They looked at each other straight in the eye. The skinny one, and then the older bigger one. Drawing their guns in only a matter of a few seconds, as quick as lightning, smoke ran out as a large BANG took up the air. Knocked off and taken off guard, the big one fell down, grasping his hurt shoulder.
"That was fast," the young one proclaimed, just before dropping his colt and then falling down with a whush. The fight was over. And two were dead in the Arizona sun. I had just witnessed what the cowboys called a high noon draw. Murder had been done.
10 HOURS EARLIER!
9:23-I woke up, tired from being tired, and now rejuvenated to go touring today. Even though we could of done other things, I really wanted to go to Old Tucson, which was a cowboy theme park, where John Wayne would meet Clint Eastwood and do a movie together, in the old days of Hollywood. "Showdown at the O.K. Corrall" was just one of the many movies made there. If you don't like that kind of stuff, the Lone Ranger was made there, and also "The Three Amigos" which is both really stupid and really funny. That's just to name a few of the hundreds of films created at Old Tucson studios. Mom, Rebecca and I had gone in the past, seen many shows, including some horse thieves that got shot up at a bank by a sheriff. I didn't understand the plot at my young age, but I adored all the action. It was kind of my first live show where I saw one man fall to the ground off a balcony, and then another man run around, while firing with a big silver pistol, making smoke fire everywhere. And their costumes, oh their costumes, all the vests, holsters, hats, and long pants with boots, man it was heaven. I went there with my flip in hand, video taping everything I saw and then the next year in 4th grade writing about it in my school project about descriptive writing. Old Tucson was definitely my favorite part of real Tucson; it was totally better than me running around with a small hand-gun at Halloween, shooting up ninja turtles and Buzz Lightyear. Way better.
I really wanted to return to my spot of highlight on our first say at the "Old Pueblo." We could have just relaxed that day, but both Rebecca and I wanted to go back to the old outlaw town. Well, it has no residents except for kids who come around generations before and after me, and their parents and grandparents. Their spirits stay at the place where heroes reside, villians die, and at least all of the actors have a broad rimmed hat and a gun. AND WE WERE GOING THEIR TODAY!
What day was that day? To be exact, February 19th, a Sunday. And it being a Sunday, and us in this really nice town, we really wanted to go to church. The prior day, when we looked at my great grandparent's house, we had passed by a United Methodist church that Mom said was the church that her grandparents went to, and the one where her grandpa's funeral was. It's name was Catalina UMC (United Methodist Church) and it was fairly close to the university, their house, and also quite far away from the R.V. But it didn't matter. Wanting to get away from our really loud site, after we got ready with showers and teeth brushing, I put on a red brookfield collar shirt and some khakis, and then my green hardback kid's Bible. I actually finished Matthew on Easter, incidentally. So, back to the blog. We got in the jeep and drove over to UMC. It was quite a long and tall church. It had a left side which had a sandstone block, and four bells in air that were brown. Then was a red ribbon through the black cross, and then you had the long portion that was shorter and had two tilted sides, like a school house. There was red tile on the top, and as I traveled through the southwest later I saw that that was a common trait among the architecture, it was Spanish. We parked a long ways away among some really big oak trees. Walking over along a sidewalk, we came in front of a glistening garden with some beautiful colored glass in a little courtyard. Then we came in front.
10:30-There was a big concrete area and to the left of us was a grass area with a block and many weird symbols that looked like they came from macaroni. A lot of people were situated beneath a silver cross and a rectangular doorway. There were some people at a wooden counter and we walked up to them. They kindly gave us some programs, said that they hoped they would see us again at a different service on a different Sunday, and then they said that upon our return out they had hot chocolate and coffee that we could try out. Thanking them, we entered a nice threshold of events, calendars, and posters and fliers with two men in suits and ties. Then we walked inside. Man, wasn't it a sight as we entered in. A grey ceiling, the whole place rectangular, lights on it and then a domed circle with a white star it it beneath, over the alter area. Some nice little torch kind of things that were crystallized and had rainbow colors. Beige sides on both sides, and then a carpet and some brown pews making up the whole place. At the other end of the room was a stage with a wooden platform and a red curtain and candles beneath it, and a brown cross with a yellow circle in between. Red chairs were also there. Some instruments and wooden big things were there on the stage. We sat down.
10:40-On our left, we were on the left section, was three flags, red, yellow and blue flags holding onto rectangular white columns. The right side, which was odd, was plain. I thought that it would at least be equal to the left side in designs, but I guess not. Mom told me she was seated in the left section at the funeral, and that when it happened, so many people showed up. Dad came late; he had been talking. We looked at some of the program while waiting for the service to begin. I thought it was really cool that the people who birthed my grandpa who married my grandma who birthed my mom who birthed me were regular people at the church. It was awesome to be at a place that had served in part to my family history. It was the same feeling felt in Union City where my grandpa grew up, and at Bel Air in Ohio where my grandmother was a child, and at Pensacola where my dad went to photography school. So this is where the funeral was. I tried to think of the man who I had seen as only an old guy in a tie, surrounded by all of his loving friends and family, and my mom, as he was up in a casket. Very sad. But it was interesting to be here, you know, because it was a time from the past and when my grandfather, as grey and tall and experienced as he is, was in his late teens and early twenties as a student.
Dad came in with us as I read a little bit of Matthew. A small Asian guy stepped up to a podium on the right, and was in a black shirt and black pants. He had that little twig in his hand a conductor carries, and had the air of someone who knew what they were talking about. He faced some Latino players, who had trombones, bases, and tubas, and violins, and there was a guy who was younger and another man who was blonde and white. They all had white suits on with red bow ties and outlines. A blubbery man, with grey hair, stepped up and went over some announcements. Some were boring, a few interesting, but all rather quick and to the point. It wasn't as personal as it was in Maine and in Florida, where people yelled out and it made it very face-to-face. But anyway, the man introduced the band that was getting ready, putting stands out, cleaning instruments, as Borderland Dixie, because we were quite close to the border onto Mexico and I guessed they were going to do some Mexican music. This would be quite the entertainment. I love that music, actually, all the maracas and words that you can't understand... ah it makes you listen to the tune instead of the lyrics. But as the Asian person did the whole waving the hand thing, a different song came into the air.
