Richard Prosch was kind enough to invite me to participate in his "Personal West" series, following in the huge footsteps of Charles Gramlich, Gary Dobbs, Laurie Powers and Rich himself. My contribution will be posted sometime today on MERIDIAN BRIDGE.
In writing the piece, I discovered that my personal experience with the West mainly involved playing at (and continuing to play at) being Davy Crockett, Zorro and any number of TV cowboys.
That required a lot of toys, of course, and it seems my parents spoiled me much more than I realized. Here's a gallery of some of the stuff I remember best from my "Personal West".
If those are in your personal collection you've been holding out on me. Not that the stuff I've seen isn't impressive. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhen i was a kid, played a lot with cowboys toys. mostly figurines is the words? . All the people wanted to be... the bad guy!
ReplyDeleteI'll take a Bat Masterson Twirling Cane.
ReplyDeleteI do possess all these weapons, Cap'n, though none of the boxes pictured. As with many old toys, the boxes cost more than the toys themselves. And when you're out defending the Alamo or saving the peon from the whip of the commandante, or even driving rustlers out of Red Fork, the boxes would only get in the way.
ReplyDeleteI sure would have wanted that "Wanted Dead or Alive" sawed off Winchester. I used to pretend I had that gun. What a beaut.
ReplyDeleteWow. That's a heck of a stash. I'm sorry to report nothing like any of these ever got into my hands. When I wanted to "play cowboy" usually Lone Ranger or Red Ryder, I think, I had to use a short (pistol) or longer (rifle) stick. I'm not sure it made any difference to me, and I could just toss it aside when Mom called me in for dinner. It did call for a large application of imagination, I'll admit.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I meant--the ones in the photos. Still, I've never seen that Buffalo Gun and it's a thing of beauty. Didn't know you had a Rifleman rifle, either. That's one of the few cap guns I own. Oh, to be rich.
ReplyDeleteI'm a hat man. You gotta have a good hat.
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to find any pictures of a single one of those sticks.
ReplyDelete