All Hat, No Cattle

Just as I thought I'd lose my own mind living 24/7 with a mother who resembles a docile two-year-old, my sister rescued me and took me on a tour my last day in Oklahoma.

First we visited Dewey, an old-time small town with a cluster of antique stores where I shot some photos for my other blog.

Yocham's is all tricked out to look positively pioneerish

Then we hit the highway toward Tucson to make a must-see stop at Yocham's, a well-known western gear store, still the place to buy and repair tack and saddles.

But the Yocham's folks saw where the big bucks are (not in the pockets of real cowboys) so now half the store has morphed into a fancy showroom for the faux cowboy set.


We're talking major display of dead animals, wild and domesticated, from hides to horns to the entire critter stuffed and mounted on the walls or posed dramatically, like this bobcat trying to catch a pheasant. Looks pretty good except for the flourescent lights and acoustic tile ceiling...


When you're ready for the western look you spiff up with ironed jeans, fancy new boots and a $500 cowboy hat, buy a little ranchito, and blow a few thousand at Yocham's to pimp it out with these fancy fixins.


Is it just me, or is it ludicrously bad taste to hang a price tag on a dead steer's ear?