Day of the Cowboy proselytization

[James Hunt]

The National Day of the Cowboy is coming up and the boot and hat store in our small town is paying for a Chuckwagon to camp out in front of their store (if you are reading this Brass they are your friends the Dewey Brothers) and wanted a couple of "Cowboys" to color up the area. So they asked my daughter and I to show up. We are going to use it to promote our local CMS club (we have brochures for that) and NCOWS. Hopefully we will have a small display with photo's. This would be a good time to have an NCOWS brochure as a word.doc that we all could just download and print. Oh well, my best thoughts are often after the fact.

The store owner put out a flyer and placed an ad in three papers, so we'll see what comes of it. The flyer is below, yeah I know I'm not correct. But the store owner know's well what I wear for NCOWS and CMS and specifically asked me to wear my Robert Duvall outfit - my every day stuff that got washed the day before with a silk bandana - because it looked more "cowboy". Oh, well....

I also offered to bring a horse, they said no need to as their were going to be a couple of miniture donkeys there - miniture donkeys? Oh well again..., maybe I'll throw the saddle on one of them.

[Terry Lane]

You'll do well James. That's a great opportunity for promotion to the general public.

I had to turn down a contract show and being Grand Marshal of the National Day of the Cowboy festivities at Ainsworth. They contacted me about 2 months ago and asked if I was available for a show on July 22nd. At that time I was and they said they'd be back in touch. They did get back to me but not until yesterday and now I'm obligated to do this singin' and dancin' Buffalo Bill thing. They were a little late for this year but have already contracted with me for next year. Take care.   

[gw]

Whew! From the title of this thread I thought you were havin' some major surgery or somethin' even worse James!!  It would be good to have a downloadable NCOWS "flyer" of sorts for this and other type of events, maybe even a professional short video too. Correct or not that's a mighty fine lookin' poster they made up, hope nobody takes any photos of you on the mini donkeys though! Hey,if OCB gets approval to do the NRA convention, maybe we could get him to make an NCOWS "flyer" and poster too. Seein' as how he's artistically talented, he would be perfect for it.

[Irish Dave]

Very cool, James. Very cool.
I'm sure you'll represent the organization well and do us all proud.

['Monterrey' Jack Brass]

Mr. Hunt,

I'll see what I can do to muster the fellows from afar. I will post this to the DelmonicoShootists (to the Delmonico on this board - in short 'Delmonico' is the name of me and my pards' CW mess since 1999 and it carried over to old our west activities) and the Whiskey Flats fellows to see if they can support you too. Perhaps the bros Dewey can bring their chuckwagon too. I will post to the list and see what support can be mustered.

Getting shorter over here - have entered 'double digit midget' status (i.e. under 100 days before redeploying back to the states). Looking forward to getting back in the game would personally support your endeavors in Chelsea if I could.

YMH&OS,

'Monterrey' J. Brass

[James Hunt]

Thanks Brass - the Dewey brothers ARE bringing their wagon and setting up in front of the store! From everthing I have heard they have a great, and accurate, camp/chuckwagon. Believe it or not I don't know them, so I look forward to meeting them. Unfortuantely they are not going to cook. Apparently with several restuarants within a stone's throw, the "muleskinner" was worried about his causing ill feelings due to competition. I hope he has a boom box with Ian Tyson and Don Edwards going in the background, or something besides us standing around. I'm not sure if this will go over or not, hope it doesn't bomb. If it looks bad I'm gonna start introducing myself as GW Schofield from Indianna. My face is plastered all over town and believe it or not no one recognizes me so I might get away with it. By the way it would be neat to meet some of the Delmonico's, so if any other funny looking fella's show up - I'll be the guy dressed like Robert Duvall - I'll introduce myself and we can all get a coffee. By the way if they need some wife time, the Dewey's wagon is right next to the Common Grill, a great restaurant (as in bring the plastic, but you get GREAT wife points) so one could combine two purposes, one interesting the other noble. The event is from 11:30 - 3:00 but will run later if we are creating any interest.

Thanks Terry - encouragement from a real performer like yourself is, well..., is encouraging. All I can do is stand around and lie.

GW - Enough said about donkey's at this point. Oh, I learned the word proselytization when I was studying for the SAT's in college, been waiting 35 years to use it in a sentence. By the way if this doesn't work out you may be getting some phone calls, don't worry I will give them Irish Dave's home address. That will be good for you if there should be any police involvement, that way the authorities can speak to the top guy.

Oh, yeah - Brass we are doing the Fall Gather on Oct 7th again. The SASS guy's from plymouth have expressed interest in doing ground shooting using blanks as a demonstration (reenactment of an event maybe?), and some guy there has been practicing his ground roping tricks, anyway perhaps we could give some thought to an overnite "correct" camp. Scott Thomas will have his chuckwagon there again and will be doing the cooking. He misses the boat a bit on 19th century cooking, but his camp could pass for a 1920's era gather on the Green River in WY. My daughter and I hope to do a small mounted shooting demo as we did last year. It went well. I will leave my Bob Duvall costume at home as I do a mid 1890's cowboy impression for CMS. Think you can get Uncle Sam to get you back home by then???

