Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Gone To Texas

 

“GTT,” they wrote on the doors of abandoned homesteads in the southeastern US, during the westward rush of the 1830’s and 40’s. Gone to Texas. 

I’m off to San Antonio, but not to homestead, not this time. To sign my novels at the Alamo Gift and Souvenir shop. And to enjoy the familiar soil and scenes from my childhood. 

I’ll stay a few days, do some background for a novel I’m working on. Maybe go north towards Austin, along the Balcones Escarpment, land of coves and lakes and rivers. Or south, towards Laredo in the dry country, the brushland, home of the original vaqueros, the Tejano cowboys of old, the adobe rancheros. 

Explore, visit local history and local historians, the soft south Texas blend of English and Spanish, slow and sleepy. Solitary time, a slow pace, for a few days. 

Sound like fun? A renewal? That’s what a vacation is intended to do, isn’t it? Recharge the spirit, tweak the imagination, slip into old memories. 

Where will your vacation carry you this year? A family event, perhaps more of an obligation? A resort, where you don’t miss any social activities? Good for you. I’ll take the quiet days, the renewal our spirits quietly ask of us. 

I’ll give you a full report. 

Dac

7/28/2009.  Happy Birthday, Bud Freeman!

 

“It is finer to be taught than to teach, and it is finer to think about trees than ideas.” – Philip Lee Williams, The Heart of a Distant Forest.

 

 

Ranching and Writing?

One more note from the Western Writers of America convention earlier this month, out in Oklahoma City.  We attended a session held by ranchers who also write. Well, more like, people who grew up with ranching and are now writers, executives, editors, lawyers, professors, and writers as well. Some speakers described their childhood on small ranches, not an idyllic life as they remembered it. (Joyce H. sat with me and said, ‘They really don’t know a lot about ranching.”). 

This topic was way outside my own experiences. I grew up on a chicken farm – not the same thing, but zapped by the depression as many ranches were. Same kind of chores. Dad did not quit his day job. Now, there's something in common with writers. 

It was a pessimistic session. They didn’t seem to hold much hope for a future for small ranches. The cattle industry no longer depends on small ranches, and is geared toward feed lots and such. They deplored the trend to break ranches up into hunting preserves, stocked with exotics or birds released for city folks to blast away at. I’ve heard the same comments from South Texas, where even larger ranches seem to have struck gold as hunting preserves. 

One of the commenters was Mitch McCrae, grandson of Joel McCrae the movie actor we old-timers remember well. Mitch told us that Will Rogers advised Joel to buy land (“They ain’t making any more of it). Joel bought land.  He didn’t care for ranching but his son did. And the grandson grew up on a West Texas ranch. He now practices law in Dallas.

So, here’s a tip of the new Stetson to those who keep the small family ranch tradition going. Robert and Melba G., we salute you! 

Dac

7/26/09 

“Never trust a woman whose hair is bigger that her butt.” – Robin Meade, news anchor. 

p.s.  Look for me at the Alamo Gift and Souvenir Shop on Saturday, August first, 9:00 a.m. till noon. Good chance to get a signed copy of Return of the Texas Ranger.  Or, just come by and shake things up! – dac.

 

 

Lonesome Dove is Number One

The Western Writers of America made it official. They voted Lonesome Dove as the best TV Western Miniseries/Movie.

 I think it was mostly due to Robert Duvall as Gus McRae, the seasoned Texas Ranger. Duvall just stepped into that part and made it into somebody we all knew from back in our childhood days. My favorite scenes in Lonesome Dove: Crossing the Nueces, Shooting up the San Antonio Bar, and Gus slaughtering the renegade Comancheros. What’s yours?

 Second place in this category went to Centennial – another good one.

 And the best TV Western Series of all time – Gunsmoke, according the vote of the Western Writers. I didn’t realize that Gunsmoke ran for so long (1955-1975). Maverick came in number two, then Rawhide at number three.

 We had some good westerns on TV, back in the sixties and seventies, didn’t we?

 Maybe it’s time for a new western series. Maybe one featuring Whitey Wilson and Red Regan. Right out of Guns Across the Rio. What do you think?

 Dac

7/20/2009

“Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is when you don’t.”  -- Pete Seegar (thanks, JoeAnn W.).

p.s.  A question answered:   Buy copies of Guns Across the Rio and Return of the Texas Ranger  from me directly for $15 each, postpaid. Send a check to me at P.O. Box 903, Athens, Georgia, 30603. Okay? Or Amazon, of course, or get your fav bookstore to order from BookSurge.

 

 

And The Winner Is ...

