From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Todd wrote:   
   > Hi all,   
   >   
   >     Did anyone see this series on PBS last week? Any observations, good or   
   bad?   
   >   
   >     It made me wish I could get in a time capsule and go back then for a   
   while. Maybe a   
   > year or two. I sure ain't tough enough to make a go of cowboying nowadays!   
   >   
   >     West Texas looks awfully desolate. Hard land to scratch a living out of   
   ...   
      
   Tougher than this show depicts. In the 1860's where they're set up, that   
   house would be pretty much unheard of. Glass in the windows? Good luck.   
   More likely, it would have been a dugout. And the horses were luxurious.   
   More likely would be Spanish ponies, broken only to the extend that most   
   of them didn't try to kill you or kill themselves when handled.   
      
   And the cattle were tame. The more than once description by those who   
   did it in reality was "wilder than deer." At least they were in the   
   open. If they'd set it in South Texas where it was brush country, even   
   back then before the brush line moved north, they'd have needed   
   ambulances to haul off the participants.   
      
   And the owner seems to think he's lord of the manor. What he would have   
   been lord of would be a modest chunk of land that happened to have some   
   water on it, if possible. He wouldn't have owned 10,000 acres. He'd have   
   branded wild cattle as far and wide as he could, and he wouldn't see   
   much of them for the next year. He'd have had to gather them up over   
   several counties. If it was a hard winter, some of them would be down by   
   the Gulf. If those folks had to really live an 1860's cattle operation,   
   they'd have all quit the show in the first 48 hours. Makes me wonder   
   about the other PBS HOUSE shows, because I don't know that much about   
   life in those other situations, and I now question the accuracy of them.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)