BRING BACK THE WESTERN

For those of you who follow this blog you know I live a pirate lifestyle
(See: PIRATE GIRL www.mimifoxmorton.blogspot.com) but I grew up with my Uncle Whitey in the world of westerns.

Pancho and Cisco, The Lone Ranger, Gun Smoke, every spaghetti western ever made, all the John Waynes and for giggles, The Real McCoy's. On Saturday afternoon there was always a western on tv. I don't remember ever distinguishing between them, unless Tonto came on the scene. (I was hopelessly in love with Tonto!) Just a lot of shooting....a lot of dust....and a lot of excitement. And the horses always ran oddly fast.

Plus, there's something about a buckboard.

My Uncle Whitey lived with us always and taught me everything my young self ever needed to know. How to pick weeds (think whitewashing the fence....)set fire to a roll of caps, drink an inch of warm beer from a waxy Dixie cup, bait a hook and how to shoot a shotgun (Wisely, he never did teach me how to load it)and how to shut up.

My Uncle Whitey was there when no one else was. He shouldered the burden of my endless chatter, though now that I think on it he did make me a "rabbit catcher" (box-string-stick-carrot) and I remember spending a great deal of time dead silent and still while Uncle Whitey sat peacefully under a nearby tree.

Which is why I'm glad the western is coming back. MEEKS CUTOFF, a neo-western about the settlers on the Oregon Trail, is set to open April 22.
I'm excited to see it. It looks as though it has great potential.
Of course, who didn't love TOMBSTONE, but this looks as though it will address the woman's POV. I like that. And Uncle Whitey would like that it was a western.

There ought to be more westerns, I think. Trail blazing and homesteading.
Learning from the land and hoping for the best. And, quite frankly, I could wear one of those bonnets everyday! I know I'd be the lady to marry the bloke who kept coming home with the fool's gold but he'd be cute, and sincere and I'd like that.

I was just thinking that April Fool's Day was Uncle Whitey's FAVORITE day of the year. Oh, how he loved it! He'd have an "April Fool!" ready for you before you got out of bed. Then you'd get pussy willows. A whole, big bunch! He'd go way down back in the swamp and mud and bring them back. And he always said "there ain't none this year" right before he disappeared.

I miss those pussy willows.

I miss those pussy willows more than you can imagine.

But I know how to love a western.

~Mimi
4/15/11