When they meant Dixie, they meant country music. "Down by the riverside" sounded like fiddles and Willie Nelson singing as the men sweated, trying to put on a good performance. It was about someone not studying war no more, and perfecting his life to serve God. I thought about me reading The Art of War by Sun Tsu and if I wasn't supposed to study war, which is what the book is about. Dad was actually thinking the same thing as he and I stood up together. We listened to some other really good sounding brass trumpets, a mix between country and jazz and latin american music. It was a cool blend, like strawberry lemonade mutated with bananas or a Doberman Pincher and a poodle... well maybe the last one wasn't as good. After a lot of their music a choir came out and a lady told people what hymn to sing. One of them was "Shine, Jesus, Shine" which was a great tune which Mom said she really liked. I was sandwiched between Mom and Dad which was a really good spot, if Rebecca didn't come and make Mom on the end and try to get my spot. Little rascal. No she isn't Alfalfa or any of the other little boys who don't like girls and make fires happen and try to raise money to get a new clubhouse. But close enough.
I was really enjoying the service, after not having time to go to church in the past and having to listen to our Pastor Mike over an audio thing. Or see Joel Olsteen or someone else like that. I liked the music, the hymns, and I was about to really like the sermon. A man, kind of large and the same one that did the announcements with some sideburns and grey hair and a large coat, emerged as the Asian man left. He opened up his Bible and said welcome to the congregation. Then came that single few moments in which the seaters anticipate his next move, what he was going to preach about, when he was going to start. He spoke. He took things in a way that flowed, kind of in a cause and effect storytelling, using modern examples for things. It was the Sunday that people had thought the Transfiguration occurred, where Jesus took Peter and Mark and some others up on a large mountain and Moses and Elijah appeared with the Messiah, and talked to him. The preacher went along with that story, but also with another story of himself, where he was on a vacation in Hawaii and one day their friends, I think it was Rick and Bella, took them by jeep in the jungle and then with backpacks down to a stream. There there was some canoes or khakis and then went whitewater rafting, and the large man described in a good voice the pain and how he got tipped over, all this other stuff that he had gone through. When he woke up that day he never thought ever he would be doing that... a feeling that I have a lot when we've been touring the U.S.
They went and hiked up to a mountain, and the jolly good fellow told about his tiring experiences and all the plants that the guide was talking about, and how he saw this really cool waterfall and was struck in awe by the beauty the Lord had created. Then, at a big hilltop(I loved this preacher as he really described it well) there was a person with a harness, cable, and zip line. The preacher was really scared, sure, but he did it anyway because he proclaimed it wasn't ever day that someone got that opportunity to do a zip line over Hawaii. And he said it was really invigorating and he wanted to do it again. And again, and again! 'Til he was sick to his stomach. After doing that, he hiked up to a hike which truly showed the splendor of God, the whole island of Ma'ou. He said that Peter must have felt tired on the way up but still thinking of the beauty of God, and John the same way. When they saw the transfiguration they didn't know what to say and were just struck like statues. Peter said that they should build an alter on the spot to remember and memorialize the crazy event. Well, he didn't say crazy but no matter. Jesus said no because he didn't want people to be more concerned about a relic than they would be a relationship with the Lord.
I loved that sermon, the parable relationship with Hawaii to the Transfiguration story. The morale of the story was that we shouldn't be so concerned with something we could hold in our hands, say "Jesus's shoe" and worship that, but rather, be focused on praising and loving that personal relationship that Jesus talks about. We, as humans, want something literal and there that we can understand, see, and grasp, for instance in the story of the golden calf and Aaron in Exodus, where the Hebrews worship the golden cow because it is really there like something they can see. But we got to get away from that and focus on perfecting our relationship with the Lord. But we should really get back to the blog. This isn't supposed to be a sermon in itself or a lecture, but rather a story of a twelve year old's opinions about a trip of a lifetime... but you already know that too. So to the blog.
11:32-Mom, Rebecca and I needed to pee as the tiny amount of people there got out of the sanctuary. Ushers told us to go to the right, through a wooden door, up a step, and then into a carpeted hallway covered with fliers and cork boards where some bathrooms were on the left. The bathrooms were actually really good, as I went in and then stayed waiting for the more slow girls. There was a door in front of me to a nursery where some crying babies made echoing sounds of hunger, laughter, or sadness? You never can tell with babies. Mom and Rebecca came out and we soon exited the dazzling building where my grandfather had his funeral, and where they went for church many a year. I'm really glad that we went there. Outside by that wooden table where the ladies sat with pamphlets and coffee machines, a nice skinny old (but on the more middle aged side) grey short haired lady poured some coffee and hot chocolate. She got hot water and some cocoa and sugar, and stirred it for us, Land it was really tasty, refreshing, but not at all hot. I liked it like that. The lady, who introduced herself as Mary Ann, told us that the church used to be in Midtown and had a lot more visitors because this was more of the city area, until they moved, and then it was more suburb. She was sad to report that maybe it will never have the amount of congregation it had a long time ago.
Mom told her about her connection to Catalina UMC, as she had the blubbery preacher.
Mary Ann was very glad about that, thinking that it was great we had come all the way to come here. Laughs took up the entrance area. We thanked her, talked about it some more as she confirmed that not many people probably were still living and ever met Pop or Mom's grandparents. It was a supposition that we already thought was true. Later as we walked on and said goodbye to the nice lady, Mom talked to a blonde haired lady. Everyone we had met listened to our story with extreme interest and had been very friendly. I guess that's all you can expect from a church for goodness sakes. Martha, the other lady, listened about the trip as Rebecca and Mom went along a little bit and looked at a really large and nice big oak tree. It was really shady and huge. I wondered if Pop had sat on that tree. Well, wanting to finish my little treat in the car and not on the property I got it (it's not good gentleman skills to do that), I said goodbye to Martha and moved away from the conversation, and went into the jeep where we waited until Mom would come. She did come along the sidewalk, and was the last to leave the property of Catalina UMC, where we had a great service and a refurbishing of memories from long ago.
