THE LAST OF MY HERO's....................................

JUNE 04 2011

The last of my "hero's" passed on yesterday.  He was James Arness, or Marshall Matt Dillon to me.  For 20 years I watched him, admired him, and, yes, even fantasized about him, even though I was married and had children.

We all have fantasies, I am no exception.

I remember the very first time I saw a movie with him in it, it was when my sister Ruth and I were still living at home in Martins Ferry with my parents, so it would have had to be when we were still teen-agers.

First - some background.  We lived, as I said in Martins Ferry, we grew up never having an automobile, we walked everywhere, or rode the trolley, later the bus if we went as far as Wheeling WV, just a hop skip and jump now.  But we walked - walked to school, walked home for lunch, walked back to school, and it wasn't across the street, it was several blocks.  We walked to the grocery store for odds and ends - Mother called in her weekly order and it was delivered to the house.  Am I dating myself, or what?

We walked to one of the 2 theaters in M.F. on Friday night (admission was only 10 cents), walked to church and home on Sunday.  Anyhoo back to the main theme.

This really scary new movie was playing at one of the 5 theaters in Wheeling, called "THE THING".  Some of our friends had seen it and that is all we heard about.  So Ruth and I decided we just had to see this movie.  We had saved up some of our allowance, had enough to take public transportation to Wheeling and back, and pay for our tickets.

Now you have to remember, we lived in town, but were 6 longgg blocks from the nearest bus stop.  There were street lights, but they were few and far between.  It was still daylight when we left home.  We sat through the movie,  actually cringed through the movie, it was so scary.

We survived the movie, survived the bus ride back to our stop, and then..........

It was one of those really dark nights, no moon,  we had a really long walk home, the sidewalks had already been rolled up for the night, there was absolutely no one to be seen, anywhere.  We are holding hands so tight our fingers were going numb.  Finally - brain storm!!!!!

And this part is the honest truth.  We walked all the way home back to back switching places every block.  One block I was facing ahead, Ruth glued to my back facing back, then switch, then switch.  We made it home, nothing jumped out and grabbed us, now we laugh about it, but back then it was deadly serious.

It was not until the Gunsmoke series began on TV that I saw James Arness again, a very far cry from the monster in The Thing. 

Picture courtesy of news item appearing last evening on my computer.

I believe he was the last of the great cowboys, the last of a legend.  They don't grow actors today like those of yesterday, don't have the wonderful movies like those of yesterday, and I actually have an automobile and don't have to be afraid of walking home in the dark.

Savor your memories, the good times and the bad, they make wonderful stories down the road.  Have a good weekend and God Bless.