Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his.
-- General George S. Patton
September 25, 2004
Hi Yo Silver Away
Yesterday I was browsing around the BX (Base Exchange) and I picked up the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. I was pretty stoked to have all three of the original movies on DVD, One because I am movie/electronics nut and two because it is one of the most memorable movies of my youth.
After I picked up my copy of the trilogy and was walking out of electronics I noticed something even more exciting.
There it was sitting on a shelf completely out of place like it was calling to me, as if some divine power had placed it at exactly eye level to ensure I'd find it.
The Lone Ranger Show Collectors Edition
I got 17 episodes from the original series, 1949-1957. A two DVD set and get this it was only $6.95. I was more excited to find the Lone Ranger than I was the Star Wars trilogy. The Lone Ranger series ended (stopped production) nearly twenty years before I was born, but I have so many memories of watching the re-runs with my grandfather and sometimes even my pops on weekends.
When I was a kid I got to meet Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) and I got his autograph. That was the coolest to me. I still have that autograph today, safely tucked away in plastic.
Now many young people would read this and think I am crazy. "The Lone Ranger who is that" they would surely ask. I mean, he's no Pokemon or Yu-Gi Oh, is he? Hell yes he is, The Lone Ranger stood for all that was good, something that we need to revisit with today’s youth. Even many from my generation wouldn't watch it simply because (oh no) it's in black and white. If it is not a video game, or bloody violent movie most of our youth isn't interested.
Now before anyone whines about my interest in the series I do realize that it is full of inaccuracies and stereotypes, but I also know that it came from a time when those things weren't so important. I can imagine how nice it must have been for an entire family to sit huddled around the radio to hear the original radio broadcasts of The Lone Ranger.
To my surprise, my daughter (5 years old) is a huge fan. So far we have watched 6 episodes together and she keeps asking how many more there are and when we can watch the next one.
I just thought I'd share. I really was tickled to find this DVD set.
SlagleRock Out!
I come home from deer hunting(thats no typo) to find out that one of my best friends has found the LONE RANGER at the BX and he does not tell me its available except through his mass e-mail list???? But seriously folks, he is right. Every kid (mine included) should be required to watch this show. After all, what the hell is wrong with the good guy winning all the time anyway???
Posted by: Bill at September 25, 2004 10:20 PM
"Who was that masked man?" "That was the Lone Ranger!"
How many times did I hear that at the end of episodes? I would have to guess thousands.
As a child, I had life size posters of both Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. I would look at them every night before I would drift off to sleep. My last concious thought was always the same. How exciting their lives must have been.
As a child it was sometimes hard to separate the make believe of television from the reality of life. As an adult I realize the difference but I still cherish the lessons and ideals that I gleaned from just such programs. I learned the importance of fair play, respect, honesty etc. from my parents. God bless them both. These ideals were strengthened by the availability of these types of programs. We would all be well served if all of todays youth could be exposed to The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Bonanza and a host of other programs from the 1950s and 1960s.
Posted by: PappaSlagle at September 26, 2004 10:24 AMValues. Priceless values. Great find SlagleRock. I wish today's cinematographers would follow the example. Imagine a series or a movie without foul language or inuendo. I'm nostalgic.
Posted by: Jack at September 26, 2004 11:44 AMMy brother and I watched every show, without fail. He had a great toy gun set with "pearl" handles and he would let me use one of them to be the bad guy to his Lone Ranger. Sometimes I got to be Tonto, though, and that was the coolest. I have pictures of him somewhere in my closet with his holster and cowboy hat on. You know, the hat with the leather stitching on the brim. His little fat tummy is hanging out over the top of his britches. Pretty darned cute.
Yep, pardner, those were the days. Jack is right - priceless values - values that are sorely missing in way too many kids these days. I would give anything to go back to those days, even for one afternoon of being shot dead by a cap gun, the bad guy in a backyard serial.
Machelle
Posted by: Bonfire7 at September 26, 2004 11:53 AMBeing only 29 years old I remember just a few short years ago being of the mindset that you can't have a good rap song without the word Beeyatch in it, or how difficult it is to make a good war movie without brave men who cuss like drunken sailors.
As they say with age comes wisdom. There are many things in society that just don't need to be. I don't see any reason why they need to allow profanity on regular radio stations or television. It is one thing if a person wants to pay for a service that has these factors, but another all together when a child can simply turn on the radio on their alarm clock and listen to a song whose message is clearly, "drugs, bitches, and murder".
Who knows maybe someday someone in cinema will revisit the greatness of the Lone Ranger, Bonanza or maybe even Little House On The Prairie.
SlagleRock Out!
Posted by: SlagleRock at September 26, 2004 11:56 AMLOL...I got ya all beat! 99% of my media library is videos and DVDs of pre 1950 B&W films. I love em. I'm a 1930's -1940's nut. My music is all vintage swing and jazz...no swear words or inuendo in a tommy dorsey tune! And my radio show collection of Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Abbot and Costello etc. are as hilarious to me and my family as they must have been to the original audiences!
Is it possible to be nostalgic and homesick for a era you never knew?
Posted by: RedFalcon at September 26, 2004 03:07 PMVery nice comments you guys have here, congratulations and thanks to allowing my post...
Posted by: Phendimetrazine at April 15, 2005 12:57 PM