'Local Cowboy' Does Good

National Day of the American Cowboy is coming up July 28. This year, I decided I would ask the city council where I live (Eden Prairie, Minnesota) to officially declare by mayoral order the day of celebration. I wasn't sure how difficult it was going to be, this being a highly urbanized suburb.

Mayor Phil Young was quite cordial when I emailed him the details. He's a great guy and I think he'd make a heckuva cowboy. Anyway, he pushed the idea into the pipeline and a few weeks back, one of the Eden Prairie city staff called me to let me know it was going to happen.

Oh, and could I come to the council meeting to accept the proclamation dressed in cowboy gear? No problem there, other than finding "gear" clean enough to wear in a public setting. I didn't discover my roping gloves had some sort of green "stuff" on them until I was standing in the foyer of the city council chambers.

The mayor allowed me to give a brief background on National Day of the Cowboy and talk a little about what I was wearing, including my new Ariat Western shirt, complete with underarm ventilation. Yep, a lot of things have changed about cowboying in the last 100 years!

The mayor read the proclamation and handed me a beautifully detailed copy, which hangs prominently in the Tack 'n Togs offices. Photos all around.

Here's the one that ended up in one of our local weekly newspapers, Eden Prairie News. I'm not sure exactly what the reporter meant by the tag line or the reference to me as "local cowboy." I'm sure there are probably a few others in Eden Prairie.

I'm always amazed how intrigued people are with Western apparel. I usually wear a Western hat of one sort or another and I often have people come up to me and ask if they can tough it, where did I get it, is it comfortable? It's a great opportunity to share what our industry is all about and generate business for our retailers.

My thanks to Mayor Young, the council and city manager Scott Neal for making this happen. Scott and I have one other thing in common -- we both blog regularly. His blog can be found here.

If you haven't already had National Day of the Cowboy proclaimed in your city or county, get with the program. It's really painless and quite a bit of fun besides!