Continental Divide Cafe

Comment by Steve McCarty on November 24, 2009 at 1:40pm

Are we going to discuss what cowpokes of old actually believed? I was raised just outside of Dodge City and I'm pretty old now. I knew men who knew Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Chalk Beeson; all Dodge City personalities. My grandmother came across the prairie in the covered wagon. She just died, her mother lived to be 100, and my grandmother 97. So I was raised by men and women who knew the Old West; or just the end of it. My grandparents on both sides were old timers, fought in the Civil Wars and fought Indians and bad men. My great grandmother always carried a Colt .45 when she went out to feed the men at noon (dinner time). Supper time was the evening meal. Wish I had that pistol, but it burned up in a fire.

Comment by Steve McCarty on November 24, 2009 at 1:48pm

I lived when people used the outhouse (always kept spotless) and brough water in from outside. We had electricity, but still used coal oil lamps. We washed before supper and knelt by the table and prayed for fifteen minutes before we could eat. My g grandmother made biscuits for every meal. My g grandfather never felt store bought bread on his lips. My g grandmother's buscuits were so light, as my dad said, "You had to take a fork and stab them as they floated by."


And WORK! These people worked hard their entire lives. They told stories on end at the dinner table and we kids hung onto every word. There was no TV, no computers; so kids were talked to, and we learned the family legends, like the story of my gg grandfather's brother who died in Andersonville. I've visited his grave. He died of scurvy.

Comment by Steve McCarty on November 25, 2009 at 4:42pm

Gee; I can't think of a topic of conversation here. How about the Cowboy's attitudes toward the Indian peoples. What was it anyway? Do we know? Certainly it varied with respect to the number of Indian/White attacks.

Comment by Steve McCarty on November 30, 2009 at 3:50pm

There was actually a dedicated group of workers who kept the city streets free of horse manure. If you look closely at city streets in, say New York or Chicago you will always see men wearing white hats and work clothes pushing white bins and carrying brooms and shovels to pick up the refuse. The people knew that flies bread disease and they kept the city as clean form horse droppings as they could.

Comment by Steve McCarty on November 30, 2009 at 3:56pm

There was no garbage service in 19th Century cities. People dug a hole behind their house and dropped the stuff in. Not long ago they dug up Lincoln's Springfield home's back yard to find his garbage pit to see what he cut of steak he ate. Washing was done in a bowl fed from a pitcher of water. The refuse was just tossed outside. Even chamber pots were sometimes tossed out the window. So look out above. Jefferson Davis had a toilet in his presidental mansion. It was attached to a pipe that ran outside and emptied onto the sidewalk.

Of course all of this refuse, human and otherwise found its way into the water table with predictable results; bad water; which killed most children who died of childhood diseases of the time.

Comment by Tishomingo on February 7, 2010 at 8:15am

Re Elvis Presley flicks... yes Colonel Tom really controlled Elvis in the early days. Almost a little cameo of what the government is doing to us today.

And, yes, what a pity Elvis was not in Rainmaker. One early movie, although not a western, where I think his acting potential was evident is King Creole.

$55 billion and year and still going strong. Presley's estate was just about in the tank until Priscilla took over the reins, added her saavy and creative ideas and brought it back from the dead and then some.

Colonel Tom would be proud. Uncle Sam must be delirious.

So how much do you think the EP Estate pays per annum in taxes?

Comment by Bud "Marshal" Stilwell on January 7, 2013 at 10:49am

What would the old timers think about what is going on in this country at this time?  What would they say about things happening to the family farmer how their everyday work that a cowboy did back then, Steer roping, bull dogging, bronc busting is now a big time sport with the PRCA and PBR?

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