#the old west
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People have odd reactions when they see a middle aged man taking photos of toys. I've been mocked, been escorted out of places, been laughed at, sometimes people will ask questions, mostly they give odd looks then change their direction to avoid me as if I'm a danger to them.
This day I encountered a group of four women; a grandmother, a mother, and two younger sisters. They were very polite. They asked many questions, did I make the figure? The horse? The clothing? How long did it take to assemble everything? Was I a professional? Could they touch? Finally they asked to hold the horse and rider for a group photo.
Sure I said, handing everything over to the grandmother before stepping out of frame.
No, no, they said, we want you in the photo! So I posed with all four, a big smile on my face.
It's one of the best encounters I've had in the 12 years I've been doing this.
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Big Open Spaces - Harney County, Oregon - July 2015
"I like to be in big open spaces with high skies." Bruce Grobbelaar
#harneycounty#oregon#the great pnw#photographers on tumblr#pnw#oregonexplored#original photography#the old west#the high desert#storm clouds#open space#harney county#oregon outback
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#funny#tumblr memes#memes#facebook memes#?#texas red#big iron#country#country music#music memes#tumblr humor#context shift#jokes#type of thing#old west#the old west#cowboy#western#wild west#true grit#lobster#painting#meme#classic memes#stray dog#art#i swear i remember where this is from#like#dutch#17th century
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The Runt - Billy the Kid
Summary:
The runt is the smallest and has the least advantage in a group - commonly used when talking about a litter. And that is what Lauren is in the Seven Rivers gang:
The runt.
(PLATONIC! Billy the Kid x OC)
Warnings for this series: parental death, child abandonment, grief of a parent slight verbal abuse, physical abuse, mentions of sex, guns, violence, misogyny, use of a homophobic slur, complex feelings, drinking, underage drinking, smoking, drug usage.
THIS IS ALSO CROSS-POSTED ON MY WATTPAD: PhantomWritez2
Chapter One
Laurie had somehow convinced Jesse to let her go on a little cattle run with the rest of the guys. She was almost never allowed to go on those things because she was ‘too young’ or ‘too small’ or ‘too weak.’
Laurie, also known as Lauren (if you were to call her by her full name), was what the Seven Rivers gang called the runt of the litter.
The runt of the litter.
That was what Laurie was.
The smallest of the group, and often seen as the weakest even though she could do anything they could do, maybe even better than they could. And she hated being seen as some little fawn that needed to be coddled and looked after.
The group galloped to the entrance of the ranch where Jesse dismounted his horse and was greeted by his girlfriend whom Laurie couldn’t really be bothered remembering the name of. And with that girlfriend, Barbara, if Laurie remembered correctly, stood the man the group had brought back to the ranch a few weeks ago.
Jesse said something about his name being Billy.
The 13-year-old tilted her head as she observed the strange guy. He looked a lot better than the last time she saw him. The last time she had seen him, he was lying on Artax’s back like a sack of potatoes and looking like he was about ready to kill himself.
“Fellas, this here… is a very old friend of mine, Kid Antrim,” Jesse introduced, “Billy, Bob Olinger, John Beckwith, the runt back there is Lauren Casely.”
“Good to meet you,” Billy said, looking at the guys before his eyes fell on the little red-head girl. He could definitely see why Jesse referred to her as ‘the runt.’ You could tell right away she was the smallest and the youngest out of all of the guys here. Laurie sighed at the use of her full name, she didn’t really like it but she knew there wasn’t too much she could do to get the gang leader to stop calling her that.
She was just the runt of the litter, after all.
And she should be grateful Jesse didn’t shoot her on the spot when he found her, shouldn’t she?
Later that night, while all the guys sat around the table inside Jesse’s house, getting drunk or smoking tobacco. Or both. Laurie sat outside on the front porch, picking apart a twig she had found quietly. She never really felt like she truly belonged with the Seven Rivers gang, she was only here in the first place because Jesse caught her stealing supplies from his barn and decided to just take her under his wing instead of shooting her on the spot. But she was barely even acknowledged by him anyways, she was just another mouth to feed and body to bury to him.
Her head perked up when someone sat beside her, she looked over to see Billy, nodding in acknowledgement before going back to tearing apart the twig in her hands. That was how the two sat for a good few minutes, sitting in the dark in silence until Billy spoke up.
