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"Put him on the woolies"

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Jeff Wrangler:
I've always been a mite puzzled by this line from Annie Proulx:

"Jack said his father had been a pretty well known bullrider years back but kept his secrets to himself, never gave Jack a word of advice, never came once to see Jack ride, though he had put him on the woolies when he was a little kid." (Italics added.)

Well, this evening, I saw a very good illustration of just what that was all about. With nothing on broadcast except reruns, I finally made time to watch the DVD I'd bought weeks ago of The Cowboy Way, with Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland (of course I missed it in the theater years ago). The opening scenes of the film include a sequence of little kids riding sheep! And sure enough, there it was: "put him on the woolies."   ;D

Incidentally, one of the little sheep-riding buckaroos wore a shirt just like Annie's description of the shirt Ennis wore for his reunion with Jack, white with black stripes.

Kiefer wore the white hat here, Woody the black hat--complete with a feather stuck in the band.

It was a fun movie, but--Lord, help me--I swear I kept thinking: Ennis, Jack, and a very Alternative Universe!  :laugh:

Brown Eyes:
Thanks for the info Jeff!  That line from the book really was sort of puzzling to me.  By the way, "woolies" is now one of my favorite words.  It's an unusually cute word to come out of the mouth of a guy like Aguirre.

I wonder if this is another way that Jack is linked to sheep as a symbol (as in the sacrificial lamb, the sheep Ennis is supposed to guard, etc.).

Meryl:
That's interesting, Jeff, thanks for posting.  I guess I always assumed that line was referring to calves, but sheep make better sense.  They'd certainly be "woolier" (also kinder on the bottom).  ;D

Katie77:
Over here in Australia, we use the term "woolies" a lot for sheep, as there is a lot of sheep country over here....

Funny thing is, we use the term "woolies" also for all our jumpers (i think you call them sweaters) and cardigans.....we call them our "winter woolies"...because they are usually made out of wool.

We also say "woolies" as a nick name for the department store Woolworths....

And I have no doubt, Jack learnt to ride an animal first on a  sheep....the "woolies"....

Ellemeno:
Somehow, I figured it out the first time I read it.  From context, I guess, like "puttin' the blocks to," and "stemmin the rose."

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