Little Joe Had A Lot of Hair

Happened to be flipping by MeTV  and Bonanza came on. It was the one where Lorne Greene gets shot in the back and Little Joe has to confront his assailants.

"That dude has a lot of hair," Jake said as he walked in. "How old is this show?"

"The 60's," I said.

"That's ridiculous," Jake answered. "Everyone on the show is dead."

"So," I said. "It's still a good story."

I figured that Jake would wander off, but since he was in the mood to eat a meal in between his meals, he sat down.

Little Joe was pissed, of course, and he spoke of honor and God and doing what was right in the name of all that was great.

"A little corny, don't you think?" Jake asked.

The show was nearing its conclusion but the commercial for Rawhide, which was to follow came on.

"Oh good, black and white," Jake said. "Was this the first show ever. Clint Eastwood's name flashed across the screen.

"He's 3/4s dead too," Jake said.

"Yeah. That's how it works," I said. "You live, do your work and then die."

"But why would you watch this?"

I laughed.

"It brings back memories."

And it does. Nights of everyone sitting around the television because we had the choice of about three shows. There was one television. We all had our favorites.

When we were kids we all liked to actually play Bonanza once in awhile when we were outside. Everyone's favorite was Hoss, but Little Joe was the cool one. We all knew that the guy who played Hoss, Dan Blocker, had died young.

I also remember that I used to be Candy, sometimes, back when we recreated an episode. I didn't like Candy. I didn't even know how he fit into the family scheme.

"It's horrible," Jake said as he watched. "The background isn't even real!"

And it certainly did look more like a television set than a wide open prairie.

"I used to watch it with my Dad," I said. "And you know what he'd say when I talked through the episode?"

"What?" Jake asked.

"He'd say, 'Get the hell out of here!'l

Jake laughed.

We watched Little Joe finish it all up peacefully. Ben got to his feet and hugged his boy for standing up for him.

"Oh, Thank God," Jake said.

Yeah.

Little Joe had a lot of hair.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Suits

My Buddy, Dave

Hot & Dusty