Proulx wrote the story about eight years ago, and said it was generated by years and years of subliminal observation. But the incident that actually made me start writing it was one night when I was in a bar in Sheridan, Wyomingthe Mint Bar. There was a ranch hand I used to see. This guy was back leaning against the wall by the pool tables. The bar was packed with good-looking women, and he wasnt looking at themhe was watching the guys.He was about sixty, and he watched them with a kind of subdued hunger that made me wonder if he was country gay.

This is a lie and pure unadulterated bullshit. Ive been in the Mint Bar as well as a number of other cowboy bars out west and if a cowboy was watching the guys … with a kind of subdued hunger he would be knocked on his ass is short order, either by the guy who noticed him or by a guy being watched after being notified by the observer. I guarantee you that these guys wouldnt stand for this behavior for one second. This is not to say that there arent homosexual cowboys, but if one was present at the Mint Bar he would go out of his way not to scope out the other guys with a subdued hunger as, after his ass whipping, he would instantly be persona non grata in his own hometown. In a town as small as Sheridan this would leave him with no alternative except to move.

I might add that after I e-mailed this I remembered that it has been 28 years since I’ve been in the Mint and I know that Sheridan has grown considerably since then. Perhaps there is now a pocket of liberals where this guy could find refuge instead of moving out of town. I don’t know.