Cowboys Thanksgiving
When you think of a cowboys Thanksgiving it may bring to mind such phrases as “Home, Home on the Range” or the thoughts of late night campfires, sleeping under the stars, and riding horseback as they kept herds of cattle in line. This may or may not have happened a lot, but you can bet that even while on the cattle trail the cowboys always found a way to be thankful and have a special meal just for the Thanksgiving Day. It may not have been as elaborate as the spreads you have now, but they would have been as special as they could be.
An old time cowboys Thanksgiving most likely consisted of things such as meat that they hunted and cooked over the fire along with baked beans and some sort of corn bread. Just how it all worked out would depend on what sort of cook they had with them. If a cook was specifically hired to go along on the trail, chances are their Thanksgiving meal was much better than if they had to fix something themselves. There would most likely have been a horse drawn wagon taken along with cooking supplies and food to make it nicer.
Today, cowboys Thanksgiving is a lot different. On large ranches, there may be many cowboys employed along with ranch hands to keep the ranch running smoothly. These men live on the ranch and usually have dormitory style sleeping arrangements. When Thanksgiving comes around, the person in charge of cooking will be given special instructions to cook a traditional meal on that day. All of the cowboys and ranch hands will gather in their dining area to enjoy a delicious spread of customary Thanksgiving food.
Smaller ranches will usually invite the ranch hands in to eat Thanksgiving with the family as they are usually treated as part of household. While this is not exactly a cowboys Thanksgiving, it is a version of it. These ranch hands are just luckier than those cowboys of older times in that they are treated as part of the family and thus are invited to take part in the special holiday meals and celebrations that the family has. Of course, those cowboys from long ago were most likely quite pleased with their Thanksgiving meal, it is because they did not know it could be even nicer. Rarely are current cowboys left out of a decent Thanksgiving meal these days.
