.....Posted on 11/16/2014 11:24:04 AM PST by virgil283
“I still have the memory of my father buying me a Davy Crockett outfit, complete with a coonskin cap,” evokes columnist Lewis Grizzard. Another Crockett fan, Russ Kane, says it was a staple of his childhood:“I was four years old [when the series came out]; I still remember wearing my coonskin cap with its furry tail, as my friends and I pretended to hunt bears and shoot unruly bad guys.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at priceonomics.com ...
My little brother had the lunch box, wallet, and pistol.
But he was spoiled rotten ...
I got Flash Jr. one when we visited the Alamo last year.
It was a great experience, even though the basement was closed for remodeling.
I loved Annie Oakely and had the whole out fit and loved the smell of that leather holster that held the six shooter.
BUMP.
Does that bring back memories. Thanks.
I grew up on the edge of town, a block and a half from a very large orchard. On the one side there were shale cliffs under which was a pond and marshy area, and beyond that the railroad yards.
The other side was largely rural and hilly. I had the best sledriding hill a block away. We could run home after a few hours and take off our wet gloves or mittens and exchange ones already dried on the gas heater.
We had forts in the hillside behind a fallen tree root ball.
Usually stored in our forts were item like matches, cigarettes and fireworks and carbide.
We made weapons out of the surroundings.
Heck! I wanted to be Mike Fink! He seemed to have a lot of fun!
I was a young first grade schoolteacher in the ‘54-’55 school year.
I used to sing “Davy Crockett” with the kids.
It was also the school year that had the first Salk vaccine and added “under God” to the Pledge.
Quite a year.
.
I was on the cusp of being too old and therefore “too cool” to be doing the same thing that my little brother and his buddies were doing. Secretly, however, I was wishing I could run around with a coonskin cap. Trying to catch up, I bought one in a souvenir shop in Jackson Hole in 2003. I still break it out when the situation calls for it.
Read this to my mother over the phone.
Sounds like a wonderful childhood in the country. What a fascinating country area you had. Must’ve been not only lovely but a real place to run and explore.
I was in a Fess Parker parade dressed like a wild Indian as a kid and I also loved my coonskin cap :)
I still have my over & under “Hubley Flintlock” pistol. BTW that side by side cap gun I don’t recall from then.
Rifles were hard to come by. Dad taught me to use his jigsaw (reciprocating blade was safe) & I made all kinds of shoulder weapons from scrap lumber including crossbows & a double gun that fired `rubber bands’ cut from an innertube.
When I received a .22 rifle for Christmas, childhood was officially over.
If the Washington football team adopted that as their new name, they could be cool, too.
“Give ‘em what-for, Davy”......
I loved my coonskin cap, and the boys on the street knew they’d better not say anything about a girl wearing one.
Or else.
Speaking to those from the era of Crockett, I’m dissappointed that the current Smokey The Bear TV spots have him whistling a tune that sounds nothing like the old Smokey The Bear song. Wonder why the other one wouldn’t be public domain by now?
And it’s kind of weird that he now just goes around hugging people.
I don’t know how to link images, but don’t forget Ben Franklin in his:
http://historymomma.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ben-franklin-coonskin-hat.jpg
I had a Hop Along Cassidy outfit out of some kind of suede-like material with fringe on the vest and skirt. It had a cowboy on a horse lassoing a calf and the rope motif went around to the back of the skirt and the vest too. I also had a holster with a six shooter, cowgirl hat and cowgirl boots. It was in the 50’s so I must have been about 5. I was going to be Dale Evans when I grew up so I could be married to Roy Rogers.
Saw a movie poster for that Indian Fighter film (in Spanish) in an antique shop in Bakersfield, CA, just yesterday.
***“Hubley Flintlock” pistol.**
That looks just like the one I had! I disassembled it one time and noticed the bottom barrel is cut off just behind the plastic stock. Why waste metal for parts you can’t see!
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