Back in the saddle again!
Saturday afternoon in the early 1950's
was a treasured time for me as a youngster. For one beautiful, thin dime my
friends and I could attend the afternoon cowboy festival at the local movie
theater. There you could see the latest episode of the serialized science
fiction story, several cartoon features and then the cowboy movie of the
week.
There was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autrey and Andy Devine, Poncho and Cisco, "Hoppy" Cassidy and others who brought us a little drama, a lot of humor and a good dose of values.
Once Andy Devine appeared at the Broadway Market for an autograph session. We got a lot of this type of Hollywood celebrity as Mr. Autrey's press agent had a home in our area as well as in California.
I recall meeting Mr. Devine, and thinking that he seemed like a "real person." As a child I had expected people whom we see on the screen to be somehow different from the rest of us. After he signed my autograph book and I walked away, I felt somewhat cheated, because he was just like the other adults around me.
As time went by and I collected other autographs of actors and actresses, I would look back at the previous signatures and I began to realize that they all had the same thing in common. They all shared the same human qualities that I possessed. They simply seemed larger, because they were on the silver screen.
But they did have something that "the rest of us" were lacking. They had the opportunity, due to the profession that they found themselves in to impact the lives of many people. They had the ability to teach values which could shape our future.
All of these movies have a common theme for me, community unity. As I look back at the stories I recall that they had a somewhat stock story line. There was the bad guy who was disrupting the community life in some way. It would be up to our good guys to stand up to the bad guy(s) and help them understand that you just "don't do that in these here parts!"
But while they were out trying to stop the bad guy, they had a little fun along the way. Some clean joking, some rib-poking humor, etc. Life wasn't always serious, even when things seemed difficult.
That interjection of humor in those movies was important, I believe. It imprinted all of the young minds in the audience with the understanding that we must learn to laugh at ourselves. We must accept that we all do foolish things, and that often our actions are downright funny if we're not worried about some fictitious facade that we have created and therefore must "protect," less others discover that we are just as human as they.
Recently I have been relearning the lesson about myself. I have a small microwave oven in my home office. I sue it to do two things. I fix my tea in it. It takes three and one half minutes and then I can have a relaxing cup of my favorite green tea.
I also use it to heat a snack cake. In only fifteen seconds I can have a great cherry strudel to eat. It is delicious. However, being human, I seem to forget which I have in the oven. Twice in the last week I have popped in my strudel cake and set the timer for three and one half minutes! Well, it gets hot! And it sure brings deCoucy into the office in a hurry! But what I have prepared is a concrete block! Sorry deCoucy, I just don't think you would enjoy it. In the first place it won't cool for at least fifteen minutes.
What can I do but laugh at myself. I am reminded that I am simple a human, prone to the same errors which all humans are prone to make. I could say that hot was hot, and let it go at that, but really a good laugh is better for the soul. After all, tea is not strudel, there is a difference between the two, just as different as morning and evening, so I guess hot is not hot either. I made a mistake.
After doing this the second time Diana asked, "How are we going to help you not do this again?" I stapled a big note to the strudel cake box. It says "15 seconds!" Maybe that will help me out.
Along with the humor in the cowboy movies, there was the serious matter of community unity. I believe that there was a definite value lesson being taught to each young viewer. Quite often they did not simply go out to arrest the "bad guy," this might happen only after they had tired to reason with him; after they had tried to help him see the error that he was making; after they had tried to influence him and encourage him to do the right thing.
They were teaching that in a small community we must work together in order to protect our social environment. It is our duty to preserve a social climate where all can work and live together in peace. In that way we can each profit and grow.
They were teaching that in a community such as ours we must do those things which enhance the social environment and add quality to each life in the town. Gene Autrey emphasized this in his theme song as he sang that he was "back in the saddle again, out where a friend is a friend ..." That's what community is all about, working together so that friends can be friends. There are some things that "you just don't do in there here parts, partner!"
