Texas Cowboys and Cowgirls Shoot from the Hip

It’s gratifying to see our two Democrat candidates for President greeted so warmly in Dallas this week.

In 1963, many Dallasites likely would have spit on them.

Many of us have seen tv footage of one of Dallas's radical right moms beating Adlai Stevenson on the head with a sign in 1963


Everyone who lived in Dallas in 1963 was traumatized by the JFK assassination.

I’m reading Dallas Public and Private by Warren Leslie, which was written 1964 and analyzes pre-assassination and post-assassination Dallas.

And Casa Linda's own U.S. Senator Bruce Alger led a group of radical right hens to jostle poor Lady Bird and her husband during another Dallas visit during that time period.




Here are some interesting observations about post-assassination Dallas:

The world has indeed treated Dallas and Texas harshly. “Do not bring your children to this city” was the lead paragraph of a news story in Lord Beaverbrook’s London Evening Standard, written by his granddaughter. “Giants 27, Assassins 21,” somebody said, and it was a shock to understand that the “Assassins” were the Cowboys, Dallas’ professional football team.

“Where you living now?” a bartender at the St. Regis in New York asked an old customer, a former New Yorker.

“Still in Dallas.”

“I’d have thought you’d been coming home by now,” the bartender said. “Or going somewhere.”

In Los Angeles, shortly after the assassination, a fashion writer for the Dallas News, covering the California market, found it impossible to get room service. “Seems to take a little longer for the people from Dallas,” a waiter explained.

In New York, a returning visitor to Europe spent less time than usual in customs. “Dallas,” the customs official said, looking at her declaration. “Hell, don’t stick around here. Just go home.” He walked away.

After studying the city for a short time, a visiting journalist said, “If I were a liberal living in Dallas, I might try to shoot a President just to get attention.”

And a familiar remark now, among the thousands that have been made about the Dallas police: “I don’t think the Dallas police force is so bad—look how quickly they
caught Ruby.”

Tomboys and Sissies, Prissies and Studs

When I was growing up in the fifties, we had two types of kids who were sometimes bullied--tomboys and sissies.

At school I had a friend named Betty who walked like an Amazon among her classmates. Always bigger and stronger than both the boys and girls, she used her strength to get her way.

I liked her alot and expressed my affection by kidding her (verbally). I think she liked me alot, too, and expressed her affection by kicking me very hard (physically) on my shins.

If my mother had been as protective of me as other mothers, she would have called Betty's mom and told her to make Betty stop making those big bruises on her sonny's legs.

Kids can be so cruel.

We know more today about why we had all these gender differences. And observing our cohorts' progress through life, we can see that those with a certain level of androgyny have fared well--perhaps even better--than the prissies and studs.

http://csulb.edu/~kmacd/361SEX.html

http://www.preventdisease.com/news/articles/born_to_be_tomboy.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tomboy