Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Roy Rogers and Me




nostalgia                                               

  
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU" - AN END OF AN ERA
The young guns may not understand the meaning of this, but you should!!




Cuzzin Ricky
The Roy Rogers Museum in Branson, MO has closed its doors forever. The contents of the museum were sold at a public auction.
Roy Rogers told his son, if the museum ever operates at a loss, close it And sell the contents. He complied.


Note the follow-on article truly the end of an era. Here is a partial listing of some of the items that were sold at  auction...


Roy 's 1964 Bonneville sold for $254,500, it was estimated to Sell between 100 and 150 thousand dollars. [Continued]

my reproductionI'm not sure why people should "understand the meaning of this," but it has plenty of meaning for me.  Namely, because of my first name, I was always Roy Rogers in guns.  I was nuts over Roy, and have two remembrances of his impact on me.  One was when  our Gramma and Grandpa West took us to a drive-in movie to see a Roy Rogers film.  This was rural Indiana, ca 1948. I had never been to a drive-in movie.  Never even heard of the concept. This one was little more than a big screen in a cornfield somewhere around Jasonville, but I was awed. 

The second memory can be pinpointed to a date and time certain. Sunday, December 30, 1951. 

That was the Sunday premier date for the Roy Rogers television show, and I was so excited I couldn't stand it.  However, I know it wasn't all that cold out because my mom went looking for me.  She found me under the front porch playing doctor with a girl down the street, whose name I forget, if I ever knew it.   I was caught in flagrante delicto
wellnot me so much as the girl, who the patient

So intent was I with the examination (that involved a toy whistle) that I failed to hear her.  She grabbed my rudely around the shirt neck and dragged my into the yard.  But that wasn't the worst part.  The worst part was that as punishment I couldn't watch Roy Rogers that day.  The Premier, and I couldn't watch it.  My sister stuck her tongue out; sign language for "ha-ha, I can watch and you can't."  I tried to peek from out my bedroom door, and I think mom allowed me to watch the opening "Shot From Oats" sequence,  just to drive home what I would be missing before warning me that if I persisted I'd never watch the show, ever,  and they'd sell the television.  I cried myself to sleep. All this was before re-runs, and certainly VCRs, so I never did see that first show.  A trauma so great that I am able to recall it today, 64 years later.

I was 23 years old. 

Just kidding.

Did I learn a lesson? 

LOL.

9 comments:

DougM said...

Also, the Roy Rodgers two-gun holster set was by far the best cap gun outfit, ever.
My friend had one.
Bastard …

David said...

The era ended when they moved the museum from Victorville CA to Branson.

My mother grew up in love with Roy Rogers. When she discovered that the Museum was only 90 minutes from where I ended up living it became a regular stop for her every time she came to visit. Dad and I would drop her off, then come back 4-5 hours later and drag her out while she loudly objected that she hadn't seen everything yet...

Happiest day of her life was the day she met Dusty there. He sat and visited with her for hours.

JMcD said...

When I was a kid I saw Roy and Dale up close, fed Trigger some grass, saw Lash LaRue, and shook hands with William "Hopalong Cassidy' Boyd. Hopalong gave me a coin with him on one side and his horse Topper on the other.
I was really livin!

JMcD said...

"cornfield somewhere around Jasonville"

South of you was Vincennes and the Princeton.
I lived on a corn farm outside Princeton for a couple years and attended first grade while living there.

bocopro said...

I hoed, detasseled, and shoveled a lotta corn, along with denutting a lotta piglets and bailin one helluva lotta hay about an hour and a half northeast of Jasonville.

Think I also went thru there one time carryin a load of stone from Brown County up to Lafayette.

Skoonj said...

When I was at F-4 school at George AFB in Victorville (1973), I lived in nearby Apple Valley. That was where Roy and Dale lived, and where the museum originally was. It was moved to Victorville later.

The family saw the Roy Rogers performance at Madison Square Garden in late 1954. My mother was a fan of Roy, especially after we ordered the action figurines. There was something wrong with them, and mom wrote Roy about it. He was very apologetic, and the action figures were all replaced.

Anonymous said...

When the family live in Oklahoma in the mid 60s I got to go to a rodeo where Roy and Trigger appeared. I don't remember didly about the rodeo but I still remember watching Trigger do his tricks and Roy riding him around the Arena. I haven't thought about that in 30+ years. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
wildbill

Revernd Idaho Spud said...

I had the two gun cap gun set. It came with holsters, scarf and a tin longhorn bull slide and an autographed picture of Roy. I still have the box they came in and the picture on my wall. The Roy picture is next to Hopalong Cassidy from a similar two gun set.

Esteve said...

My great aunt and uncle took my sister and me to see the Roy Rogers show at the Florida State Fair around 1959. I remember it to this day and my fondest memory is Pat Brady and Nellybelle. That old surplus Jeep was the star of the show although Bullet was a close second.

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