��Lauren, correct?,” he inquired, watching the younger girl.
“Laurie,” Laurie replied, “I don’t like being called Lauren.”
The outlaw nodded, making a mental note about the fact that this kid didn’t like being called by her full name.
“So how’d you get here, running with a gang?,” Billy questioned, looking over at the young teenager next to him. “You don’t look much older than 12.”
“I’m 13,” the teen corrected, throwing her stick to the side. “Jesse caught me stealing from his barn when I was 10. Instead of shooting me on the spot he decided to spare me and just have me living under his care for some reason.”
Billy nodded, looking up at the full moon in the dark night sky. It had been a while since he had actually taken the time to appreciate the small things, like how bright the moon looked and how pretty the stars in the sky were.
“Where’re your parents?,” the outlaw suddenly asked and Laurie sighed.
“Gone. My dad was killed, don’t know what happened to my ma, I just woke up one day and she had just disappeared, never heard from her since,” Laurie explained, clearly not really in the mood to talk but she knew that it would be rude not to answer Billy’s questions.
ⅠⅠⅠⅠ
The next morning Lauri found herself doing yard work while the other gang members worked on training new horses. Billy sat on the fence, talking with Jesse and Barbara while watching Jesse lunge one of the new horses. Laurie picked up a bag of some horse feed, tossing it into a wheelbarrow, ever so slightly eavesdropping on the conversation a few feet away from her. Jesse was talking about how the gang was thinking of going out to El Paso, and Laurie immediately knew she would probably get left out of that trip because she was too young or too weak, just like she always did.
The only reason she went on that trip that they returned from yesterday was because Jesse was “feeling nice.”
“Hey, why do you call that one over there ‘runt’?,” Billy questioned as he looked over to where Laurie was working and then back at Jesse.
“Because that’s what she is, really,” Jesse answered, continuing his work with his horse. “She’s the smallest out of all of us, probably the weakest as well. Sounds like runt material to me, don’t it?”
Laurie rolled her eyes with a quiet sigh, she hated that nickname. Runt – the smallest and more often than not in a group, specifically used when you’re talking about dogs and other animals. But according to Jesse, it can be used on people too – given the correct circumstances, of course. And here’s the funny part, no matter how much Laurie disliked the taunting, the names and the constant reminder about the fact she would be nothing without him – Laurie always found herself trying to seek out Jesse’s approval one way or another.
That’s the beauty of Laurie’s life.
The red-headed teenager watched as Billy got up and followed Barbara down into a slightly wooded area where a few horses stood loosely tied by the mangers and water troughs. She rolled her eyes and continued working, Laurie never understood romance nor did she ever experience it or want to experience it. She didn’t really ever have those urges.
After a few minutes Billy came back from the woods and approached her, Laurie slowed her movements for a moment. Trying to figure out why the new member was going to attempt to talk to her.
“You need help with those?,” Billy asked, gesturing to the few bags of feed that still needed to be hauled into the wheelbarrow and brought into the stables. Laurie shrugged, picking up another bag and almost dropping it. Why did these things need to be so heavy?
“If you want to help, you can,” the child replied, putting the bag into the barrow with a small but tired sigh. Billy felt his face soften a bit when he noticed how tired the kid in front of him was. So he did what he believed was right and picked up the last few bags with ease and hauled them into the wheelbarrow.
Laurie would be lying if she said that she wasn’t shocked that Billy helped her, because she wasn’t expecting him to actually do anything to make her life easier. In fact, he had been the first person in three years to actually help her with any of the chores she had been assigned. She stood there for a moment, glancing at the feed in the wheelbarrow before her blue eyes met his and she gave him a small smile.
“Thanks,” was all she said before pushing the wheelbarrow in the direction of the barn, not with ease though. She strained her muscles as she pushed the heavy supplies towards the barn, taking deep breaths as she did so.
Billy watched Laurie and he couldn’t help but wonder why Jesse was having this child do this kind of work without at least a little bit of help, especially considering the fact she was a little bit small and naturally scrawny for her age.
Why was there child labour going on at this ranch?
