The Cure for Anything

When I was a little girl the wild west fascinated me.  I’d sneak off to my grandparents’ house to watch westerns with my grandpa and then I’d re-create the battles with my little plastic cowboys and Indians.  It only seemed right that I had my very own cowboy outfit.  Needless to say, my mother was none-too-pleased with the idea.  She tried to talk me into a nice cowgirl skirt.  I told her that there was no such thing as a cowgirl, thank you very much, and I did not want that skirt.  I was six years-old .  You can imagine that I exasperated my mother to no end.  The way I saw it, the only girls in westerns were either damsels in distress waiting to be rescued, or barmaids who waited, wringing their hands, for their man to return safely.  I wanted no part of either of those things.  I was going to have my own lasso, my own horse, and my own guns. No one was going to rescue me, I was going to do the rescuing! (Talk about foreshadowing! 😉 )

Christmastime was coming soon, and the one thing I asked for was a cowboy outfit.  I still have no idea where they found it (I have a strong feeling that it was my dad’s doing).  It was the best present I ever received.  Red was my favorite color, and I wore red from head to toe: red cowboy hat, red and white checked shirt with pearl buttons, a red bolo tie, red pants (where does one find red pants?) and red leather cowboy boots.  I was in heaven.  My older sister was 12 at the time and told me that I couldn’t be a cowboy because I was a girl.  I told her that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and ran of to put on my marvelous new outfit.  I wore it  until it didn’t fit me anymore.  Of course, I couldn’t wear it to school, because wearing pants wasn’t allowed.

The funny thing was, I loved dresses and frilly, girly things.  I soaked in scented bubble baths, painted my toenails, and sat for hours while my sister tried out new hairstyles on me.  I had tea parties and dolls that I loved.  But I also had Hotwheels  cars, Lincoln Logs, and pockets full of rocks that I collected throughout my day.  I didn’t think that there were things for boys and things for girls.  I just liked what I liked.  I still do.