4 - EASTERN OREGON PARENT - February 2018
Mammas, let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Y
ou can take the girl out of
Oklahoma, but you can’t take
Oklahoma out of the girl. Even
though I left Oklahoma in 1964
when I was eight years old, I still
join in at every opportunity for a
rousing chorus of “Oklahoma!”
I guess I came at a good time in
my Grandfather Earl’s life. I was the
first child of his youngest son, and
the first grandchild in seven years.
By the time I was five, six and seven
I was his captive (and quite happy)
audience as we passed summer or
fall evenings on the front porch,
radio in the background, shelling
pecans, and telling stories.
Sometimes granddad’s buddies
from the oil fields would come by
for a glass of iced tea or lemonade
and stories of their younger days
would start to roll. Most of these
older gentlemen had been cowboys
and had personal incidents to tell
about Oklahoma legends such as
Will Rogers, Wiley Post and Red
Adair. Their stories told of heroes
with cowboy virtues, and I was al-
ways eager to hear how Will Rogers
lassoed a friend in the audience,
how Wiley Post landed in a thun-
derstorm at their ranch, or how
Red Adair squelched a fire at their
oilfield. Oh, and they’d throw in a
story about Amelia Earhart every
once and a while.
A psychological characteristic of
children from about six to twelve
years is that they are in a period
of hero-worship. Children want
to hear stories of people they can
emulate, people who have charac-
ter strengths that will help them be
as skilled, verbally and physically,
as Will Rogers; as daring as Wiley
Post, as keen a fire fighter as
Red Adair, or as revered as
Amelia Earhart. Children
need to imagine the
possibilities through
story.
The cowboy stories
of my grandfather and
his friends encompassed the
values that old cowhands
and oilmen hold dear:
Individualism: No-
body did nothin’ by
committee. It was
one man out there
against the odds.
The names of their
ranches personified
that individuality;
Sky Ranch, The Lazy
L, The Rocking R, the
Flying M.
Independence:
They were doing it
their way before the
song was written or Frank Sinatra
was born, dadgumit.
Freedom: I’ll pay my money and
take my chances.
Love of the land: My, but that
wheat field was a purty sight.
Modest: After saving someone’s
life: “Ah, it weren’t nuthin’.”
Courage: Either git some back-
bone or sit on your tailbone.
Loyalty: Course we went after
him in that blizzard.
Integrity: His
word was as good
as law. And ev-
eryone knew it.
Generosity: We
passed around the
hat when he lost his job.
Respect for women:
We just told him
there was no room
in this town for
someone who’d
treat a lady like
that. And that was
the last time we
seen him.
Kindness to chil-
dren: Cowboys could
pull quarters out of my
ears, and that’s when
a quarter was a silver
quarter. A stick of gum
or a peppermint ap-
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Kids Talk™
peared with a grin.
Fairness: We dun it fair and
square, all on the up and up.
Nicknames: My grandpa’s name
was Skinny, and apparently at one
time he was. Smiley, Trouble, Red,
Tex, Shorty, Scottie earned their
names somehow, someway. Earned
is the key word.
Our children are looking for he-
roes. Heroes are all around us. We
need to take the time to tell sto-
ries of our heroes, along with the
strengths that we admire.
As a cowpoke might say, “We
don’t want to put the bull in the
wrong corral.”
________
Kids Talk™ is an award-winning
column dealing with childhood de-
velopment issues written by Maren
Stark Schmidt, M.Ed. She has more
than 25 years experience working
with young children and is the au-
thor of Understanding Montessori:
A Guide for Parents. Contact her
via e-mail at maren@kidstalknews.
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