A/N:
Ok so this is my first time posting any of my writing on Tumblr so if you all have any kind of constructive criticism it would be much appreciated :D
Also if y'all wanna follow me on TikTok my user is: _phantom._.editz2
tag:
@slutforsnow
#billy the kid x reader#billy the kid x oc#billy the kid#billy the kid gif#billy the kid hc#billy mccarty#billy the kid imagine#billy the kid 2022#father figure#older brother core#runt of the litter#william h bonney#the old west#wild west#tom blyth
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Klondike Saloon in Harney Oregon
The proprietor of the Klondike Saloon in Harney City was J. C. Buckland. Born in Canada his father became a Naturalized Citizen when he was a teenager. He was granted a liquor license in April of 1889. He was also involved in horse racing, farming and once took a string of horses to Alberta Canada where he made a decent return on his efforts. He passed away on April 2, 1907. I believe he may be the older gentleman in both photos.
East Oregon Herald., April 04, 1889
The Times-Herald., August 03, 1907
#oregon#eastern oregon#harneycounty#the great pnw#the old west#oregonoutback#pnw#oregon outback#harney county#the high desert#the times herald#saloon#vintage photography#Harney City
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Photo
The Old West - 1 in 4 cowboys were Black in the 1800s.
White men referred to themselves as cattlemen, whereas Black men (and Black women) solely were called cowboys, which was a derogatory word. Hence “boy” instead of “man,” and other negative things they grouped with it for the formerly enslaved in the United States.
A cattleman is a person who owns cattle while a cowboy is a person who herds and tends to the damn cattle. The epitome of a hard worker...which is why that shit was bulldozed and scooped up for their initial signature imagery in Hollywood.
Then Black Americans just vibing out, unknowingly made yet another new style of music later referred to as country music, which blended Negro spirituals, the blues and jazz paired with the banjo, and white men decided to merge the two as their own: cowboys + country music. That’s another topic.
Our cowboy/cowboy tradition is solidified in Black American culture all across the country where we exist, regardless if we’re finally heavily depicted as such in pop culture or not. That ain’t never letting up.
Some in the photoset ranging from the late-1800s to the early 1900s: Bill Pickett, Stagecoach Mary, Jesse Stahl, Bass Reeves, Nat Love, Isom Dart, James Beckwourth
#black cowboys#black cowgirls#black american culture#the old west#bill picket#stagecoach mary#jesse stahl#bass reeves#nat love#isom dart#james beckwourth#vintage photography
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The West has Always been Queer! Is available to read for free right now!
All 165 pages!! Readable free in browser or download as a PDF! (It will try to make you register an account; select 'no, I will stay on the free tier' to start your download)
If you, like me, have a lot of Opinions about Queerness in the 1800s, oh man. Ooooh man, this is THE book to read. It's got all the best stuff.
Information about indigenous gender and sexuality. Discussions of the whitewashing of a mostly nonwhite career. Examinations of the way modern (western) queerness is inextricably entwined with settler colonialism.
All you could ever want, and more!
Godspeed, you funky little cowboys.
#automatic op tag#quincey morris#Quincey P morris#Yeah that's the only vaquero coming to mind rn but#I'm sure you all can take it from here#The old west#The wild west#Cowboys#Vaqueros
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Ok I’m doing this to get it out of my system-
…the Wild West as things my friends have said-(mostly the fucking Alamo bc I have the displeasure of remembering it):(
🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵
Santa Anna: COME DOWN HERE!!
Bowie: I’M SICK
Santa Anna: NOT YOU!! YOUR FRIEND!
Crockett: I’D RATHER DIE!! SORRY!!
☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️
Billy the Kid: no, so I reach into the fridge, it’s just Gatorade mixed with wasabi.
🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️
Santa Anna, about Davy: he’s like a… freaky woodsman.
🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵
Teddy Roosevelt, to his rough riders: nanananana were completely fucked!
☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️
Bowie: thanks, David Crocodile
Bowie: *crock pot
Bowie: *crockery
Bowie: *crochet
Bowie: *crickets
Bowie: I give up
🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️
Clyde: I’m bored, let’s kill somebody
Bonnie: you’re so romantic <3
🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵
The defenders of the mission:
Joe: I’d better skedaddle-
☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️
Bonnie: want to go somewhere exotic? *gasp* want to go to Ohio?
🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️
Bowie: what even happens in Tennessee?
