Day 29 (D-32) Wyoming: The Cowboy State / The Equality State

We saw the first week on this blog that Wyoming is called The Cowboy State.  We'll have an opportunity to see cowboys during our trip. The cowboy has for over a century been an iconic American image, both in the country and abroad.  As we cross the state of Wyoming, I'll be giving you a cowboy song or a Western video clip each day.   Let's keep this blog relaxing without too much work for you!

Some songs are older, traditional songs and others are more modern cowboys songs.  

For today, I Ride An Old Paint : 

I Ride an Old Paint is a traditional American cowboy song,  collected and published in 1927 by Carl Sandburg (a famous American poet) in his American Songbag.  He described the song as one of a man in harmony with the values of the American West. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.  Many have sung this song. 

You can listen to Lynda Ronstadt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAHGbhmGttQ
Listen here to Johnny Cash: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFbDqp28so&list=RDqUFbDqp28so
Don't worry if you can't understand all the lyrics.  
It's one of my favorites.

Do you know this cowboy vocabulary?  http://www.wordreference.com

• horse, horseshoe
• saddle, saddlebags
• stirrups
• cowboy hat, Stetson, cowboy boots, (Santiags)
• cattle, cattle drive 
• herd
• dogie --> a motherless calf in a range herd of cattle 
• lasso
• rifle, gun, bullet, holster
• giddy up!
• ranch
• range
• rodeo
• rustler
• stampede
• chaps --->
  

                        ____________________

Wyoming is also called The Equality State.  That's another interesting story.  When Wyoming was a territory and the people there wanted to enter the Union to become the state of Wyoming, the population at that time also was of course very small. Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote, in 1869, (more precisely, women were given the right to vote so that there would be enough voting citizens to meet the populations requirement for statehood!)  

My best,
Jane
_________________________________________________ 
--lyrics = the words of a song