The 2008 Cowboy Census in D.C.

By the Queen of Free

Music, dancing, and fun galore at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall...

Never were there so many cowboy hats in one place in D.C.: 4.

The Washington stuffed shirts? Not there. And it's a good things, too, for this crowd was having too much fun to be slowed down by the likes of political sad sacks. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act? What? There's an election when?

At the Texas Dance Hall the audience was 95% tourist, all bedecked in their tourist apparel, dancing the evening away on Wednesday night to the likes of Texas musicians whoopin' it up big time.

Dance floor ages: six months to way beyond, all having a great time. Heads and feet of the chair sitters and those along the periphery, a bobbin’ in time with the blues music. The music crowd was bigger on Thursday night, but the dancin' music was not as inviting, what with Bhutan music, costumes, skeleton dances, and the talented, delightful Mariachi Los Arrieros to perform and play.

Kicking up those heels, guzzling beer (restricted to which areas?), listening to zydeco, the blues, all live, all entertainment. What more could a person ask? (Well, ahem, about those canned kidney beans, and, please, could we have limes next year with our Coronas?)

The thrill is not gone.