Crockett: lots of stuff! like… Dolly and… uh… uhhhhhh…
🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵
That one guy who’s name I forget that robbed a bank dressed as Santa Claus: fRee MonEy fReE moNeY frEe moNey!!
☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️
Billy the kid: everywhere I look it’s just BOOM! Nightmare! Just BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!
🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️ 🏜️
Travis: well I think your hat looks dumb!
Crockett: well I think you look like a hag.
Travis: *offended gasp* YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!
Crockett: hag
🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵 🌵
Crockett, drawing the line in the sand: this is the fuck around and find out line, you cross the line, YOU FIND OUT
#Wild West#the wild west#the old west#American old west#the Alamo#bonnie and clyde#Billy the kid#outlaws#davy crockett#i’m losing my mind#I’m gonna snap#incorrect quotes#incorrect the Alamo
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In Without Knocking (1909) by Charles Marion Russell
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edmund...
#doodle's art#doodle's history guys#my art#historical fanart#art#victorian era#american history#the old west#described art
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"Wyoming--Old and New" by J.S. Bartlett. History of Wyoming, Vol. I, published by the S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918.
#personal#wyoming#wyoming history#united states history#us history#prairie state#the old west#western history#sj bartlett#western state#poetry#poem
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"It was a dreary pull and a long and thirsty one, for we had no water. From one extremity of this desert to the other, the road was white with the bones of oxen and horses."
- Mark Twain, 1861
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Bend Railroad Depot - Oregon Trunk Railway Passenger Station, Bend Oregon - April 2011
A great history of the former depot can be found at the Historic Structures link below.
#oregon#the great pnw#photographers on tumblr#pnw#oregonexplored#original photography#bend oregon#dechutescounty#oregon trunk railway#railway depot#the high desert#the old west#the west#original photograpers
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The Old West by Ralgory Digital
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The Runt - Billy the Kid
Warnings for this chapter: language?, mention of physical abuse, child neglect?
THIS IS ALSO CROSSPOSTED ON MY WATTPAD: PhantomWritez2
Chapter Three
Laurie laid in her bed, staring at the ceiling as her mind raced. She knew how risky it would be to run away like this. She knew what happened to the people who were disloyal to Jesse and his gang. But she didn’t care. She had to at least try to leave. The side of her face from when Jesse had struck her still hurt, and the young girl knew it was most likely bruised as well. The moon shone brightly through her opened window, a gentle breeze blew the curtains ever so slightly as Laurie sat up. If she left now, maybe she could find Billy and catch up with him, leave for Chihuahua with him and start a new life there. Away from her current life.
Laurie turned to her window, hesitating for a moment before she hopped out of her bed and quickly packed her bags. Not like she had a lot of stuff she could take anyways, just a compass, her sketchbook, a pair of extra clothes and a stuffed goose that she couldn’t sleep without. Once she had done all of that she snuck out of her room, quietly opening the creaking door and creeping down the stairs slowly. She needed some food and a gun. She knew that Jesse stored an extra pistol in the pantry, and she took full advantage of that. Opening the pantry and stuffing her bag with whatever she deemed necessary as well as snagging the pistol hidden in an empty cookie jar.
When Laurie was sure she had everything that she needed she quickly left through the front door and booked it to the barn where Artax would be. She ran into the barn, an owl hooting in the distance as a few of the ranch horses stuck their heads over their stall doors, nickering in dismay as they watched the runt girl take their buddy out of his stall and saddle him up before galloping away.
Laurie didn’t know how long she and Artax had been riding before they came to a stop, noticing a camp in the distance. A single man camp. Laurie coaxed Artax into a slow trot so that she could get a closer look, her hopes rising about the fact that this could be Billy. The only adult in her life that didn’t treat her like she was lower than the dirt they walked upon. Artax stood on a twig, causing it to snap and the man who was sitting by the small fire to turn around with his gun drawn and ready to fire. Laurie panicked and pulled Artax to a stop, trying to show she wasn’t a threat. It was dark, the only light came from the moon and the small campfire. It took Laurie a moment to realize that this man was actually Billy.
And it took Billy another moment to realize that this scrawny figure on a 16.0hh horse was actually Laurie. He breathed and holstered his weapon, causing Laurie to relax as she dismounted her steed and led him over to the camp.
