City Slicker

Each fall Jackson's school celebrates what they call "Western Day".  It's a big deal.  And as his teacher put it, "It's a Hallsville thing.", which in my mind translates to, "It's a hick thing."  Is that bad?  Probably.  Hallsville is a small town.  Longview is a small town.  Hallsville is way smaller.  Anyway, they make a big deal out of "Western Day", like a complete school day of play on Friday and a parade on Saturday, big.  Where am I going with this?  I'll tell you.  On Tuesday Jackson got to dress up in his "western" attire for a special picture.  I won't lie, I was a little stressed about what to adorn this child in to make him look like a cowboy.  You see, we're city folk and don't have this kind of stuff just laying around. The note that came home said, "Have your child dressed in western duds of some sort: jeans, boots, chaps, bandannas, cowboy hats..."  As I read the list, I realized our western wear supply stopped at jeans.  We do have a bandana but it's purple.   I don't think I've ever seen a cowboy (in a picture or in person) wearing a purple bandana.

So...when we got home from school I immediately went to his closet and tried my hardest to make do with what I could find in there.

We decided on a button up shirt, jeans, his church belt and church boots and added a red bandana we borrowed from Jana.  Voila.  Instant cowboy.  Right?

When I dropped him off at school Tuesday morning, the first few kids I saw weren't dressed up and I was immediately transported back to when I was a kid and the anxiety I felt on dress up days that I somehow had gotten the day wrong and I'd be the only fool in class wearing my pajamas or my halloween costume.  (Picture Pam from the office dressed as Charlie Chaplin.  Yeah, like that.) Thankfully, the kid in the car in front of us got out with the whole cowboy shebang: boots, hat, bandana.  The only thing missing were chaps.   I could breathe a sigh of relief.

He was excited to dress up for school.  And he's really excited for the big party on Friday because there will be fun and games and families are invited to come so we'll get to enjoy it with him.  I lived for days like this when I was in school.   I'm sure we will all enjoy Western Day.

I waved goodbye to my little cowboy and headed back home.

After picking him back up from school we were driving down the highway when I spotted a horse on the side of the road.  It wasn't just a horse.  It was a horse and a bonafide cowboy.  This man looked straight from a western movie. He had the scowl and everything.  Jackson asked why he didn't' just use a car. Then, why he didn't ride a cow.   I realized what city slickers we really are.  I'm okay with that.  When we need to be western we'll just throw on a bandana and call it done.  Works for me.

I can't wait to see how his special school picture turns out.