UnArmed Bandit
Unarmed Bandit is
Bobbie Rourk, wife to Pecos Pete and grandmother to Running Mouth (7) and Buck
Nekkid (4).
The alias seemed
a natural for a nonshooter. Nonshooter? An understatement. I
grew up in the sixties, one of those hippie gun-hating pacifist people who told
her new husband he could keep his guns at his mother's house -- didn't want
'em in mine. I also remember telling him (same husband) a few years
ago, when he was trying to talk me into going to my first CA shoot, "OK,
I'll go, but I won't play dress-up." Funny how one's perspectives
change with time and experience.
I went to that first shoot (in shorts
and a T-shirt -- I meant I wasn't playing dress-up) and
was incredibly impressed at how welcoming everyone -- especially, on that occasion,
Rustlin' Waters and her entire family -- was to a newcomer. I really got
into it, though, when Peter "volunteered" me as scorekeeper at my
first "big" shoot -- Ghivan's Ferry -- I think, to keep me occupied
so he could concentrate on shooting. Regardless, it made me pay attention,
meet the shooters and learn the game.
My focus these days is to try
to see that everybody on our possees and at our (Carolina RoughRiders) monthly
matches gets to play the game in his/her preferred way (without actually encouraging
the gamey-bastard element) and that everyone gets a fair game.
I also enjoy dressing appropriately
as would the wife of a "real" working cowboy by making do with what's
available. I make some of our clothes, more from modern than vintage patterns,
and I buy some stuff at Wal-Mart and mess with it. My goal is to demonstrate you
don't have to spend a fortune or be particularly talented to look pretty good
being a cow person. And I keep it simple, except for the plumes.
I am partial to plumes.
I know everyone is going to
say something along these lines, but what really keeps me coming back is
the quality of the friendships we've made over the years. Even though
I seem to have wound up with the crowd your mama warned you about,
I don't think I've ever known better people. I'm proud to be a charter
member of the Dixie Cowgirls!