“You’re lucky I didn’t shoot your ass,” Billy sighed as he sat down, watching as the teenager loosely tied her horse next to the mare he was borrowing from Jesse.
“I know,” Laurie said softly, patting Artax’s neck before she sat down next to him, staring into the flames. “I decided to take up on your offer of going to Chihuahua. Maybe I’ll be able to find my Ma there.” Billy noticed the nasty bruise on her face and his face creased with concern as his mind raced. Did someone seriously hit her?
“What happened?,” Billy asked, studying the young girl’s bruise. “Someone hit ya?”
Laurie froze for a moment. No way in fucking hell would she tell Billy what had actually happened, her thoughts raced, trying to come up with a valid excuse as to way her face is bruised. An excuse that didn’t involve being physically abused.
“I was galloping Artax and a tree branch was lower than I expected, socked me in the face,” Laurie lied, not meeting the older man’s gaze as the fire crackled in front of them.
Billy didn’t buy it, and he really wanted to know who had hurt this kid so that he could put a bullet in their skull, because nobody should be putting their hands on a child. But he could also tell Laurie really didn’t want to talk about it, so he dropped the subject. Instead, he went back to reading The Iliad. Laurie looked up, noticing the book and she looked over at the words on the paper.
It wasn’t like she could understand what was being said on the papers since she couldn’t read. She had never learned how to, her parents were always working and they could never afford to send her to school, and as said previously there was no time to teach her themselves so Laurie was pretty much left high and dry when it came to education. Billy noticed the staring and he tilted his head.
“I’m not really sure if I enjoy you readin’ over my shoulder like that, kid,” he said with a slight chuckle, subconsciously leaning away a little bit.
“It’s not like I can understand what’s being said anyways,” Laurie replied, pulling back a bit as she shifted, bringing her knees to her chest. She was always sitting like that since it was most comfortable for her.
“What’d you mean?,” Billy asked, closing his book once more as he stared at the little red head next to him.
“I can’t read,” Laurie admitted, looking away. Not knowing how to read had always been one of Laurie’s biggest insecurities. Not being able to enjoy books like other people could, and she really wanted to learn, but Jesse never bothered to teach her how to read either.
Billy’s small, confused smile fell at the revelation. “You can’t read?”
Laurie shook her head, inhaling as she finally turned her gaze back to him, laughing humorlessly as she shook her head. “I know. What kind of 13-year-old girl doesn’t know how to read?” She exhaled, looking down again as she pulled grass out from the ground, ripping it up. “It’s so pathetic, honestly.”
Billy thought for a moment, he was perplexed. He could tell how much of a sore spot this was for the kid next to him. “It’s not pathetic, kid.” He set his book to the side so that he could give her his full attention. “How about this, I’ll teach you how to read once we get to Chihuahua.”
Laurie’s head pricked up, her eyes brightening for a moment as a smile crossed her face. She wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not. “You’re serious?” Her voice shook slightly as if she was about to start bawling her eyes out.
Billy chuckled at the reaction, nodding. “Yes, I’m serious, kid.”
Laurie smiled, her eyes were glossy as she sniffled, blinking away her tears as she stared at the man next to her. Still in pure disbelief that he would be willing to attempt to teach her how to read.
Maybe this was what she needed to be normal, maybe this was the rulebook to be able to fit into society and be a normal teenage girl.
Billy also smiled, watching as the young girl processed this information. Something about this kid reminded him of Joe. Maybe it was her smile, maybe it was the fact she was small and scrawny for her age, maybe it was her eagerness to learn. Maybe it was all of it.
But whatever the reason was didn’t matter.
All Billy knew was that he had to protect this girl.
A/N:
I had so much fun writing this chapter
Constructive criticism is welcomed :)
Tag:
@slutforsnow
#billy the kid x reader#billy the kid gif#billy the kid hc#billy mccarty#billy the kid#billy the kid imagine#william h bonney#billy the kid 2022#tom blyth#billy the kid x oc#the old west#ginger#runt of the litter#older brother core
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No 15 Interior Episcopal Church Burns, Ore
A Photo Art Studio of Bend Oregon photo.
#oregon#eastern oregon#harneycounty#the great pnw#the old west#oregonoutback#pnw#oregon outback#burns oregon#harney county#the pacific northwest#vintage photography#photo art studio
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