It is a little after 9 at night and the Shack has grown quiet. All of the children are sleeping and god willing they will stay that way, safe and sound all night long. It is time to bang out a few posts and unwind.
So here I am at the keyboard, or should I say that I feel like I am out on my horse. The headphones are on and I am listening to Elmer Bernstein’s theme to The Magnificent Seven. I love it, as I do most Westerns. You can blame it on my father. I spent a few hours here and there watching Shane, Rooster Cogburn, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and The Magnificent Seven among others.
It is easy for me to close my eyes and picture myself riding across the Ponderosa. It is not hard to imagine myself walking through a set of swinging doors into the Six Gun Saloon. I’d tell the bartender to give me a shot of whiskey, shoot a steely eyed glance about the bar and wait for the first fight to break out.
Because you know that sooner or later some hombre is going to try to cheat at cards, or be confronted for rustling cattle and then all hell is going to break loose. For a moment I’ll stand back and watch but it won’t be long before someone makes me spill my drink and I enter the fray.
I am not the smash a bottle over the head type of guy. Nope. Old Jack is the pick you up and throw you through the window or over the bar kind of guy. Things will move along until some poor sod decides to break a chair over my head. That is the wrong thing to do because it will just piss me off.
I’d write more about it but I don’t want to spoil the movie by giving away the best moments in the trailer. More on this at a later time.
Misanthrope,
I love the beginning to the Rifleman. Imagine what would have happened if he had more success playing baseball.
Miriam,
Absolutely.
Mark,
Bang bang.
You should have gone shooting with me today.
You shoulda been a cowboy.
I just discovered the Western Channel. A few nights a week when I remember, I sit down and watch the “Rifleman.” Now, I just want to see if they’ll ever show “Branded” with Chuck Conners. Would love to see what I enjoyed as a kid and how melodramatic it really was.