What’s your choice for “Greatest Western Movie of All Time?”

 Western films go back to the beginning of the motion pictures, with "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Thousands of western films have been released in the ensuing years. I believe that much of the rest of the world sees America through the lens of the western movie. Heck, our vision of ourselves as a nation is colored by the Western epic. We are all westerners at heart. 

The heroic gunfights of history – Custer’s Last Stand, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the Fall of the Alamo – they’re all woven into our self-image. We admire the self-reliant westerner, solving his own problems, living by the code of the west, fighting reluctantly when he must, calling on his own resources, and giving his all for his Country. 

How much of this view of ourselves and our country has been shaped by western movies? I’ll bet a lot of it has. Old timers, do you remember the serials on Saturday mornings? Buck Jones, Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, others who’ve faded into memory’s sunset? How they were burned into our youthful imaginations? 

So think back – What’s the best western movie ever made? The one that stands out in your memory as 'the best?' 

The Western Writers of America recently chose “Shane” as the greatest western movie of all time. It was close. “High Noon” scored well. “The Searchers” came in third; I might have put it as number one. A friend here said, “No! ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ is number one!” A good argument. 

(“Blazing Saddles” came in as number 95, according to the WWA membership. )

Now – maybe someday – we’ll have a candidate for best western movie, based on Guns Across the Rio or Return of the Texas Ranger. 

Or one I’ve yet to write.

Dac

7/15/2009  "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."  -- Davy Crockett, on losing his bid for re-election to the U.S. Congress.

 

  

Dog Days Again

The sun is in conjunction with the Dog Star, Sirius. Dog days are back. Bright Sirius adds its heat to that of the sun. Or so thought the ancients. Indeed, it is hot out there.

 

I think back to childhood in Kingsville, Texas, playing with my brother, not really aware of the heat. That is, until you went into the Rialto Theater – the only air-conditioned place in town.

 

Bob G. asks where high school students find their summer jobs, in this new age, with OSHA and child labor laws? No more kids running paper routes; now, its adults in cars. No more lawn mowing; companies with riding mowers handle that chore. My friends tell me about dog-sitting jobs, life guards in the neighborhood swimming pool. Where do our youngsters learn responsibility, the work ethic? It’s a different time, a new age, a sea change. I’ll bet that there are some innovative youngsters out there, someplace.

 

Years ago at the University, I sat on the front row in a graduation ceremony, next to a guy wearing crimson robes. Our President Fred Davison gave the address to the grads. He said, “We must return to those principles that made this country great!”

 

And my neighbor jumped to his feet and shouted, “Slavery! Child labor! Killing Indians!” Davison glared at him. And at me, next to him.

 

Needless to say, I never again sat next to a guy wearing crimson.

 

But I wonder – and Bob G. would agree – have we gone too far with child labor laws?”

 

Dac

7/8/2009

 

“I wonder what it is the vintners buy, one-half so precious as the stuff they sell?” – Omar the Tentmaker.

Thoughts for the Fourth

Last month at the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City, I saw statues of three iconic patriots, topics suitable for the Fourth of July.

First, to set things in context. Upon entering the Cowboy Museum you see a giant sculpture – “The End of the Trail,” from the Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. 

This image of an Indian on his exhausted horse, defeated, head drooping and lance pointed down, was on the covers of our notebooks in grade school, so many years ago. Remember, old timers? Alabaster in the sunlight, it was the most impressive part of the Museum. 

And the patriots – there they were, large bronze images of John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston, each dressed as a cowboy. Each of them did so much to promote America through their films. In western/action movies they gave the world, and ourselves, images of American courage under fire. They portrayed strong-willed, determined patriots. And each was a public servant, in his own way.

 

(Charlton Heston actually did military service in WWII, a sergeant in the Army Air Corps. The other two received deferments).

 

I asked the Museum guide, “Where’s the statue of Will Rogers?”

 

Don’t have one. Wouldn’t fit in. in He has his own museum. In Claremore.

How about Woody Guthrie? You know, This Land is Your Land?

No. No statue here.

 

Look, patriotism is about more than statues. We each love our country and defend it. We argue long and loud about our future direction, about guns and taxes, marriage and education. We sing about our land (with Guthrie) and laugh at our government (with Will Rogers). But when the chips are down, we’re all Americans and proud of it. And we celebrate America on the Fourth of July.

Do I sound preachy. Well, hooray! It’s my blog, ain’t it?

 

No, it’s not the End of the Trail. Not for us.

 

Dac

July 3, 2009

 

“Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.” – Henry Kissinger.