12:12-Now to Old Tucson! We could have just stayed home and relaxed, but I felt like a sheriff today! We went home, and quickly shed our church clothing and ate some mega sandwiches. Mega sandwiches include diced tomatoes, crisp cheddar cheese, cold fresh turkey, green garden lettuce, and white Vidalia onions, sauteed with white fat free mayonaise and put in between two wheat loaves. "No I am not a lunch restaurant on the corner of 8th and Broadfield. Yeah I'm a blogger. Okay, you have a good day sir." Sorry, he saw this part only and thought I was a restaurant owner, and he wanted some of what I was describing. Just goes to show how dangerous things can be... out of context.
The last time I had gone to Old Tucson I had really short hair, a chubby body, a green and blue striped shirt like Sandman from Spider Man 3, and had tennis shoes with short jeans that were cut at my knees, plenty of sunscreen that made me look like some clown or lady at a spa, and a rectangular flip video camera which I used a lot that year, making stupid videos like using my friend Caleb and Rowdy to do a robber scene and have me and him fight, or dance like a fool in my living room with music blaring. I remember clearly what I was wearing on both days, a long blue shirt and a collared blue and white striped shirt. But about Tucson. This time I wanted to arrive like I had been there forever, and I'll explain this in a sec after I answer this text. Oh great! I just spilled water all over my pants after sitting down. Oh well. I wanted to go to Old Tucson like a cowboy! And Rebecca had the same interest. In Missouri on Halloween we had dressed as amateur cowboys, so we would do it again now. Dirty tight jeans were my pick, and also tennis shoes that were about dead, this would be their last theme park. I had a brown rough little jacket, and an Indiana Jones hat that finished it off. Picking up my small silver with brown handle revolver that was incidentally broken off in Missouri and now glued together, I went off in the direction of the car.
Rebecca had a plaid shirt on, pink and white with crosspatches, and then some pigtails plus some bright red boots she had purchased in the cowboy town of Fort Worth. Alrighty then, all ready, we prepared to leave for Old Tucson. We went in the car and then drove off in the old town, away from downtown and all the skyscrapers and pretty far away from the university, toward it. Old Tucson was tightly nestled next to a shrub filled mountain, but there was something else that was appearing in both my eyes and in memory. What was that? There were long fat cucumbers making out in the distance, no... they had hands in swerves going up, down, or around. I'll describe them better in the next blog post or the one after that. But seriously, those were cacti! Also known as cactuses until that moment, this was that distinguishable part of Old Tucson, those long pointed up cacti that were bright green as ever, reflected off the brown faded green bushes mountain, and the blue sky which had taken up the day, not a cloud in the sky, as hot as ever and as mild as it could be. The perfect temperature for a cowboy town tour. We passed by A mountain, for University of Arizona. It is blue at the top, red on the / and \ and white in the middle. I remembered going up there with Pop and MaPoc. So many memories.
1:00-It was to are right off a highway, and then I saw some saloon-like buildings. We were approaching the town. For a while we just went through some country-side, shrub, dirt, green tall cacti and the blue sky. I remembered going down on a mountainside and then a valley and coming down, but we didn't go that way this time, or something, maybe I was putting two memories together and switching them around(I tend to do that sometimes) . But oh well. Going through some brier patches and rocky area, we came to a little parking lot that was actually really full, it being a Sunday and all. Mom stated the last time we went it had been kind of a ghost town (double meaning there) and that there wasn't that many people touring it that day. It was hard to find a parking place. But eventually we parked and then got out of the car. I talked to a girl named Zoe, one of my friends, about Old Tucson, taking a picture of myself with the blue bandanna around my neck. I took pictures of the cacti and of A Mountain, and then said I had to go as we got out of the jeep, on the right side of the lot. I left my phone and video camera, because I wanted to have a day away from tech and in Old Tucson I would just look like a tourist or something, and I wanted to pretend like I was really going back in time to the Wild West. And boy would this be an adventure.
Rebecca did the same thing. I kind of wanted to video tape everything, but I got Mom to do that for me as I took it on the last second. Mom and Rebecca walked up to the ticket booth first. I remembered everything so clearly from our last visit. On the left there was a huge black metal crane thing, with an old black movie camera, stationary, that was poking out in the direction of it. Farther was a building and a gate where the exit was. Then, right in front of us where Mom and Rebecca were, there was a beige brick flat entrance, with a curved sign with in red:
OLD TUCSON STUDIOS
It was very long. That was the same thing that the crane, for movie making, had on it. Then there were three rectangular brick columns and some signs in there with ticket booths, where people told about the money and rates and all. Kind of expensive, but I looked around at all the movie posters in there, enjoying the signs that talked about John Wayne's character in a movie. "He likes his horses fast, his whisky cold, and his women hot." It was a funny line that I thought was worth repeating. I was really excited to come inside Old Tucson, as we payed the money, Dad locked the car, and Mom and Rebecca did the Ineedtogototherestroom dance. Through the ticket slots and that metal thing that has the pole that twists around, we entered the awesome Old Tucson. Everything I remembered so clearly; it was really unreal. On our left we had this little brown building that was a restaurant and had a patio, and then the little clock with the tip jar, and in wood those little words telling the tour times. This was the place that had started off our adventure, I thought as the lady gave us back our tickets and gave us a map of events and the property, with numbers on buildings of what was where and when was something. Thanking her, we passed the train tracks, the cross sign, and a small white colored building with it saying Southern Pacific, and inside was just a manikin of an operator, some desks and a little telegraph, with huge green poky cacti in the front. There wasn't much to that little place.
