:21:32]
And I've sampled every chicken that every town can boast.
[00:21:35]
But taking 'em bird for bird or taking 'em group for group,
[00:21:38]
There's none can beat the birds down at Ma's old chicken coop.
[00:21:42]
One night I went to Winnemucca and as per usual I got well teed,
[00:21:47]
And strolled down to the red light to spread some chicken feed.
[00:21:51]
My wife, she took a shot at me and now she's in the city coop,
[00:21:54]
Because she hit the wrong old rooster, down at Ma's old chicken coop.
[[laughter]]
[00:21:59]
But I'm getting so old and feeble I can scarcely lift my glass.
[00:22:03]
No more I ride the wild broncos, no more I pursue the lass.
[00:22:07]
I've sown my last wild oats, and I've swung my last wide loop,
[00:22:11]
And I've danced with my last chicken down at Ma's old chicken coop.
[00:22:16]
Thank you.
[00:22:17]

{SPEAKER name="John"}
[00:22:17]
Thank you, Glenn. [[applause]]
Our next tall tale teller comes from Darby, Montana.
[00:22:26]
Mr. Ken Trowbridge.

[00:22:29]
{SPEAKER name="Ken Trowbridge"}
Thank you John.
[00:22:30]
I was telling John a story or two over there and he said, heck, he thought I could get away with some of this.
[00:22:36]
I don't know, I'm gonna try.
[00:22:37]
We're getting down towards the last, anyway. So, if they don't hang me, maybe they'll run me off.

[00:22:43]
So, it doesn't make much difference either way. But uh-
[00:22:47]
Yeah, it's time to go anyway.
[00:22:50]
But, we had a couple of big ol' steers up in our country that they'd run wild for about six or seven years and nobody could catch 'em.
[00:22:59]
And a feller come along that was a real good roper and uh,
[00:23:02]
he said ya know if you run them right on through that little spot there, it wasn't too big a spot.
[00:23:08]
He said, I think I can tie onto them. So ol' Lue Hess was his name.
[00:23:12]
So he got a pretty good size horse and tighten these ropes to the saddle horn.
[00:23:17]
And one in one hand, and one in the other as I run these two steers by while you [[click]] on one and [[pft]] on the other.
[00:23:23]
And one went one way and one went the other.
[00:23:25]
Jerk that horse right square in two.
[00:23:28]
And the old steer at the front end of the horse went up towards Canada and the other one come down towards Montana.
[00:23:34]
And some way or other it got on a ballot and we elected it for the governor of Montana.
[00:23:43]
{SPEAKER name="John"}
And some of those guys are around here I hear.
[00:23:47]
Our next cowboy is actually our oldest one, he's uh-, he's the father to the one here on the end close to me.
[00:23:54]
That's what they tell me at least. Johnny Weyland from Utah.
[00:23:58]
{SPEAKER name="Ken Trowbridge"}
That's true.
[00:24:00]
{SPEAKER name="Johnny"}
Well I think I'm gonna pass on this first round on my point,
[00:24:02]
cause I'm still trying to figure out how I can put them in English where I can say them in front of a lot of ladies.
[00:24:08]
So Dev, I'm gonna leave it all up to you son.
[00:24:11]
{SPEAKER name="John"}
Dev [Suvere?], Pendleton, Oregon.
[00:24:16]
{SPEAKER name="[Dev Suvere?]"}
Well at least they gotta be cowboy stories, I know uh, course that's all the only kind we know. I was telling-

Transcription Notes:
Unsure of the last speaker's name, either Dev or Dove