I Cold Weather Coming?

Been Away for Too Long.  It has been almost three weeks since my last post on this site.  We took a great trip south and now I am suffering from some arthritic pain/swelling that is making it difficult to type.  Hopefully, I will be back to normal in a week or so, by the way, not playing any golf is starting to get worrisome also.  Guess it is all just a part of being nearly 70, but that doesn’t make it better. This post I am doing a bit of typing and a little hunt and peck with my good, left hand.

On Vacation, I Snapped this Photo in a Lousiana Bayou

Winter Cannot Be Far Away - This time of year I often wonder or marvel at how much suffering winter caused to early settlers. Two years ago we went through temperatures around zero here and far below that in some parts of the state. This year we have been in the 60s and some days 70s. When I get cold, I turn up the heat, not so easy for early settlers. We often picture, at least I do, sitting in a rocker near a roaring fire with a good book, Ahh – the good old days. But they really were not that good. Houses lacked insulation, and someone had to cut/chop all the wood for winter. Lots and lots of hard work.

My Make Believe Cabin In The Mountains

So, How Cold Was It? - Wyoming’s all-time record low came in 1933 at -66 below, now that’s cold. Last winter, in this part of the state, we had only one night where the temperatures went to below zero. I also played golf, at least twice, every month of the year, and I will not play unless the temps are 45 or better. I’m never sure what constitutes a good winter, but for me, snow at Christmas and more in February and March along with no bitter cold sounds good.

It’s Cold Outside, but not Today - We read much about how settlers spent the winters but I would suspect they spent quite a bit of it grumbling about the weather, pacing the floor, and talking about spring and wondering if it would ever make it.

We stopped to look around, Old Town in Dodge City, Kansas on our trip.
The day we visited it was 90 degrees, unseasonably even in Kansas.

Meanwhile seems like a good day for a hike in the park.

The Wild West

The Wild West

In his autobiography Standing Bear, a Sioux chief said that the white man, not the Indian made the west wild. “We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as wild. Only to the white man was nature a wilderness, and only to him was the land infested with wild animals and savage people, To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful, and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.” Interesting!

When the whites came into Indian lands, they tried to change the native peoples way of life. Religion, living style, lifestyle, food, cooking/eating utensils, dress, war, relationships and tribal makeups and hierarchy were all wrong – according to the new people, from the east, and now in the west.

In my view, the wild west came about as more and more non-Indian’s moved and crossed the west. Civilization movements and a clash of cultures changed the American West and created our, modern, view of the wild west. But, I’m most sure that this was not something new. Civilizations change as new people become more and more a part of something, where at one time they were outsiders. People being forced to change or obliged to accept what they do not want will fight, always have, probably always will.

Sometimes we do not look at the big picture, probably it was not as wild as Hollywood has made it out. Indian encounters are much more prevalent in old television series, movies, and novels than they were in real life. But the wars in the west were genuine, and were brought on as Standing Bear so eloquently stated, when the new people saw things as savage and wild instead of the way they were and had always been.

Buffalo Bill the Actor

Buffalo Bill was an actor long before he came up with the idea of his Wild West show. 

 From 1872 until 1886 Cody led a troupe of traveling actors, a "Combination," through much of America presenting frontier melodramas. It was during this period that he honed, what would become, his Wild West Show. Bill Cody’s acting debut was in dime novel writer Ned Buntline’s, The Scouts of the Prairie.

In his 14 years with the traveling troupes, he tired of the same dull presentations of the west and wanted to offer a more real show of the west. It was during this time that he added shooting marksmanship exhibitions, and Indian dancers, and started to use animals onstage.

Cody started his, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, in 1883 and three years later acted only in his show. Interesting that it was not Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, but only Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

Cody’s portrayal of the Wild West toured widely in the United States and was so popular that eight different years the group visited Europe, putting on shows for commoners and crowned heads alike. Cody's show lasted for three decades, an excellent run by anyone's standards. 

Cody had two homes, one in North Platte, Nebraska and another in Cody, Wyoming. To most historians, this was the setting for his version of the west, central Nebraska through all of Wyoming.

How famous was he because of his show? Writer/western historian, Larry McMurtry says he was the most recognizable person in the world during the last part of the 1800s – pretty famous!

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.