Two years ago or a little bit more, we had waited there for a long time and then a tour guide, a buff man with a blue jest, glasses, a broad nice hat and a wispy mustache, was our tour guide. He was a little boring to an 8 year old mind, in other words I really didn't understand nor get what he was saying as he picked us up at the drop off and went into a long history. I just remember later posing pictures with him, stuff like that. I told him I wanted to be an actor and he smiled and nodded, said it was a lot of fun if you got good at it. I would continue to look around for this guy and see if maybe he was still working there. I doubted it, but oh well. But as he was doing his little information telling, I got bored and simply left, and milled in a little building across the street which was brown, with a little sign about a museum. I had remembered that in the museum I had read about Billy the Kid a little bit, and looked at some pictures. That was the first of many times I heard the infamous teenager's name. But now I wanted to relive that part of the visit, and do the same thing and see if in there I could find any thing about Billy. I remembered it was in the left corner and there were pictures and panels that were down to the floor, and it was kind of like a museum. I asked Mom if I could go in.
1:27-But they needed to pee! We would turn left into the gift shop, where we could go to the restroom and look at all the goods they had beforehand, and start from there and maybe ask the people what do to first to get our feet on the ground. Which, why would we want to do that? Levitation or jumping is kind of useless when you think about it. I like to walk, and am really comfortable with my feet ON the ground. But maybe it's just me. We walked over and went beneath a brown building, across the way a little more to the right was a ring-a-round, that thing with the poles, the horses, and the kids on them swinging around, thinking later that they've ridden a horse but was really only a mechanical robot, doing the same process and doing it with thousands of kids... no PERSONAL ACTIVITY! Sorry, but I hate metal horses. I have had bad experiences with them We walked down and through some more little metal spinny security things, underneath a dark brown wooden gift shop, with an old fake west-era sign. Inside was a counter going the full length of the room and some chairs and desks behind that, and a lady who had no old attire on. Just a grey short haired lady. The rest of the room consisted of gift shop trinkets, souvenirs, and hats and clothes and toy guns.
Mom and Rebecca asked where the restroom was and the lady said just out the door to the left or something, and they graciously went and uh...went. Dad and I fished around as he looked at some John Wayne metal posters, and I looked in this right section at some toy guns. I couldn't find the two really real looking and great brown handled with huge silver metal section that I had purchased the last time, using them and losing them and breaking and fixing and finding them until the trip's time, and for me two years is a record for some toys. Not anymore, of course, I use my guns and toys very non-breakingly (I wonder if that's a word) but back in my 7-8 years all toys should beware. But I really loved those guns, and used them for a long time to shoot up my peers at parties and play-dates, to chase bad guys out of Africa and to spin them around to make my family mock-amazed at my glorious everybody-can-do-them-but-since-their-my-parents-they-have-to-be-amazed tricks. (I doubt that's a word too.) I only had two really small revolvers now, and had started with one in the beginning of the trip, but gave it to a friend who really liked it in Michigan. He broke it the next day. I had a purple one but it was cheap and plastic so got two more at Crackle Barrel using my own money, and on Halloween Rebecca broke the silver one. We saw my friend Jonathan Penny again in FL and then his brother Christopher broke the purple one. I will never give them my black revolver, which at the time of the Old Tucson experience I couldn't find but I have it now. Anyway... but let's start another paragraph.
I didn't find anything save like some Doc Holiday cheap guns with beige handles that I had already had one of, which broke very easily. You gotta treat these guns like babies if you want them to work a beat. But anyway, I didn't see any good ones so Dad said we'd find something somewhere else. I just hoped the brown handle on the silver one would keep up for at least our time in Old Tucson...
Rebecca and Mom returned as I looked at a few books. Not a grand selection however. As we exited to finally start our OT adventure (I'll be calling Old Tucson that), the lady in there asked if she could have our brochure; she wanted to check something about the events and see if the one that she had was a current or an ancient one. It was the latter, and she gave us it back and asked me if I could do a favor for her and go get her another, but Mom said she could have that one and go get another program, I guess it could be called. She thanked us and then we went to that young girl who had given that in the first, and I went up to her and told her the story. She gave us another one without one hesitant action. Mom asked if anyone had made any movies recently, and the girl told us that some food thing from Food Channel called Chopped was going to do a special here, involving cowboy food into the mix. Rebecca had started watching the show on the trip so it was cool if they were talking about it and were going to do it there. They were coming in March but it might air on television a little later, and she didn't know the time. We were now across the train tracks, and ready to go into Old Tucson. Now, let's describe Old Tucson storefronts a little before the Bourne's go into the fun theme park old studios place.
So, you guys imagine a blue sky with only some little fluffy clouds in the distance, making different kind of bubbly shapes over the hot Arizona sun. We have in the background also a brown mountain that has a few cacti on it, but not many and then also some shrub and plenty of dirt.(so much of that in the Southwest.) Picture also some storefronts, brown with roofs casting shadows overhead, and some wooden cylinders, columns, and signs that were facing us on handles, mostly rectangular. On our right where a sandstone brick old thing with a slightly wooded porch was, where words written in old country form saying Olsen's Merchantile. Then there was across the street another brick formation, square liek the other one with another sign. Farther on, not really focused by our view, was a yellow with blue arched sign, on a corner with that two sides together making a buff corner. The road was made of dust and dirt. There were few trees, but some green ferns and some thin leaves that were on the trees on the sides of the road. Okay, so this looks like the place where John Wayne and Clint Eastwood would have a beer together, and everybody carries a gun. Now, let's ruin the whole picture by adding in people with jackets around their wastes, cameras, phones, strollers, and little swords and like no cowboy attire even on. OLD Tucson, and the image is spoiled, the illusion smeared, the picture broken. Sadly to my sadness.
Oh well.
