“Cowboy Church”

We were invited to ‘Cowboy Church’ during one of our first visits to Montana.
‘Cowboy Church’ involves the eponymous Cowboy(s), hymns, several amateur musicians (in our case two guitars, a standing bass, and an accordion), whisky (lots of whisky) and a campfire.
I of course decided to wear my cowboy hat, a Stetson ‘Carson’ in black.
Unbeknownst to me, the sure sign of a ‘Dude’ or in current parlance a ‘Poser’ is a snakeskin hat band, which I have. Normally it’s a store bought rattlesnake skin hat band.

My lovely bride and I were amongst the group, having a marvelous time, singing, and taking sips from the bottle of whisky as it was passed around. When a group of 3 cowboys approached me to have a little fun at my expense.
“Nice hat.” One said giving me the once over
“Why thank you!” I replied
“Uh-hem” another started
“What kind of a…Rattlesnake is that? I don’t believe I’ve seen one like that, where’d you buy it?”
I replied “I didn’t...

“It is easier to fool people, than to convince them, that they have been fooled.”

— attributed to
Samuel Langhorne Clemens; Mark Twain
(a direct reference cannot be found in his work, but it was attributed to him in the 20th century)