[Delmonico]

James, I'm going to get a gold star out of my box and put it by your name that day.    More folks need to do this rather than just hide at the range, otherwise trying to be period correct is kind of fruitless unless you share.  Post pictures.

[Terry Lane]

James Hunt said "All I can do is stand around and lie."

Heck James, in my role as Cody, that's what most of my show consists of. 

[gw]

  Thats right, James, we want pictures, especially the donkeys!
     As far as I know right now, I ain't got any paper on me in Michigan, so make me proud!
    And if it all goes wrong---fess up and tell'em your real monicker--I. Will Ketchem
                                          Good Luck

['Monterrey' Jack Brass]

Mr Hunt,

I'm glad the Deweys are coming to Chelsea - you will like their set-up. These fellows are the leaders of the Whiskey Flats guys. I cannot speak for the Delmonicos - might be too short notice. However, it is posted to the e-group and we'll see what comes of it. You're Hell Creek Ranch activities seem like they are coming along. Perhaps Rick Celia (P.H. Pete) can assist in quality control with the Plymouth guys' impressions - post to Delmonico Shootists and share your vision for that event and see what he can suggest. Might be a good way to foster support at some level toward the historical accuracy - crawl-walk-run.

When you are putting on the gathering I will be about two week left in-country, then going to Kuwait then to Ft Dix for a spell, then home. So I'll not be attending this Fall but will plan on next year.

Let's give some thought about releasing the Association Manifesto at some point shortly after I come back and then turn efforts to the Handbook. I also need to do a major re-work on my Jury Book & Bio ('draft' status for such a long time is no good..!) and get it back to you, Marlan, O.C. Bill and F. Jack. By the time Spring comes I feel we and some of the Delmonicos can field confidently as the Association, and hopefully a couple of them will have assembled their Originals paperwork for submission. I think interest is growing at home since I came back from leave.

YMH&OS,

Brass

[James Hunt]

GW: I Will Ketchum, yes that will work. Lord, donkey's, might as well bring the sheep with them too!!! Tom Horn would be rolling in his grave.

Brass: DOG GONE government. Two weeks!!! Do they know this is the FAll Gather, only held once a year? Do they understand the significant roll that you would play here? We're talking horses, guns, and attitude in the middle of the Peoples Republic of South Eastern Michigan - Democrats!!!! We need the unruley classes of 1776 in abundance to pull this off, less someone in Ann Arbor complain to the papers that we are abusing the animals and damaging the psyche of children. I may put in a call to Rumsfield. - also I appreciate your putting the word out to the Delmonicos, hope to get to know the Dewey's and hence get a reasonable introduction to the Whiskey Flats crew.

Well it's Friday night, I have brushed off my Open Range Costner hat, fluffed up my silk bandana, knocked the manure off of my boots and polished them, put on my old iron mexican spurs with jingle bobs, and am ready to meet the masses expectations of a cowboy. I put together a slide show of CMS and NCOWS and will run it continually at the boot store tomorrow and hope we get some interest. I may pack my pocket pistol just in case some little kid points and laughs at me, or some damn Democrat questions the well being of my horse around gunfire. I will report in with images following the event.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

James,
Next time you do one of these, let me know ahead of time and I'll try to make it up there.....It's a shame about the hat though....

Bill

[Goatlips]

James & Brass & all, watching this thread with interest.  Wish I'd heard sooner.  Waiting for pitchers.

Goatlips

[James Hunt]

I posted an after action report in the NCOWS chambers but thought I would post some pictures here. It was OK. I would not wear my Bob Duvall duds again, felt foolish next to other reenactors, the store owner can get another "model". Now some pictures:

First for GW

We will not speculate on GW's interest in miniture donkeys.

Now for the chuckwagon and some great reenactors who belong in NCOWS (Brass and I will be working on that)

Although the store owner liked my attire as it represented what could be bought in his store, I would not do that again. I think it may have limited my ability to represent NCOWS.

It was a good time and a ton of yupees learned that it was the National Day of the Cowboy. My summation though - if you want to promote something bring donkeys, they were a hit - everyone wanted to pat them.

PS: Bill, I did not get a picture of them but these were not NCOWS donkeys. They both had straw hats that could be tied on and believe it or not the hats had a Gus crease in them. These were yupee donkeys.

[Grizzle Bear]

These were yupee donkeys.

Isn't that redundant?

Grizzle Bear

P.S.  They are cute lil' buggers, but ain't hardly big enough to carry a pick and shovel.

[Ol Gabe]

Just guessing here, but wondering if what he really meant instead of 'yupee donkeys' was 'U. P. Donkeys', as in 'Upper Penninsula (of Michigan) Donkeys'. Its a little-known fact that they were used extensively in mining operations there and some have even been found living in remote, abandoned mine camps, or so I've heard tell.
Yep, I think that U. P. Donkeys surely is what he meant, and the 'cute' factor is waaaaay high!
                                                                  *
Thanks for the pics and report, hold your ground next time and the store owner will surely see that your way is better all around for his business. Hope you at least got a discount on something at the store for all your efforts to make it a good sales day for him.
Best regards and thanks for your CAS/NCOWS/CMS promotional efforts, they are greatly appreciated!
'Ol Gabe
NCOWS #925