I wanted to go into the little display area, to relive what I had done before upon our firs visit. I walked in, later followed by everyone else who had given up waiting outside, and I looked around at the stuff, really interested. In there were tons of movies that were listed for being shot there, and some of the history of some cowboys. I saw Wild Bill's show, many pictures, and was on the left side of these panels facing me that were flat with curved glass, old papers, scrips with grammar marked with pens, and it was all on the left side and then some more panels. Rebecca came in first followed by Mom and Dad. We looked around at different scripts, tapes, and even looked some video footage in the corners of the room. It was really fun to have a little peek at all the features and television shows that Old Tucson made possible.More than 300 of them were made there, and in there we looked at some props and costumes. This was the place where most of the Western-themed movies were made. In 1939 Columbia Pictures came and built Old Tucson for the filming of a movie called Arizona. Then followed many different ones, and many favorite stars passed and went. I couldn't believe it that I was in this place where all these movies had been done; I had wanted to become a director. There were flicks like "Rio Bravo"(John Wayne), "Hombre"(Paul Newman) and "Outlaw Josey Wales" among many, many other famous ones.
I had remembered when I first went to Old Tucson and realized so many motion pictures had been made here how excited I was, on top of liking how I could pretend I was a cowboy for a day and not have to use my imagination too much. I video-taped my heart out, talking to my grandparents, as jittery as a little girl; I was in hog heaven. I moved on to the right, more into the middle with these panels on my right and left that were vertical, and saw something that I thought was really cool. It was a huge old black video camera, and it wasn't a handheld Sony if your asking. It had a black oval thing with silver dials and looked like leather, and then the next part with a square thing with all this metal tubes, dials, and levers. I looked through a small square little looker-through, and I don't know the real name for it. It was an ancient tripod, I guess it could be called. Many movie posters were all around, in square form with glass protecting them and stupid lines advertising the flicks. I took my picture with it, remembering how I had only looked on the left portion on the first time I came, where I found Billy the Kid. Then Rebecca called me to come over and I listened to the boring tour guide go on about the legacy of Old Tucson, and I squinted in the hot Arizona sun while trying to zone out the boring monotonous tone. Well, I have grown older and along the way I've liked tour guides and liked learning stuff. But I was like 8 then, so please forgive me.
1:45-But I couldn't find ANYTHING involving Billy the Kid! Maybe I thought it was Billy but it was really someone else that I had forgotten the name and put two memories together! That was always a possibility, you know. But I had always remembered that small memory so much more than the lines of the shows we saw, or the signs or the painted color of the place. I don't know why, maybe it was because I was there without anyone else and it was the only time that I had drifted off. I asked Rebecca if she could help me find it and we looked around together for a few minutes before she found a script telling about it in the middle of the room. I was over through a door into a brick hallway where I saw some costumes from "Little House on the Prairie," a show my mom really liked. I told her about it as she came over there.They were green and different colored dresses from the ladies. I later found one picture, in that area that I had looked over on the left side in a panel below me under glass with paper captions, a picture of Billy the Kid and some of his brothers, plus some mug shots of him. He looked rather stupid, I must saw. But anyway, I had found the memory which had linked from the previous time, and now the time was complete! Well, not at all. We did a lot more things at Old Tucson then look at some pictures in a museum the first time. I had to do the same things again.
We exited that area, and looked at the events so we wouldn't miss something that was really cool. There was stuff all around that we could do, including going on the tour, the train, the scary mine (I'll explain later) the go cars, the funny live action shows, and something where they celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Arizona's statehood with a show about the ceremony, that they were doing the full month of February, every day, because that was the day it happened. Mom wanted to do that a lot because it was only going to be here this month and we hadn't done it the previous time, and Pop would really appreciate the blog post, pictures and video footage. We had already emailed the photos and videos of their house and church, and he was really glad to see it again. But anyway, what would we do next? There were many storefronts as we got outside, little faces (just the face of a house, no real part of it, and there's a french word they use more commonly in the film world) that had maybe gift shops and snack shops, but nothing really where we could go in there.I passed by a wagon and looked at the presentation that was going on, and it was a comedy show with a doctor.
There was a barrel with water, and shades and different colors with seats. What was this place? Memories flashed through my brain as I realized that the first time we went we came to this show, and when they asked for an adult volunteer I yelled that Mom should be the person. The actor, with black bushy hair who had prior been in the bank robbery outside of the saloon that I had video taped, waltzed over to Mom and said that he was looking, rather jokingly, and trying to pretend he didn't see her, for a blonde haired lady with a pink tee shirt. That was Mom. In mock surprise, he lifted her up and said hello, and then took her over to the barrel. She giggled and was kind of scared about what was to happen, as Mac Poc told me to watch and Pop took some pictures. He said he had to go, went inside the little wagon, and then it happened. Mom got soaked with some water out of the barrel, on top of her, and water rushed down as pink became red, both in the face, and the shirt. Mom never forgave me as she laughed and laughed. The doctor's assistant said bluntly and with a smile, "The doctor REALLY needed TO GO."
We came up to an intersection after passing by a few shops, like one on the left hand side where a counter and some goodies were, and I saw the yellow building with blotted windows and the buff corner, the hotel and saloon of the place. Mom told me that we had gone into there and saw a show and told me the time of it happening again. There were several men that were in the middle of the street, cowboy costumes on, talking about a Sheriff Presentation in the jail and Sheriff office. I guessed this was the first thing we were gonna do.
One of them on a black little hat, and it had a flat part that turned around and a square part where your head goes.(sorry I'm twelve and pretty bad at describing things). He was kind of chubby with some sunburned skin, and short fingernails and chubby fingers. He had a black vest, a best with a large brown gun handled colt on him, and a red bandanna or scarf. Then there were jeans, boots, and a white and black stripe plaid shirt, that was all looking like a professional. He was the one with a really powerful voice, saying it was a good educational opportunity. There was a few other people, but a guy with blonde hair like kind of a mohawk, really short with no hat, and a vest with nothing else except for dark jeans and boots and a holster. But it wasn't that which made me pay attention to him. It was his giant whip that he was lashing about, around his head and hitting the sand two and fro. Dust went up in a fury. I, liking to lash around with sticks and juggle them and always missing the cool parts with whips, was amazed that he only hit himself like once. I wondered why he was there, as he did it once, then twice, then thrice, and then was kind of gone. He had argued with chubby over something? What was it all about?
