All right, everybody knows that the Lone Ranger’s horse was Silver. I always thought he must have gotten tired saying “Hi! Ho!” to the horse all the time, but I guess there is not much you can say to a horse. I mean with all the bullets, including silver ones flying around, the poor horse probably was glad to get out of Dodge. However, the point that I started to make was, “How many people know the name of Tonto’s horse?” Obviously Tonto was right behind the Ranger when the latter was “Hi Ho-ing” someplace.
This being 2016, do you supposed we are being politically incorrect by not knowing the name of Tonto’s horse. Back in the 1800’s it didn’t matter what your horse was named as long as the one you had was yours, and you were good with a gun. Even today not knowing is probably not being politically incorrect. To prove that, how many know the name of Marshall Dillion’s horse? Now, I could say here – “Go to the end and see the names”. That sort of thing always griped me so I will not make you wait to find out. Tonto’s was Scout, and the Marshall’s was Buck. In fact, I will even throw in a freebie and note that Red Ryder’s was Thunder.
Now The Blonde in the house is not particularly interested in old cowboy heroes. However, she doesn’t mind my doing so as it keeps me from attempting handyman jobs, in which I manage to louse up something that was not loused before. She does have to admit that the old cowboy movies and radio shows were good morality stories for young people. Heck, I still like Ralston cereal because of the old radio serial involving Tom Mix and his Ralston Straight Shooters. (Mix’s horse was Tony). Unfortunately, you can’t find Ralston anymore, but the straight and narrow stories Mix narrated helped make me the nice guy I am.
Today, if they do have a western movie, TV program, or even the slight possibility of a radio show, you would not want your young kids to know the “heroes” names. My gracious, they do not even name their horses anymore. True, they might have a name for their gun, and even worse they no longer ride off into the sunset. Instead they go after the girl! They are pretty blatant about it too. I imagine the women in the stories have a hard time telling the good guys from the bad ones. If you look, you will note that the tell-tale sign of the white hats (good guys) and black hats (bad guys) is no longer in evidence. How is a poor girl to tell?
The fact is that good morality shows are no longer with us. Today, Roy Rogers (Trigger) would get bumped off in the first ten minutes, and Dale Evans (Buttermilk) would have to put up with “The Rock”. I always hope that perhaps someday, we can get back to some good moral programming that will stick with young people.
Then, I look at what is going on in the political world today!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com