Dave Lindo, Gleaner Writer

SPALDING, Manchester:IF YOU happen to see a man walking through your town 'dressed to kill' in cowboy garbs, don't worry, you have not been beamed to the wild wild west, its just Gersham Green, Jamaica's own cowboy, coming through.

Green, who hails from Spalding, Manchester, has been dressing like a cowboy for 32 years. It came out of a fascination for cowboys.

"I used to live nearby the Cobbla (training) Camp, so when I was a little boy, I used to thief out my home and watch cowboy shows over there. So I just gradually grow up liking it."

Green added: "I used to watch like Gene Autry, Bonanza, Ben Cartwright, anyone, John Wayne, Trinity and Bud Spencer, anyone I could get to watch."

countless suits

He started dressing like cowboy heroes in his late 20s. "From that time, every day I put on a different cowboy suit," he said. "Right now, I have 14 cowboy boots, and countless cowboy suits in different colours."

Green said he gets his boots from as far as Mexico, which come with the spurs. "I buy some in Jamaica, but I have a Rastaman friend who shops in Mexico, so I order the boots from him," he explained.

"The hats and suits I buy here. I have many, many, many suits, the one that I have on now, I will not wear it for like another three months. And I dress like this every day, so that shows how much I have."

Green's dressing is complemented by a harmonica, which he plays on his many journeys through the various towns and districts.

"I am a Christian now, so I play the harmonica at church and wherever I go," Green said. "I have learnt to play it some 20 odd years now, it is very comforting to me when I am playing it."

At 60 years old, Green builds sewage pits for a living. "I travel all over Jamaica to build pits, I am one of the best in Manchester," he said. "Many of the pits in Mandeville were built by me. And that's the only time you will see me out of a cowboy suit, when I am working," he said with a broad smile.

rural@gleanerjm.com