Well, Dad said we should get our feet wet finally and go do the sheriff thing. Turning left onto a new street, kind of small and not a main one, with a wooden frame and fence that was constantly being opened by kids, older ones, on horses with a leader, we saw a small little building that said the Sheriff place. It had a red and blue sign, and then had a flat roof that was all brown, but it was a nice one. Walking in, we found ourselves ahead of the crowd, which was a good thing. Now, let me describe the room. There was a wooden frame ceiling, and that was the same with the walls. Then there was the concrete floor. On the left side was a cork board or a school board, and then a silver pan with a red lantern in there.Below it was a picture of Abraham Lincoln.Further on was a green door and overhead some antlers. To the right of that some more was an American flag all rolled up and on it's stand, and then another lantern with silver plate over a brown shelf with some pots and pans. In the left area but the middle of the room too was a desk with several articles, among them a pitcher of water and some other things relating. Pencils and a piece of parchment. Then on the right back hand corner, to the right of a green door and an exit sign(thanks for breaking the illusion with the sign) a cell with all the black square workings and all the crosspatches, and a door, a little coffee table and a little slotted window, and of course a bad bed, green cotton and wool. Mom and Dad stayed in the back left hand corner by the entrance, making other people have better spots. People filed in quickly.
2:00 show.
Rebecca and I stayed well in the front, as kids and some two little blonde and brown haired toddlers with holsters shot up and tried to run around a little. I smiled and chuckled at the funny pair. Well, the guy came in and said hello, to leave questions at the end but that this was the presentation on the history of sheriffs in Arizona, and that there was another one starting up about the Arizona rangers. "If your bored, feel free to leave any time during the presentation, and there's no action, it's just me telling you about something.(I kicked myself. I thought it was really the action thing, but I liked learning too and wasn't as educated in the subject as I might want to be. The guy had a lisp, now hearing him without all the people around and him yelling, I realized that. He wasn't a southerner, that was for sure.) So you won't hurt my feelings if you walk out. Now, sheriffs were around in the early 1800's, but more preferably the late ones. They were just regular men in the town, that had premise around the people. They might be a farmer, although there were few, or a businessman or a hotel owner. Now,I have to tell you that they were appointed by the government, but had complete authority around the town."
I looked to the right side that was now filled with people, of all different sorts and kinds, and saw a cylinder fat black stove and some wooden windows. Strollers, old people, kids, sun screen, and cameras galore took up my scenery if I wasn't focused on the guy. He was cleanshaven with black hair and a clean brow. He had found an item, I think it was a waterball, that he put on the shelf after asking who's it was and then saying that he would put it in the trash at the end. Nobody had answered, but you could tell by the awkward tension that it belonged to somebody in there. Oh, you could tell. Everyone's eyes darting like that, you know. The guy, who's name I will call from now on will be Sheriff, talked more about what a sheriff would handle. Drunk guys in bars, deals, public annoyances, and horse thieves. The sheriff would organize a party to go out and find the people who stole them, and were only gone for a while. They weren't like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, most sheriffs would only kill about two men in their entire existence. I was shocked to hear that surprising testament. Also, politeness was everything. If someone was rough and unorderly, a sheriff would NEVER hit him with the back of the colt, (and Sheriff showed us his) with the handle, because it was a symbol of shame for a person.
"Come over here, son. " I was a little timid, but he promised he wouldn't really hit me. He came really close into my temple, and I pretended to get hurt as he smiled at me playing along. I love to play around with real actors, because it's fun because they ARE real actors and to do a little dialogue with them. He thanked me. "I have to tell you, that the guy would then come and shoot me in the street in the back of my head, because I had shamed him. The sheriff should of taken him in handcuffs, and be really calm, and then put him in the cell."
It was really a good educational time to the Old Tucson adventure.
He also told us about the cell house, and how it was usually stand, not too big but big enough to hold the two or three people that might be in there at a time. Usually it was only a drunkard who ceased to be drunk after a day or two, and then was released. But the Sheriff would sometimes handle deals with land, being the profiteer over all the paperwork that was done. Sheriff told us the amount of money for just bringing back a horse, which was pretty good amount of cash. He got $20 twice a year and then got $8 dollars every time he made a land property deal happen, and Sheriff told us more and more about the different profits and salaries he made and achieved. Then he went on to mention some of the more famous Sheriffs, asking around if anyone knew of a sheriff. I remembered seeing a pistol that was named after Doc Holiday. I wasn't really educated in the subject, as you know, so didn't know that many real sheriffs. I said Holiday's name, kind of doubting my correctness, and it was confirmed by Sheriff saying that Doc Holiday was in fact a dentist. But he told about one person named Wild Bill Hitchock, and I had heard the name before. He said that at Saloon #10, in Deadwood, South Dakota, in a gambling game, Wild Bill was shot in the back of the head or in the back, murdered.
I had remembered museums in Deadwood, while we had stayed there, that had advertised the "dead man's hand" as it was called. Little did I know when I was in Deadwood that I was in such a historic and culturally famous place. Sheriff said that the hand was probably, to popular belief, the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two 8 black ones, club and spades, and then a card that was never shown, only four cards but his fifth was never overturned or never given out before he died. Sheriff talked about this a little longer and asked some questions about the sheriffs, with one old guy really knowing all of the questions. Sheriff all the time said, "Now, I have to tell you" and it was getting rather annoying. But he said that the presentation was over, and most of the people filed out after taking the nessicary pictures and taking of battery life. He asked us and some other kids if we wanted to become sheriffs, for the young in body and the young in mind. (Two old ladies also joined.) He put us in a line, and went about the proceedments. I was excited to becoming an "official and real sheriff" as he asked really easy questions about what kind of brick was outside(adobe, he had told us this before) and we answered that the animal on the pony express was the horse and that was the form of mail. We answered to the colts that he had mentioned earlier as he said that it was the regular firing gun and was cheap, kind of satisfactory and reliable, but not really. Then he told us not to shoot anybody except for self-defense, and gave us a metal badge that was a little too fake to be a sheriff badge, but oh well. Too old ladies were sworn in, kids at heart. We took the swear. I was a Tucson Sheriff. What now, Spencer?
