Ride-'em Cowboy!

The foot wear that has remained virtually unchanged - well, at least visually unchanged, is the cowboy boot;  pointed toe, uniquely pieced hide (often leather or snake,) and loops for pulling on.

Ride-'em Cowboy - pencil, .8 black Micron pen, FW acrylic ink and Faber-Castill Indian ink brush tip markers on 300 series Strathmore mixed media paper.  Click on image to enlarge.

The first cool day of early October I saw a mom and two children headed into the grocery store.  She began herding them from behind and made me think of the classic cartoon image of a cowboy herding cats.  The boy, 6ish, had on long pants, tennis shoes, a sweater and jacket.  The girl, 4ish, had on a tank top, short-shorts, a long pink scarf that fluttered beautifully in the wind (not gale force, but both ends of the scarf were parallel to the pavement,) and wonderful light-blue, tall cowboy boots.

Ride-'em Cowboy - pencil, .8 black Micron pen, FW acrylic ink and Faber-Castill Indian ink brush tip markers on 300 series Strathmore mixed media paper.  Click on image to enlarge.

Between the wind and the scarf, it appeared as though the boots were driving the train.  They would lead the child to the left, closely followed by the mother with arms outstretched, and in a heartbeat the boots steered her at a ninety-degree angle, with the herder doing her best to anticipate.  Of course the older child was clearly the parking lot scout and on a marching mission in advance of the boots so.......the herder would jog three steps forward to corral the scout, then quickly redirect her attention to the furling scarf lead by the boots.  And so the procession continued all the way across the parking lot.  How do I know this - I just had to watch until the herder managed to bring-up-the-rear as her charges marched through the front door of the store.  I hope her adventure was somewhat more manageable minus the wind, on the inside.....not so sure about that, however....there's LOTS to distract wandering boots in a grocery store!!!!  Hats off to mothers!