YES you heard me right - I said 'Cowboys and Indians! Back in the first half of the 20th century the term "Native American" simply didn't exist in the pop culture lexicon, especially with kids when they were playing. When kids played Old West, they played "Cowboys and Indians". They set up forts, or got out their cap guns and just made a lot of racket chasing each other and yelling "Bang, bang, you're dead!", "No I'm not, you missed me", "No I didn't..." and so it went LOL One time you were a cowboy, another time an Indian, another time a cavalry man, the next a bandit, or even Zorro or The Lone Ranger or Tonto. Roles tended to rotate as whims (or your friends) dictated.
It's summer 1959 and there are 50 westerns on TV - amazing when you think that there were only three networks at the time: ABC, CBS, NBC (the Dumont Network folded in 1956)! And here I am all decked-out in my cowboy clothes. Back in the day, boys as well as girls, wore costumes of all sorts all year 'round - not just on Halloween. I had this Cowboy get-up as well as a G.I. suit and an American Civil War Yankee costume that I can remember. With television being so rife with Western shows my room reflected my particular love of Roy Rogers - and Western toys in general (somewhere around here I thought I had photos of my Roy Rogers bedspread and curtains - I'll have to try and find them). Enjoy! Opa Fritz
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