Some folks call his music “alternative country,” some call it “Texas country,” and others refer to it as “not mainstream.” Singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen calls himself “just a singing cowboy.”
During 1931, in the midst of Prohibition and the Great Depression, Houston’s headlines often read of falling prices, drought, unemployment and hardship. A town with fewer than 300,000 people and approximately 2 million cattle, Houston lagged far behind other cities as an organized livestock market. Despite the prevailing business climate, business leaders knew that before Houston could establish itself as a major cattle market, it first had to develop a successful livestock show. Seven men had a vision.
It’s a fiber, a seed and a food crop. Its lint is used to make blue jeans, shirts, towels, sheets, blankets, diapers, draperies, medical supplies and U.S. currency. Its seed is pressed for oil, which is used as an ingredient in fast foods, salad dressings and cooking. And, its discarded hulls are used as animal feed. What is this all-purpose commodity? It’s cotton, the largest cash crop in Texas.
What does it take to become a rough and tough cowboy? Power lifting? Cardiovascular training? A professional cowboy, like any other competitive athlete, must build endurance and train intensely to remain active at an elite level. His physical stamina is put to the test with each rodeo competition.
How can students be guided toward an exciting career in space exploration? Let them live it for a year! Since 1999, more than 1,000 students have done just that in the company of NASA astronauts and scientists through NASA ’ s High School Aerospace Scholars program, underwritten in part by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ Educational Fund.
Letters and comments should be sent to:
Marketing and Public Relations Division,
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™
P.O. Box 20070
Houston, Texas 77225-0070
