Day 42 (D-19) The Rodeo / Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Rodeo - A display of skill in bronco busting and roping that began in the 1870s and remains popular in the West today.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders Circus Poster, 1899

Much of the pageantry and showmanship of modern rodeo comes directly from these Wild West shows.

The shows were partly theatre, and partly competition, with the objective of making money, glamorising and preserving the disappearing American frontier.  

At the same time, other cowboys were earning a little extra money at their usual informal competitions, which were now being held in front of paying spectators.  Eventually, Wild West Shows began to die out because of the high costs of organizing them and many producers began strictly producing the less expensive cowboy competitions at local rodeos or stock horse shows.

For vocabulary, here are some events we may see and discover:

Bareback bronc riding

Barrel racing

Bull riding

Calf roping

Steer wrestling

Saddle Bronc riding

Team roping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH7xrEs8Bs0   (at Cheyenne Frontier Days)
Can you imagine doing this for pleasure??

I'll go to the rodeo with mixed emotions: curious to discover an event which has its place in American history and culture, but at the same time unhappy to see animals mistreated.

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Two more cowboy songs:

My Heros Have Always Been Cowboys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0MOG9ZGWk  Willie Nelson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31aETl1BESU  Waylon Jennings

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys
sung by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RePtDvh4Yq4

Mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Don't let 'em ( = them) pick guitars or drive them ( = those)  old trucks
Let 'em ( = them) be doctors and lawyers and such
Mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
'Cause they'll never stay home and they're always alone
Even with someone they love

My best,
Jane
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-- display = a showing, a public exhibition
--skill = developed talent or ability
-- bronco = a wild or half-tamed (apprivoisé) horse in the Western USA
-- bronco busting = breaking a bronco to saddle 

-- roping = to catch with a rope (corde) or lasso
-- pageantry = elaborate display or procession; cérémonie à grand spectacle
-- showmanship = skilled performance; art du spectacle, art de la mise en scene, maîtrise de la mise en scene
-- American frontier = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNYvzaKbD4
-- die out =  become extinct
--  stock horse shows =  shows with horses that are used in herding cattle on ranches
-- steer = as a noun, it is a castrated bull