It would appear that people respond in many different ways to the pressures on the current economic recession. However, I have noticed in my own personal domain a tendency to find solace by revisiting the simple story lines and basic rhetoric of the western dramas which characterised my formative youth. As a boy my heroes were taken from the TV western series such as Cheyenne, Bronco Lane, Laramie and Wells Fargo which we viewed on TV and later from John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies. You may indeed consider this an example of simply nostalgia and harmless escapism. However, of late I have noticed an alarming tendency for such basic western homespun philosophy to manifest itself in simple observations and perceptions. I fact like a strange manifestation of an American Republican Party philosophical conversion, this process has become a sort of ‘elephant’ in the room.
For example, while my wife and I were watching a western on TV the other night, I could not but notice that she had a blanket drawn up around her neck like a Clint Eastwood clone and that in her remarks she was certainly ‘shooting from the hip’ when she suggested that I make supper for her. She added that I had done this ‘Once upon a time in the West’. So to please the ‘love interest’ in my home movie scenario I rustled up some beef jerky and baked beans! It would seem however that she would have preferred an ‘Indian’ so when I suggested that we mosey down to our local saloon and get a Sarsapilla for her and couple of shots of Bourbon for me, she told me to hitch my horse to another rail of the OK Corral. Shucks, life ain’t easy getting her to ride the High Country to the Last Chance Saloon. Of course, I could have got plum riled up by my little Calamity Jane but fortunately we have been through the Good, the Bad and Ugly together for more years than I care to remember so I figured I’d stick around and simply Play Misty for Me. She then proffered the observation that I was becoming a High Plains Drifter since my work had dried up like a water hole in the Sonoma Desert. I responded that I had in fact big plans to cut me a few steers from our neighbour’s cattle and take them on a cattle drive down to Clifden. But she sneezed at this idea and said she would not put it ‘El Paso’ me to act dumb in this way. She then added that I would soon run out of rope in my search for a fast buck as I was a just another City Slicker trying to follow my own ‘Legend of Curly’s Gold’. I must admit that I quit chewing the cud with her at that stage as I remembered my western saying ‘When in doubt, let your horse do the thinking’. So even though I may be Unforgiven at home, I have decided to saddle up at High Noon and ride out with the Sons of Katie Elder. For after all, as John Wayne himself would have it: ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’.
Shucks the hell I will.
“Cheyenne, Cheyenne, where will you be travelling tonight,
Lonely man, Cheyenne, will your heart stay free and bright”
Theme from WB Cheyenne Bodie Western tune on YOUTUBE
Note: This nonsense is just for idle amusement purposes and my very own Calamity Jane actually remains the love of my life in our little House on the Prairie!
For example, while my wife and I were watching a western on TV the other night, I could not but notice that she had a blanket drawn up around her neck like a Clint Eastwood clone and that in her remarks she was certainly ‘shooting from the hip’ when she suggested that I make supper for her. She added that I had done this ‘Once upon a time in the West’. So to please the ‘love interest’ in my home movie scenario I rustled up some beef jerky and baked beans! It would seem however that she would have preferred an ‘Indian’ so when I suggested that we mosey down to our local saloon and get a Sarsapilla for her and couple of shots of Bourbon for me, she told me to hitch my horse to another rail of the OK Corral. Shucks, life ain’t easy getting her to ride the High Country to the Last Chance Saloon. Of course, I could have got plum riled up by my little Calamity Jane but fortunately we have been through the Good, the Bad and Ugly together for more years than I care to remember so I figured I’d stick around and simply Play Misty for Me. She then proffered the observation that I was becoming a High Plains Drifter since my work had dried up like a water hole in the Sonoma Desert. I responded that I had in fact big plans to cut me a few steers from our neighbour’s cattle and take them on a cattle drive down to Clifden. But she sneezed at this idea and said she would not put it ‘El Paso’ me to act dumb in this way. She then added that I would soon run out of rope in my search for a fast buck as I was a just another City Slicker trying to follow my own ‘Legend of Curly’s Gold’. I must admit that I quit chewing the cud with her at that stage as I remembered my western saying ‘When in doubt, let your horse do the thinking’. So even though I may be Unforgiven at home, I have decided to saddle up at High Noon and ride out with the Sons of Katie Elder. For after all, as John Wayne himself would have it: ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’.
Shucks the hell I will.
“Cheyenne, Cheyenne, where will you be travelling tonight,
Lonely man, Cheyenne, will your heart stay free and bright”
Theme from WB Cheyenne Bodie Western tune on YOUTUBE
Note: This nonsense is just for idle amusement purposes and my very own Calamity Jane actually remains the love of my life in our little House on the Prairie!
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