When I ran a column Nov. 6 listing my favorite Westerns, I expected some blowback since I didn’t include any John Wayne movies.
Well, I didn’t get blowback, exactly — Magnolia librarian Edythe Lensing is too sweet for that — but she did offer up her own favorites, which all included the Duke.
“I think he just seems kind of ordinary,” she said. “He just seems like the guy next door, almost.”
Her favorites are “Red River,” “The Searchers” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”
Edythe remembers watching old black-white films as a child at the movie theater and was especially drawn to Westerns.
“I guess I never got over loving them,” she said. “I really like westerns.”
She noted that John Wayne often wore his jeans with the cuffs rolled up.
That was the fashion of the day. Kids my age did the same.
My guess is in cowboy times, jeans pretty much came in one length and had to be rolled up to fit.
In the case of little boys, it was always wise to buy jeans bigger than needed to accommodate growth.
Frontier movies, too
If you want to start a conversation, especially among guys, ask them to name their favorite Western.
I did that Thursday night with my buddies in Dogwood Cross. Most named Clint Eastwood movies, but Tim Higginbotham offered “Jeremian Johnson.”
I confess that when I came up with my list of favorite westerns — “The Hired Hand” with Peter Fonda and Warren Oates, “One-Eyed Jacks” with Marlon Brando, and “High Noon” with Gary Cooper — I plumb forgot “Jeremiah Johnson,” maybe because it’s more of a frontier movie than a western. But it’s one of the best, as Robert Redford shows up out west wanting to be a Rocky Mountain trapper. The theme music is some of the best as well.
Speaking of frontier movies, add “The Revenant” to that list, a hauntingly realistic depiction of a frontier scout, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s mauled by a grizzly bear and abandoned by his companions in the winter wilderness.
After my original article on Westerns appeared, my brother Robert ran across a similar piece in The New York Times listing what the author considered to be the top westerns ever.
I never heard of most of them, but here’s the list, for what it’s worth:
“Dead Man,” “The Proposition,” “Man of the West,” “The Great Silence,” “The Nightingale,” “The Naked Spur,” “The Long Riders,” “Ride with the Devil,” “The Tall T,” “Hombre” and “Day of the Outlaw.”
Might be some good watching for cold winter nights.
And now, to quote Steve McQueen in another great western, “Tom Horn,” “That’s all I have to say on the matter.”
For now, anyway.
Fingerless fiddler
I was afraid my Dec. 4 column on old-timey folk music (like “Little Red Wing,” “Turkey in the Straw,” “Old Joe Clark” and “John Henry”) would fall on deaf ears, but it struck a chord among a number of readers.
Some folks contacted me to say they love those old songs and recognized many if not most that I listed.
Mike Sitton of Progress brought by a laminated copy of an article, “Olden-Time Music” by Ron Erdrich, from the Feb. 18, 2018, Abilene, Texas, Reporter-News. The story featured Roy Thackerson, aka the Fingerless Fiddler.
When Thackerson was a child, he picked up a dynamite cap that exploded, blowing off four fingers on his left hand.
He learned to play guitar by laying it in his lap and pressing down on the strings. Later he used a wooden harness to hold a fiddle in place so he could do the same.
He went on to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and played often in Mountain View, Ark.
For more, see the website fingerlessfiddler.com.
Like father, like son
After my Nov. 27 article ran on Billy Wall Guyton’s knife collection, my co-worker Keith Hux dropped off a copy of the Dec. 8 Hammond, La., Daily Star.
In “Discovering, encouraging a passion,” Pierre Theriot Jr. proudly relates how his 16-year-son, Lennon, picked up the craft of knife-making and became quite successful. Next, his cousin Trace Tarver got involved.
They teamed up to form LT Forge. Along the way they not only learned a lot about knife-making but about running a business and creating a professional work space.
Early Christmas present
Christmas is upon us, and I got an early present the other day when Angelyn bought me several plastic outdoor chairs.
Not for the patio, but for the Outback.
I already had a few out there, where I can sit and space out amid nature. But I needed more.
I love to walk the trails and often just want to stop and sit.
The other day I was lounging in a chair scrolling through my phone when, unknown to me, a button buck approached.
When I moved, it snorted and I looked up to see it just 30 feet away.
It turned and ran, then stopped and turned back. I sat stock-still as it tiptoed back toward me
I was wearing a blaze-orange cap, was sweaty from exertion on the warm day, and my phone dinged with a text, yet the deer never flinched. It finally went on its way.
Now I can position more chairs — all in earth tones — around the property.
