by Rebecca Drennen

Created on: February 27, 2009

ME AND THE COWBOYBOY

Well one day I walked into a barroom in El Paso and this ole cowboy came up to me and said in a loud, clear, boastful voice:

"You sure do have a nerve miss, coming into a barroom like this, as nice looking as you are, I'm gonna take your hat."

I just went up to the bar and ordered and beer, and he announced "Hey gang she ordered a beer," then his hand went toward my hat. Everybody in there was making noise. All were cowboys, men. I cleared my throat and said

Son go ahead if you're in for a fight, but if you don't want to fight, I suggest you better keep your paws off. Everything got real quiet and his hand stopped in mid-air and I continued saying.

I'm madder than a hornet on a hot Texas day, this hat might not look like much to you, but it sure means a lot to me.

You see before I left Houston my hometown, a very special guy gave this hat to me; I got into a fight in Dallas and lost it for two weeks, got run outta town, hit Amarillo like a bomb, that's were I got my belt, now these boots my Daddy gave them to me eighteen years ago, my mother gave this shirt to me, my pants I bought. Now my truck outside don't compare much to y'alls but it's been my home for the past five years, now my jacket my best friend gave it to me. Now up in Louisiana I got my gun and holster from a guy I met, got jumped in Virginia, busted in Georgia, doped in Maine, got into a fight in Oklahoma, in a movie in California, drunk in Colorado, shot in Florida, stabbed in Wisconsin, and kicked outta Washington D.C. Caught a guy in South Carolina, gambled in Las Vegas, lost my head almost in Sant Fe, New Mexico, and broke my leg in Texarkana in a rodeo. Now I got a gang following me from New York, shot a man in Detroit, now I'm here and you wanna take my hat. No way son, not this old hat, it's either you or me. I could tell you more about my life from right here in Texas. I lived here all my life until I finished high school, I busted a juke box in Austin, got dropped in Moreno, and just a while ago I got into it with a trucker and tore that place apart cause he tried to do what you started to do. One of his buddies cut my tires, well here comes that gang I was telling you about. Straight whiskey please.

After I told my story, the cowboy looked like he was about to cry. He asked me my name and I told him. Then he admitted he was the one who gave me the hat, and he said that he would he would never try it again. Then we talked about old times, and when the motorcycle gang came in me, that old cowboy, and his friends were all on one side. We outnumbered them and outsmarted them. I finally settled down. Now me and that old cowboy rekindled an old flame that had never died. Now me and that old cowboy are one, and remember it all started over a cowboy hat.

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