2:30- Those two little kids, the blonde and the brown with all the guns, shot around and took pictures in the cell before we could. Oh well, we would do it later at the end of the day. The tan black haired kid who also got the badge left with his stroller mom. We came back outside and saw the hotel and the intersection right there in front of us. People streamed into the hotel. I wondered why. Dad told us, as we went over to the right where an exit into the exit into the desert and some Indian adobe buildings over there, we went into a bathhouse and went into there. It was fairly nice, as I pretended that a bad guy was getting me because I had let his slave go. It was fun to be a little kid again without getting shorter, and just playing for a while with no things that I had to do or that had to be done. Dad told us that there was going to be a show telling about all the different films in the Hotel or Saloon, that big yellow building on a corner, so we should do that too. Mom saw also that there was that Ranger talk that Sheriff had spoken of, and since I liked history we went over to the location while Rebecca and Dad saved our seats. We found ourselves in a new street, as we turned right onto another patch of storefronts, and saw some buildings that had staircases and fake signs with old writing and colored backgrounds. I'll describe it further.
There was a yellow building, square front with a balcony, and it was cream yellow, lighter than most. After that was another wooden red place, with diagonal slanted windows and many rails. All along was many flags of Arizona becoming a state, and I thought it was going to be really cool later when we saw the monumental day, or the replaying of the monumental day, which was a hundred years ago. In the middle of this area with a few trees and a brown wooden carriage in front with wheels, very dilapidated, and a yellow building, in the front flat with a small balcony and many flags. There was a door and then on the bottom part a bigger door. Mom and I went inside, finding a circular old wooden threshold or lobby area, complete with a train which went around and around a miniature 3-d map of Old Tucson or some wild west town. I wanted to take a picture of it but Mom led me on, saying we had to see the thing. On the left was a little area, white and wooden floors, which I'll describe later. There were like two more rooms on either side of us, but like I said Mom ushered me on so I can't very well describe them. We then followed a man's voice who was pacing in the room that was right in front of us, and he bellowed out with his melodious tone.
It was a Jury Room, like something out of John Grisham's novels or Law and Order. The sign on the front of the building had said that it was the Court House, so this was it. It had a wooden fence that separated the judge and defendant area from some little chairs that many people were seated in. The walls were all white ones, with wooden finish, and looked very old, however I questioned their age. Many pictures on the wall, like the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln, and Washington crossing the Delaware. I always thought it was weird that D.C. crossed the Delaware River, considering how big the district of Columbia is. And why is there a picture of GEORGE Washington? It get's a little confusing when we name all this stuff after him.
1. Washington D.C.
2.Washington State
3. Mount Washington
4. Washington Elementary, Middle School, or High School
5. Washington Frapacino at StarBucks.
6. Washington Style Hairdo
I would like to go to a middle school, live in a state or go up a mountain named after him, but I don't know if I want grey hair and wooden teeth in my coffee. Maybe it's just me.
The hairdo would be cool to try though.
Back to the blog.
Then there was the judge's chair and that little stand beside him where the interviewed person sit. We sat down as the man was describing something about Arizona Rangers, that I didn't get that much. It was a little lecture-like, I must say, and even I, Andrew the lover of information and education, dazed out and looked at my silver 5 sided star sheriff badge, in black the title SHERIFF with a white oval spot to write your name. Rebecca already was wearing hers but I don't like pins so I was yet to put it on. It was just a cheap little article. But the man had grey hair, a no bang- forehead, and a blazer on with nice black shoes and black pants. He had no vest nor hat, and spoke loudly and clearly. Mom and I didn't know where it was going, the talk had no flow, and I was just plain bored at all the dull speaking that we just kind of came out. Now that room I had looked into was on my right, and I went in to where a desk was and a dentist chair and other things you would see in a dentist's office. The dummy was funny. I pretended that I was giving him the news that he was going to die, and another guy came in and I roughed him up a little bit and then hit him with the back of my gun, instantly remembering I shouldn't do that.
Outside I tried to look for maybe one of the cast members I had seen before, the curly headed guy who had shooed me away when I went up to the wagon and asked him questions before the comedy show and maybe the tour guide. There were others I talked to in the bank robbery, but I didn't remember their faces. Maybe Sheriff was one of them. But the first time I went they had just called me a kid and had thought I was annoying. I wondered if a different thing was arising as I came back this time.
3:02-We went up to the hotel/saloon, walking really quickly, so we would get in before the show started and get in our seats. I wished there was a lot of action in this one, and that we would get a lot of thrills and kills along the way. Inside the door guarded by strollers on both sides, we came in to a dark smoky hall of elk and different woodland animals all on the wall, making an imposing element added by the darkness and quietness of the saloon. The door was the regular swing double door, a door I had always wanted to go through as a kid but never found one. There was a balcony with red carpet on the walls, and some people up there. On all of the bottom walls was situated tons of movie posters, many in count. The presentation we were getting was called "Music of Old Tucson" or something like that. I didn't know exactly. There were also little stations, counters and stuff, that served everything from nachos to beer to sasperilla, which I had tried in Fort Worth and frankly, didn't ever want to try again. Mom and I searched the crowds of people as lights from above went around, and Mom found Dad in the second row. They sat together as Rebecca offered a seat next to her, right in the first row in front of the stage with one chair, two exits on either side and a red curtain. The show was about to begin.
