It is not unusual to walk into a local eating establishment and see a sunburned, weathered fellow with a big hat, dirty boots and fingernails eating barbecued brisket and beans with a bowl of cobbler to follow. Outside, is his dented old pickup. Inside the truck's cab are the cowboy's oily chaps and his varmint rifle. He drives away, pulling his horse trailer behind. Abilene has always liked cowboys and their lifestyle and supported that same western heritage.
Western heritage is taught by teachers in public schools.
But sometimes real cowboys show up in classrooms to show the younger generations what ranching life is like. Sometimes they will allow those city children to sit on a horse or throw a lasso. That heritage is also taught in our institutions of higher education as history. But it is also glorified. The HSU Cowboy Band has traveled the world playing cowboy songs and filling foreign air with cowboy whoops and hollers.