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. HSU's famed Six White Horses also travel far and wide to lead metropolitan as well as small town parades. Cowboys and their western heritage are heavily represented in our bookstores, museums and art galleries.
Western scenes abound in art on the walls of our public institutions and in our private homes.
If you go to a local art festival, much of what you see will somehow represent western heritage. If you randomly pick a night club to go to in Abilene, you'll probably end up dancing the Texas two-step or a line dance. There are a dozen or so restaurants in Abilene that serve what once commonly was served to ranch hands from chuck wagons - brisket cooked slowly over mesquite. And mesquite-grilled steaks served in rustic atmospheres are the preference of many, even among those who have never set foot on a ranch. Abilene telephone directories list at least six retail stores that specialize in western wear, four stores that sell saddles and tack, and eight places to buy feed for your Texas Longhorns, or Herefords, or whatever the case may be.