I have always been about makin’ friends for as long as I can remember. It’s good policy in my humble opinion and there will be benefits to reap if you can maintain those relationships.

I think especially where I live and how I dress in my “cowboy costume” each and every day, I should try to speak to folks I don’t know when I am at the post office, market or where ever. The point I’m trying to convey here is there are so many new folks moving here to Colorado that for sure can’t find any reason to want to rub elbows with the locals who farm or ranch. They just expect when they go to the market to find exactly what they came for and find it in abundance. If I smile and say “howdy, how are you today?” it almost knocks some folks off their feet in surprise. I have found, gentle readers, that most of the time I get a very warm reception and I believe for sure that 90 times out of a 100, everyone wants recognition.

It can’t hurt our cause in agriculture to make non agriculture folks feel at ease around us and want to maybe give us more support than they ordinarily would. No doubt there are those much like our recently dismissed head of our state veterinary board, that despise folks of our type. Yeah, she is gone and should have never had that position and our governor knows that. Problem is, he is very much like her. MERCY Charlie Brown, kick that football as quick as you can.

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Now if you live in Vega, Texas, Camp Creek, Ariz., or Encampment, Wyo., it may not be necessary to be makin’ friends as I suspect you already know all the folks in those parts and they know you. Just in case that new family has moved out west and don’t know for sure how to approach someone like you, help them out and give the a big “HOWDY” to put them at ease.

I have had some folks, very few, ignore me and in passing look at me like I was not worthy for them to respond to my happy greeting. Yep, it does irritate me for sure when that happens. There again, I don’t know if they have just signed divorce papers, buried a family member or discovered that they have cancer. We just don’t know and I try to remember that if my efforts are cast aside. Just the same it’s hard for me to not form an instant opinion of them right on the spot. Shame on me!

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I suggest if you live in Cody, Wyo., Tulsa, Okla., Boise, Idaho or Irving, Texas, toss out a “Howdy” with a big ol’ smile and let’s put an image on agriculture that we hope will pay dividends in the future.

It is important to be seen as “the good guys” in the white hats that work our fannies off to accommodate the needs of our city and urban friends. Agriculture matters and if we want the support we deserve, lets act like it.

Stay tuned, check yer cinch on occasion, remember, “a great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” (Will Durant, 1885-1981, American writer and historian). I’ll c. y’all, all y’all.