Shane (1953) Movie and
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I
was 7 years old when the movie Shane came to our local small town
theater. A story of a retired gun fighter, a young boy and guns in
the old west. The relationship between Shane and the young boy in the
movie is paramount in the story line.
Mom
and dad took me to a weekend matinee of Shane. And the story grabbed
my 7 year old heart and imagination. Good guys, bad guys and cowboys.
The story easily fit into my home surroundings and the back hills I
roamed then. Lots of places to hide as a good guy and pretend of bad
guys behind every rock, tree and bush.
I
begged my parents to stop at the local five and dime as we left the
theater. I so wanted a holster and six shooter cap gun. After seeing
that movie, there was no doubt in my mind, that the hills behind our
house needed a young hero to keep everything on the up and up. I
begged and pleaded and my folks gave in. I walked out of the five and
dime wearing a new six shooter cap gun with holster and belt. And in
the spring and summer months that followed that afternoon matinee, I
did indeed clear out all of the menace that lurked in those back
woods. I never lost a fight. I was Shane!!
Several
years later father purchased a BB gun for me and the back yard hills
were again in need of a good guy with a gun. Rocks, leaves, trees
and small brooks were taken on and defeated. More gun safety lessons
from my father on loading, unloading, how to carry, aim and shoot
accurately. Cowboys and bad guys came and went. The use of a BB gun
served me well as I gained respect and understanding of a small rifle
and the fun that came with the art of plinking.
Suffice
it to say, that kids will be kids. As an early teenager it did not
take much stretch of imagination that neighborhood friends and I
would soon be setting up rules for BB gun fights. Seemed the natural
progression at that time. BB guns were harmless for the most part if
not aimed or shot towards another's head. Common sense was used in
setting guidelines for BB gun shoot outs. No shots above the shoulders.
In fact, we all tended to aim at legs and waists to insure no one
would get seriously injured. And the rules worked. BB guns shoot outs
only lasted a few minutes at most, as receiving a stinging shot to
the leg was often enough for some one to call the event over. We went
back to the sticks, trees and rocks as targets.
And when we bored with
playing with our BB guns, we picked up a bow and arrow and shot it
straight up over our heads and watched the arrows come down near us
on the lawn. The falling arrow made a thud sucking sound as it
entered the lawn. Maybe a few minutes of playing “stretch” by facing
our opponent and throwing our pocket knives near their feet, making
them stretch and hold that wider stance. The winner was the one left
standing.
There
were many things we survived as youngsters growing up. We invented
and built the worlds in which we played. We were fortunate to have
all the possibilities the outdoors and woodlands could provide our
imaginations. And it was good!!
Eventually
I graduated to a single shot pellet air rifle. And then the single
shot .22 rifle. With each upgrade and as I grew older, all that I
learned in the use of guns paid dividends. Guns were nothing to be
afraid of. Safe use and practice though those years served me well.
Those lessons are at the heart of safe gun practices and the plinking
I enjoy today.
But
I cannot even imagine what would happen now with many of the
activities I enjoyed growing up. We cannot even make a fake gun with
our hands without landing on the national evening news. Never mind
the outrage at having shot a rubber band from said hand gun. (Every
kid in my high school graduating class would be in jail today for all
the rubber bands shot in study hall)
Any of those back hill BB gun shoot outs would land me and those
close to me in some serious hot water with a lengthy paper trail and
record today. Yep, times have seriously changed. But even in the
movie Shane, the young boy's mother states that guns will not be a
part of her young son's life. Shane defends by saying, “.....that a
gun is a tool, no better nor worse than an axe, shovel, or any other
tool. A gun, he says, is as good or as bad as the man using it...."
Shane
pales in comparison today to guns, good guys and bad guys in movies
and on TV. Youngsters growing up now, with heads bowed and an
electrical device in hand is not growing up with building tools and
materials in hand. Being sent outside of the house to play taught us
to think, invent, solve and build our worlds. Those young years have
served many of us well in life. Our parents were raising thinkers and
doers as a by product of being sent outside to play. We came home
dirty, with scrapes, cuts and bruises. We were washed, disinfected,
bandaged and sent back out the next day.
Much
is gained through change and technology; much is also lost.
