People who ride wear Wranglers

For years I assumed cowboys wore Levis. All the cowboys in every book I read wore Levis. Always. Being a wanna-be cowgirl, once I got married and could afford to buy name-brand britches (thank you, Cliff), that's the brand I sought out. When I got older, I started wearing Lee Jeans because I could wear a size smaller in them, and they still fit loosely and comfortably. (The size you wear is a vanity thing... always go for the brand whose size 12 fits like other brands 14's.)

But I finally learned that Wranglers are the cowboy's choice... and there's a reason.

It's in the stitching on the inseam; it doesn't rub blisters on your knees when you're riding a horse. That, and the overall fit of them.

If you follow "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman", you may have noticed her guy's jeans of choice (unless you're blind). If you haven't, just click HERE.

It was by chance that I became enlightened on the subject: Right after Cliff and I purchased the motorcycle, I bought myself some riding boots down at Kleinschmidt's. I was wearing my usual loose-fit Lee jeans at the time, and realized they wouldn't go over the outside of the boots. That simply wouldn't do, so I went to the opposite end of the huge store in search of some proper jeans.

A quite knowledgeable saleslady asked if she could help me, and I told her I needed some boot-cut jeans. She went straight to a stack, picked out a pair of Wrangler low-rise, cowboy cut jeans, size 13, and handed them to me to try on.

This was before I lost weight. I informed her there was no way I could wear size 13 (I was in 16's at the time) and that I was much too old for low-rise. And that, by the way, I didn't wear 34 inseam.

She urged me to try them on, assuring me that this "low-rise" wasn't that low.

It was a perfect fit. Lo and behold, I'd found my jeans!

Then I lost weight and had to pass them on to somebody else.

But by this time I'd found out Wranglers were ever-so-much more comfortable on horseback or motorcycle than other brands. I was hooked.

Cliff was losing weight along with me, both before and after the heart surgery. Because he was still losing weight, we mostly bought him cheap, off-brand jeans, knowing he'd be in smaller sizes eventually and wouldn't be wearing them long. When he got down to size 38, I talked him into buying a pair of Wranglers. They became his motorcycle britches, because when he wore them he didn't have to constantly squirm and stand up and shake his bootie while heading down the highway at 60 miles per hour in order to be comfortable.

So, yesterday we went to Kleinschmidt's in pursuit of motorcycle-riding chaps for me (Cliff now has my first, bigger ones); I wanted them before our Colorado trip. I also wanted a pair of Wranglers (size 11, these days).

With my purchases paid for, I herded Cliff toward the men's wear, telling him he needed another pair of Wranglers. He protested that he had plenty of jeans. But hey, the one pair of Wranglers he's been wearing are size 38, and they hang on him. Trouble is, the store was out of size 36-32 boot-cut.

Then Cliff noticed Wrangler comes in odd sizes, not just even. I insisted he go try on a pair of 35-32; he scoffed at me as he entered the dressing room, positive he wasn't that skinny.

As it turns out, it was a perfect fit.

Little by little we'll weed out Cliff's off-brand and ill-fitting jeans, and within a year he'll have nothing but Wranglers.

And then he'll be a real cowboy.