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A
Style All Their Own
The cowboy was sitting at a table alone,
in a typical small town cafe.
He'd finished his meal and most of his
coffee,
when a stranger walked over his way.
"Excuse me," he said, "hope I'm not
interrupting,
but I sure do admire your hat,
And I'm wondering, could you possibly tell
me,
where I could find one that's shaped like
that."
Well, the cowboy stood up and took off his
hat,
studied it, then said with a smile,
"Sorry Mister, 'fraid I can't help you out,
it's one of a kind type of style.
About ten years ago when this hat was brand
new,
without all of the sweat, dirt, and grime,
There wasn't too much would have set it
apart,
but hats take on character, in time. |
They're as much a part of a cowboy's life
as his boots, or his saddle and horse,
And before he ever steps out of the house,
he covers his head up, of course.
From wintery blizzards, to sun bakin'
summers,
and everything else in between,
Out fixin' fences, checkin' water and
windmills,
punchin' cows from here to Abilene.
A hat and its shape and the way that it's
worn,
mark a cowboy, like a brand on a cow,
And Mister, if you bought one new, just like
this
they wouldn't be the same anyhow.
The size of the brim or the shape of the
crwon,
ain't waht sets an old Stetson apart,
It's the guy underneath it, who's makin' a
hand,
with the love of the life in his heart.
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Ya' see, some folks say a hat makes a
cowboy,
but I don't really see it like that.
So I guess what I'm tryin' to tell you,
Friend,
the truth is, the cowboy makes the hat.
Carole Jarvis
©
2005
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About the author - CAROL JARVIS |
Carol Jarvis (pictured above) grew up
in Anaheim, California. She recalls riding
horseback through the many orange groves and
farms that have since been
replaced by Disneyworld. As a small
child she lived on a little ranch in
the Mojave Desert where her parents worked.
As she grew up horses were always a part of
her life. Although she didn't have the good
fortune to own a horse, she never stopped
dreaming of the day that she would have her
own horse. When Carol
finished school she went to work in
Arizona; and she took her dream with
her. It came true. Carol bought a two-year
old colt that was not yet broken; and she
took on this task herself. She says that
both she and the horse had a lot of learning
to do that first year; but that he turned
out to be "a great little horse".
Later Carol worked for several years at
Jackson Hole, where she met "a handsome
cowboy" on a coal black filly. Carol has now
been married to him for over 40 years. She
has always been cowboy and western in heart
and spirit. She knew from early childhood
that western ranch life was what she wanted.
And she got it!
Carol and her husband, Dan Jarvis, lived and
ranched in Wyoming, Oregon and Arizona. They
currently live in Forepaugh, Arizona, near
Wickenburg where they run a few cows on
their desert ranch.
Both Carol and Dan Jarvis write cowboy western
poetry hat recalls their ranching
experiences. She says that there
has been, in her words "a
lot of
hard work, dusty trails,
blisters, sunburns and broken
bones along the way, but it's
the life I chose and the one
Dan, my husband chose, and we
wouldn't trade it for any
other". Carol
says that her feelings have been fairly well
summarized in lines from one of her poems:
"There's a whole lot of satisfaction
in the way a cowboy lives, not the
hard work and the danger, but the
freedom that it gives."
...
"When his long days' over, and his
pony's turned out to graze, he's
filled with satisfaction from the
job, not what it pays. And he'll
walk through the door of his old
bunk house, with his dog just one
step behind, content with his life
as a cowboy, and the peace it brings
to his mind."
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 Carol
Jarvis
is the recipient of
the 2001 Gail I. Gardner Award
for a Working Cowboy Poet,
bestowed at the
Arizona
Cowboy Poets Gathering
at Prescott, Arizona and of the
2003 Western
Heritage Award,
bestowed at the
15th
Annual Cowboy Christmas Poetry
Gathering
in Wickenburg, Arizona.
Her poetry has been published by several
publications. The poem on this web page,
A Style All Their Own. was featured in the 2006
Western Horseman
magazine calendar.
 Carol's
book
of cowboy poetry, Time Not Measured By A
Clock, received the Will Rogers
Medallion Award from the Academy Of Western
Artists in 2004.
Time Not
Measured by a Clock has
nearly fifty of her original
poems and stories and a few by
her cowboy husband Dan. The book
is illustrated with Carole's
photos and sketches by Larry
Bute,
along with Carole's photos. It
was published by Cowboy Miner
Productions.
You
can purchase the book
($19.95 postpaid)
directly
from Carole Jarvis,
43909 West Highway 60
Wickenburg, Arizona 85390;
or on line from either-
The poem
on this web page is under copyright
protection and it may not be
excerpted, copied, or reproduced, used or
performed in any form without the express
written permission of the author, Carol
Jarvis.
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