Get 'Em Up, Scout

You know who you are:
Heading to Texas any day now.
Didn't tell you about the firearms, did I? They arrived. Acoupla Airsofts. An American-designed, history-endorsed Colt 25 pistol and some German-designed/EU-endorsed M41A rifle. They're not electric or gas fired. They're simple spring actions. Basic. Low cost. Plastic. Entry level replicas. The Colt shoots bbs about 25 yards. The rifle shoots them farther. Or as the box proclaims [bbs]: Fly More Farther. Thought these'd come in handy on the road, along the borderlands, in west Texas, at Big Bend. We could play Cattleman and Rustler or Border Patrol and Dope Smuggler or American Psychopath and Hapless Camper or Walker, Texas Ranger and Bad Guy or Cowboy and Indian.

Not that I'm into role play.

Or, speaking of Indians, June is Ida Lupino month on Turner Classic Movies and I TiVo'd many and was watching some one of her old movies the other night -- Lust For Gold -- takes place in Arizona in the 1940's with flashbacks to the late 1800's -- with the same lust in both centuries -- and along with the ageless, ever-flawless Lupino there was a never-ever-looked-better Glenn Ford playing a handsome, if conflicted, b-a-d man and a very very young Jay Silverheels playing an unconflicted and handsome good man. Uncredited, I think, was Mr. Silverheels. Didn't see him in the rolling credits anyway. Figures.

I didn't recognize Silverheels' young face at first, but the voice was unmistakable, bearing tidings from my childhood. Hey, that's Tonto. That's Jay Silverheels. Was fun to see him there sans buckskin, sans aboriginal garb, pre-Ranger, pre-Clayton Moore, pre-sidekick, pre-Scout with a decent sized cinematic part as a supporting player with no big deal made of his nativity. Silverheels sported jeans and a shirt (that is, nothing to indicate otherness) throughout the movie and with the scripted, Anglo, Gringo, pale-faced, round-eyes, Christian name of Walter, worked -- as a Deputy -- in the 1940's Tuscon sheriff's department -- so he probably carried a gun onscreen but truly I don't remember.

Anyway Kemo Sabe, back to you heading west and me heading east and the twain meeting up in El Paso and heading down the rio (Americano side) and being armed: this Colt's not much use for target practice with these little yellow or green, breeze-buffeted 6mm plastic bbs. Spring action velocity is so slow you can pretty much watch the trajectory and the ricochet and then go scoop up the just-shot shot out of the dirt or the lawn and re-magazine it. Don't want to waste any ammo, having only 8 or 9 thousand rounds to fire. Uh huh.

If you don't meet me in El Paso Del Norte, not to worry, I'll still be armed when I roll into your driveway. We can shoot at each other around the pool, no doubt. Going from memory now, but as I recall your derriere -- even poolside, even moving, even speedo'ed up -- will make a better target than that dart board tacked to my back fence just beyond those plants. And I know you've wanted to zero in on me since you were a kid back on the isthmus aiming your sure shot rough at all your elders. That inter-generational warring never ends, sonny. I'm betting these pellets will sting good and leave some nice bunz welts. Watch the eyes, hey.

The Airsofts weren't the first purchases I made for the road trip, but they're the one's I'm using the most before packing up and heading out. Practice may make perfect but not yet. I aim for but never hit the pots holding the plants here in my back yard but I do hit the fence behind those plants every time. Wonder, does Airsoft replicate the appropriately west Texasy road trip-worthy Winchester -- better yet, do they replicate that modified repeater Lucas McCain used in The Rifleman? Guess I got more shopping to do.