TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 4:38 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> I thought a dude ranch was a place where cowboys did cowboy things.


Sigh! Well, those of us to whose eye the phrase, "Ken Maynard and Tarzan,
The Wonder Horse!", brings a tear of nostalgia for childhood past recall
the "dude ranch" as a vacation resort set up to resemble a "working ranch"
for the entertainment of "dudes" - i.e. swells, lames, squares - from the
effete east wanting all of the fun, but none of the work, of the cowboy
life on the western plains.

In other words, cowboys did do cowboy things on a dude ranch, but only to
put on a show as entertainment for vacationing dudes. Cf. the
"professionals" working at ski resorts, for instance.


--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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