“Out of the blue of the western sky come…Sky King”.
Right now it is 80° with the whiff of a breeze from the north window behind me. The sun is out, but it will play peek-a-boo all day. Last night was cool by comparison. It got down to the high 60’s which was a delight. Tonight will be similar. The sloth in me is strong today because every other day this week I have toiled. I have dusted, swept the deck twice, cleared rooms and vacuumed. I don’t know where these sudden bursts of energy originate, but I want to put a stop to them.
When I was a kid, my favorite cereal was Rice Krispies. I really did like the snap, crackle and pop. On Saturdays, I’d sit on the floor in front of the TV with my cereal bowl in hand and watch some of my favorite programs. I do not love westerns, but I did as a kid. I loved The Lone Ranger and his “fiery horse with the speed of light.” Every now and then I still watch it. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were both singing cowboys. Hopalong Cassidy wasn’t. Another sort of western was Sergeant Preston of the Canadian Mounted Police. I remember his dog Yukon King and his horse Rex. I also remember I learned where the Yukon is. “Hey, Wild Bill, wait for me,” was Jingles’ call at the start of Wild Bill Hickok. I loved Cisco and Pancho. Cisco had the best clothes, especially a beautiful embroidered sombrero. Pancho had a thick accent. They were desperados wanted by the authorities, but Cisco was a sort of western Robin Hood helping the downtrodden. I watched them all: Annie Oakley, Fury, Rin Tin Tin and the flying cowboy of sorts, Sky King.
It was Saturday morning in the 1950’s when I first fell in love with black and white science fiction. Captain Midnight and his sidekick Ichabod Mudd, with two d’s, was a favorite. There were old movie serials like Gene Autry and The Phantom Empire. I remember the long, long elevator to the subterranean civilization under his ranch. I watched every episode. Even back then, I willingly suspended disbelief.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 21, 2024 at 11:06 am
Hi Kat,
When I was about 7 or 8 I was hot for Sky King’s niece, Penny. Of course I was also hot for his early series airplane, a Cessna AT-17 Bobcat and in later episodes his Cessna 310.
July 21, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Hi Bob,
It was the plane I loved. All the other westerns were basically the same. This one was wonderfully different.