(written August, 1999)
There was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autrey and Andy Devine, Poncho and Cisco, "Hoppy" Cassidy and others who brought us a little drama, a lot of humor and a good dose of values.
Once Andy Devine appeared at the Broadway Market for an autograph session. We got a lot of this type of Hollywood celebrity as Mr. Autrey's press agent had a home in our area as well as in California.
I recall meeting Mr. Devine, and thinking that he seemed like a "real person." As a child I had expected people whom we see on the screen to be somehow different from the rest of us. After he signed my autograph book and I walked away, I felt somewhat cheated, because he was just like the other adults around me.
As time went by and I collected other autographs of actors and actresses, I would look back at the previous signatures and I began to realize that they all had the same thing in common. They all shared the same human qualities that I possessed. They simply seemed larger, because they were on the silver screen.
But they did have something that "the rest of us" were lacking. They had the opportunity, due to the profession that they found themselves in to impact the lives of many people. They had the ability to teach values which could shape our future.
All of these movies have a common theme for me, community unity. As I look back at the stories I recall that they had a somewhat stock story line. There was the bad guy who was disrupting the community life in some way. It would be up to our good guys to stand up to the bad guy(s) and help them understand that you just "don't do that in these here parts!"
But while they were out trying to stop the bad guy, they had a little fun along the way. Some clean joking, some rib-poking humor, etc. Life wasn't always serious, even when things seemed difficult.
That interjection of humor in those movies was important, I believe. It imprinted all of the young minds in the audience with the understanding that we must learn to laugh at ourselves. We must accept that we all do foolish things, and that often our actions are downright funny if we're not worried about some fictitious facade that we have created and therefore must "protect," less others discover that we are just as human as they.
Recently I have been relearning the lesson about myself. I have a small microwave oven in my home office. I sue it to do two things. I fix my tea in it. It takes three and one half minutes and then I can have a relaxing cup of my favorite green tea.
I also use it to heat a snack cake. In only fifteen seconds I can have a great cherry strudel to eat. It is delicious. However, being human, I seem to forget which I have in the oven. Twice in the last week I have popped in my strudel cake and set the timer for three and one half minutes! Well, it gets hot! And it sure brings deCoucy into the office in a hurry! But what I have prepared is a concrete block! Sorry deCoucy, I just don't think you would enjoy it. In the first place it won't cool for at least fifteen minutes.
What can I do but laugh at myself. I am reminded that I am simple a human, prone to the same errors which all humans are prone to make. I could say that hot was hot, and let it go at that, but really a good laugh is better for the soul. After all, tea is not strudel, there is a difference between the two, just as different as morning and evening, so I guess hot is not hot either. I made a mistake.
After doing this the second time Diana asked, "How are we going to help you not do this again?" I stapled a big note to the strudel cake box. It says "15 seconds!" Maybe that will help me out.
Along with the humor in the cowboy movies, there was the serious matter of community unity. I believe that there was a definite value lesson being taught to each young viewer. Quite often they did not simply go out to arrest the "bad guy," this might happen only after they had tired to reason with him; after they had tried to help him see the error that he was making; after they had tried to influence him and encourage him to do the right thing.
They were teaching that in a small community we must work together in order to protect our social environment. It is our duty to preserve a social climate where all can work and live together in peace. In that way we can each profit and grow.
They were teaching that in a community such as ours we must do those things which enhance the social environment and add quality to each life in the town. Gene Autrey emphasized this in his theme song as he sang that he was "back in the saddle again, out where a friend is a friend ..." That's what community is all about, working together so that friends can be friends. There are some things that "you just don't do in there here parts, partner!"
(written August, 1999)
Posted: Thu - February 2, 2006 at 07:07 PM
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In a museum most people spend less than twenty seconds looking at a work of art."
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Published On: Feb 02, 2006 07:07 PM
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Published On: Feb 02, 2006 07:07 PM