Rebecca and I talked to an old lady to the left of us and a couple behind who had talked to Rebecca a lot earlier with Dad. They were very nice as the lights dimmed even more and the curtain went up, revealing a.... monkey in a tree costume! No just kidding it was a screen that is projected by a projector, which was way behind us like in a theater. Well, I guess it was a theater. But then we saw something. An African-American young attractive female came up as the lights changed to show her, and she was in black pants with a feather and some weird red outfit. She looked like one of those showgirls from the Cowboy era, but a little different and more contemporary then the others. She asked how we were doing, in a nice clear voice. Claps and cheers came from the audience, but not enough to make anyone think they were real enthusiastic about it, and of course she did the show-old tradition of saying it wasn't that good and saying something like, "I know you can do better than that, let's try again!" and then a much louder response from the crowd. Man should they come up with a better opening spiel. I mean seriously. But anyway, she started a fairly educational bit about that songs made Old Tucson movies whole and that there was a whole lot of them that were featured, recounting some of the more famous ones.
She said that after Columbia Pictures bought the place, they built adobe structures for the filming of "Arizona". The girl told the people that made the production, and wrote the song and who read it, as the projected screen came to life. I was really into it, as the AA girl vanished. It was black and white film, and was some traditional cowboy music with showing of the title and of the people involved, including a lot of jumping on horses and kissing woman before leaving to go mining. Another girl then sprang out, saying that a few other pictures emerged before Old Tucson was left for a few years, starting a real location era of cowboy Hollywood, getting off of cheap studio backgrounds and sets. Another movie aired ,and then another, as a bigger blonde with the same outfit came down and started singing. No action or fighting happened, although I wanted it to. So the showgirls sang and then the thing in the background would play showing different scenes. What was odd was the AA girl didn't sing, and although she had quite the speaking voice I wondered if she had a good speaking voice then. But that thinking was smeared as she belted out a solo, soon joined by a brunette as they sung O.K. Corral and things in the background showed the famous corral in Tombstone, AR. Then came the one about the Alamo, where Clint Eastwood was shown as dying as a really sad song went through. It was cool to note for we had been there.
I am sorry I'm giving vague descriptions, but I never remember songs as much as I should, just the tune and orchestra is all.But there wasn't any orchestra. As the images boomed and sad, scary, action packed and happy moments alike shown on the screen, the girls sung better than birds, and I couldn't believe the power of their young lungs beckoning and bulging like the ones of Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, just not the same male deep voices, though. They were truly great singers, I must say. Well, I don't HAVE to say it, but it makes me feel better if I do. But anyway, they came to the more recent ones, speaking of great history and then doing the beautiful choruses, telling the songwriters and all that. "Little House on the Prairie" had Michael Landon and some others like Laura Ingle, involving a lot of dramatic smiling, hugging, and kissing, as well as Landon pushing men up against a wall as he did in like every episode that I've seen. I enjoyed this show, the relaxingly singing, the cool images as I looked at all of the famous and non-famous movies, including a lot of action. But theirs no substitute for live action, where people fight in front of you and you can smell the sweat and the blood... the fake blood, of course. I don't like boxing.
I wanted some guy to come in and shoot the screen to pieces or for something else to happen(I know that people don't like to admit it, but we all like drama and action before our eyes. Don't try to deny it, Spencer, you know that you love to see people kill each other, we as humans don't like really to see a happy all the way movie where there isn't one single problem that arises, and you all know it.) but nothing did. This was educational, relaxing, and memorizing. It also was fun to see our favorite movies on the projector, including "The Three Amigos" which is both really funny, kind of action packed, and just plain bizarre. I mean, three actors from Hollywood in flashy suits who attack a Spanish fort to save a girl and then mess up in the process. There's even a scene where a rock says goodnight and there's an invisible knight. Then there was "The Quick and the Dead," classified as the last great Western for a long time, as Westerns haven't been that popular lately at all, giving room more for chick flicks and horror films. I mean, there was "True Grit" but that's about all, I gotta say. Maybe I'll make the next good one, but I think Westerns have lost much of it's audience nowadays.
It ended with Willie Nelson's, Johnny Cash, and two other guys I forget the names to singing a black and white "Highway Man" coming from the guy in the Civil War and cowboy days with the sword that he's killed many people with, the sailor with the schooner, the guy who worked on the dam and died but came back as a ghost, and then the guy flying some starship. Some sad and eerie lyrics, sure, but ones that stand as unique for me and that I strangely like for some reason unknown to me. But there were some after that, none of really great importance, as those pretty girls ended in saying that songs will always be a huge part of future films in Old Tucson Studios, a huge part in any film; songs make them complete to the production. But I really enjoyed the presentation, even though there wasn't any action or gunsmoke.
We went out on the right side after going through the aisles and passing by all the tourist souvenir stuff and a concession stand in this huge room. Rebecca got nachos that she later didn't let me have any of, as we all got some water, mine in a bottle but everyone else's in a cup. I drink a lot more so that's why I got the bottle. Going outside, we entered back onto the street with the courthouse there also. A great many people flooded the storefronts, intent on having a good spot for the ceremony of Arizona becoming a state and the parade of the march to the new capitol of Phoenix. Teenagers texted as those two little blonde and brown haired kids ran around a little bit, flashing their guns and shooting their foes, whoever that might be in the crowd. I bet I was like that when I came to Old Tucson, and still kind of was as I pretended that I was being chased by an outlaw because I had let his slave get away and he was after me. The guy talked to the sheriff as I told him about him trying to kill Holiday in the courthouse, and then he was chased away by the sheriff, it all happened on the steps of the courthouse before the ceremony began. That's what I did with my time as we found a place on the far end by a rail, in front of a store with some barrels and brown. The hot Arizona sun basked us. I hoped at least now there would be some action.
Would this be good? Action-packed?
TO BE CONTINUED...(SEE "CATALINA UMC AND OLD TUCSON PART TWO" FOR END OF STORY.)
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