“As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”
This morning is fall in all its glory. The sky is a bright blue and the sun is shining. The air has a bit of a chill, and it’s sweatshirt weather. It is the loveliest of days.
Where have all the heroes gone? When I was a kid, they were easy to identify. Every Saturday morning I watched the Lone Ranger, Hopalong, Gene Autry, Will Bill Hickock and Roy Rogers. The bad guys never had a chance. All those cowboys had codes of behavior which didn’t seem silly or naive. None of us scoffed at the Lone Ranger when he said that all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world. At the end of every show there was a moral, and doing the right thing was the gist of it. Hopalong made honesty a badge of honor. Gene Autry never took advantage of anyone, even his enemy. Wild Bill reminded us to study hard. The code of the west was you always kept a promise, and I still always do. I won’t make a promise unless I know I can keep it. It is my word, my honor. I learned that when I was very young, and I learned it from television.
I am an optimist. I try to believe in the best of people even though that belief has been tested and strained time and time again, but I can’t give it up. I have to believe that people will do what’s right. I guess I’m still naive, but I prefer it to being pessimistic and hardened.
Some of my friends look at the world with a jaundiced eye. I feel sorry for them and for their loss. Hope is what gets me up in the morning. I hope it will be a good day; I hope that I might have a laugh or two, see a marvel or be dazzled by the night sky. I hope the world will be a better place than it was the day before. If that’s naive, please let me stay that way.
Explore posts in the same categories: UncategorizedTags: code of the west, Gene Autry, heroes, Lone Ranger, optimism, Roy Rogers, Saturday morning TV, TV
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October 15, 2011 at 1:09 pm
No such old time heroes over here either any longer. Well we have Spiderman and Superman but they are sort of not normal humans to be honest 🙂 I do miss the old guys.
Now days it seems most people are hoping for a bunch of aliens to came and rescue us 🙂 I wouldn’t mind a bunch of nice aliens but I doubt they would save us, I think we have to do that ourselves after all 🙂
We had the most amazing autumn day over here, the morning was cold, sunny and beautiful and the day just got better and better. I planted som bulbs and plants and sowed some seeds. I would have made cocoa if I just had remembered to buy some milk, I doubt it works with yoghurt 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 15, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Christer,
You’re right-they are superheroes, not ordinary men who rise to the occasion.
The only good alien I remember is ET and the poor guy had missed his spaceship. Most aliens seem bent on Earth’s destruction.
Nope, won’t work with yoghurt!
October 15, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Those days were the days when you could easily identify the good and the bad guys by the color of their hats. The communists were the bad guys and we were the good guys. The frontier had officially closed but the sun belt was just getting set to boom because of the advent of air-conditioning and the interstate highway system. The South was segregated, Native Americans were quietly existing on the reservations and Mexican Americans were still picking vegetables in the Southwest. There were Chevy men and Ford men but there were no Toyotas or Hondas. Rosa Parks still sat in the back of the bus, Vietnam was an unknown place and Eisenhower played golf in the White House. Optimism was rampant. Times were good, or so we thought. It was a good time come of age.
It’s hard for me to keep my optimism meter pegged after living through the last 50 years, but I keep trying every day.
This morning my wife took our 13 and a half year old retired racing Greyhound to the vet for the last time. Nine years after adopting him he could no longer get up, he had lost control of his bowels and looked like a concentration camp surviver having lost about 30 pounds. Now he is with his pack racing through the cosmos. RIP Rolex, you were a wonderful companion.
October 15, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Bob,
We lived in small towns and the world was a small place. I never gave thought to the greater problems. I didn’t even really knew they existed. You’re right-we all thought times were good. I got money for an ice cream each afternoon and I went to the Satudrday matinee. Add a new book and the library and life didn’t get much better than that.
I am so sorry about Rolex. My heart remembers my own loses so even when I read about someone else losing a beloved furbaby I cry. Rolex is well and healthy over the Rainbow Bridge and chasing that elusive rabbit. Dongs give the most wonderful dimension to life and to loving.
October 16, 2011 at 12:36 am
Thank you Kat
October 15, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I know what you mean but have to say that Sesame Street and other childrens shows are definitely educational for kids 3-7. My Ethan is 5 and reads at a 7th grade level. His parents had him tested and he’s really off to a good start. My other grandson loves the teaching cartoon shows and mimics them when they dance. Hysterical. That’s his own little world he identifies with. We had the mask man.
October 15, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Z&Me,
Those programs are far more educational than the ones I watched, except maybe for Ding Dong School, but even that’s stretching it. Kids are entertained and learning at the same time though I’m not so sure they find heroes, friends maybe.