Friday 2 August 2013

'Sugarfoot', and Bandera, Texas.

Back in the day.... When I was a little kid, we didn't want to be spiderman, or ironman or...

No, our heroes were cowboys. I was born in 1953, and my early years happened to be in something of a heyday for the westerns. By the time I was five or six, I had my collection of cowboy and indians figures,I had shiny 'Lone-Star' guns which shot caps,with a bang and a smell of gunsmoke. I had a black hat,with wide brim and sheriff's star,.  We hid behind haybales, and shot it out with the baddies, we ambushed stagecoaches, we rode the pony express through injun country. I was an equal-opportunity kid, I also had a feathered head-dress, a bow, and some arrows. 
We didn't have a television in our house,  but my grandparents did, and it was a treat to lie on the rug in northern england, and be transported into Texas, and adventure. There was Cheyenne, Bonanza.... Bronco Layne, Hopalong Cassidy, .................................................................and 'Sugarfoot'!


Imagine... The Red Dirt Girl and I were in the little Texas town of Bandera, ('Cowboy Capital of Texas'), and found this autograph, scratched in the concrete, outside the 'Dogleg Coffee House'.


I'll confess, it wasn't until some time later that I remembered 'Sugarfoot', the young would-be cowboy, who got into all sorts of scrapes, yet somehow always came out on top. But how cool is that? We're on our travels and I see a pavement signed by a guy who was a god to me, back when I was a fearless cowboy.



 





Bandera was fun, we were  made welcome in a little bar, and it was a pity we had a long way to go that night.

10 comments:

  1. Ahhh...cowboys and Indians...in the backyard! And Saturday afternoon matinees with cowboy and Indian movies on the silver screen starring Audie Murphy; Gene Autry (who never lost his hat or got dirty when fighting); Randolph Scott; Joel McCrea; John Wayne and Walter Brennan;the list goes on! And what was a western without Zachary Scott as the villian, I ask??

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    1. We had no silver-screen in the village, well, you had to go to the town, away to Wetherby, to 'The Rodney', to see flickering images.
      It was a rare treat, though I remember a horsy pic called 'Snow-Fire' which had my sister convinced that one day she'd bond with a talking horse....

      Watch the trailer! http://youtu.be/ogYZ-olgEaU

      We saw 'Mutiny on the Bounty' there, and 'The Swiss Family Robinson', oh, great days. Kindled my wish to be a deep-sea sailor, and a castaway in a fantastic tree-house on a tropical island, and a cowboy....

      Some would claim I never grew up.

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    2. Take it from one who knows, Soub....it's fun having never grown up! Those who accuse you of not doing so are just jealous! ;)

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  2. Amazing! I, being of a slightly younger cowboy and injun generation, would never have known who sugarfoot was! I learn so many cool things with you. And hey! Is that my favorite hot pink bra ........... ????

    ;P
    xxx

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    1. Ah, so it slowly comes back into focus....

      The bar is, of course, an secret government extreme testing facility for lingerie, a sort of 'Area 51' for bras.
      You recall how the lever on the third beer-pump slides the whole back wall aside?
      And the water-tower? You recall the roaring, and the light from the rocket exhausts as it lowered slowly out of the clouds, and onto its steel cradle?

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  3. We never got 'Sugarfoot!' The English did not send us that. 'Gunsmoke,' 'Cheyenne,' 'Wagon Train,' 'Have Gun, Will Travel,' was good, and 'Bonanza' took up a lot of space. Historically these were as accurate, indeed less accurate than 'Braveheart,' offering a watered down view of the West.

    Cowboys and Indians banned because "Guns incite violence, arrows could have someones eye out, and girls should play also, and it is 'Native Americans,' not 'Indians.'" That sort of thing makes me reach for a gun!

    Took me a moment to realise what was in the picture. Naturally I merely looked at the young lady, whoever she was.
    That bar left a few questions in my mind however......

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    1. "We"? Maybe Scotland didn't get Sugarfoot, but England did...
      The BBC renamed the series "Tenderfoot", but Will Hayes' character was still known a 'Sugarfoot', the joke being that an outsider, come west to try be a cowboy was known, until he proved himself, as a 'tenderfoot', but this young guy arrived so soft and unprepared that they called him, derisively,'Sugarfoot'.

      Until, of course, he outshot them, out-loved them, and out-braved them.

      "The series made its United Kingdom debut, albeit only in the midlands area, in 1958[11]. In 1960, it was aired nationally in the UK by the BBC[12], at which point they renamed it as Tenderfoot despite retaining the theme song which referred to the character as Sugarfoot. From 1964, the series returned to ITV, this time not just restricted to the midlands, where it was once again billed under its original name."

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    2. Oh... I do see. You were referring specifically to north of the border, Scotland.

      Yes, I remember Grampian TV had all sorts of unfamiliar stuff on, when we visited.

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  4. Little Luke . . . Little Luke.

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    1. hahahahaaaaa! I was thinking the SAME thing :P

      xxx

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