The Ocoee Ranger page 4                                                                                                                                     July 2007

SHOOT RESULTS

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Volume 5, Issue No. 7                                July 2007

What Happens When It Rains?

What happens?  Shucks, cowboys & cowgirls get wet.  And before the July Shoot, it rained buckets – it really poured. But it stopped just before a delayed registration, and it didn’t rain during the shoot.  It looked like it would, but it didn’t. And Ol’ T-Bones’ scenarios were good, even if several of us had procedurals.

There was a bit of oratory from that silver-tongued devil Owlhoot Hardin. He made his pitch thusly (How’s that for a lead-in Owlhoot?): “Several of us would like to shoot black powder duelist and have it recognized.” Then he said that the illustrious shooters for that day included himself, Kenesaw & Long Gulch. Impressed by his oratory, and by the fact that there were 3 shooters who would shoot BP Duelist, Deadman spouted an eloquent answer: “Ok.”

And following the 3 P’s, shooting began: (Pledge, Prayer & Posse Assignment). All totaled, 47 shooters participated. There would have been 2 more, but 2 had to leave just before shoot time.

L-R: Owlhoot Hardin & Kenesaw demonstrate deadly determination as Black Powder Duelists

The Buffalo Shooters gathered, as usual, but it was raining. Either they didn’t shoot, didn’t bother to record results, or didn’t report results. S.A. Pondwater was the Top Gun of the day, shooting Modern.  Only 2 cowgirls participated in the shoot, Yazoo City Gal and Last Kiss, both shooting Lady Gunfighter:  Last Kiss placed 1st. The Top 10 Shooters were as follows: (1) S.A. Pondwater (2) Rusty Spur Slim (3) Marshal Too Tall (4) Unpleasant (5) Ocoee Red (6) Judge’m All Duncan (7) Pleasant (8) Double Eagle (9) Tabasco JOT (10) Lightning McCoy. Did you note that there are 2 father-son teams in the Top 10 shooters: S.A. Pondwater and Tabasco JOT; Unpleasant & Pleasant.

12 cowboys shot no-miss matches, and 4 of them were in the Top 10 Shooters: S.A. Pondwater, Marshal Too Tall, Judge’m All Duncan, and Lightning McCoy. The other no-miss cowboys were: T-Bone Angus, Grey Rider, Wildcat Wilkey, Tennessee Hawk, Deadman, Owlhoot Hardin, Calibre .45, and Outlaw Tracker.

Did any other significant event happen? You bet. Big was back.  He’d had a heat related injury at an Oak Ridge shoot a couple of months ago and had to be hospitalized.  But he’s back in the saddle.  Ol’ Linc was present, although he’s scheduled for surgery on Aug. 7. Keystone reported that Dagnabit Deb is making progress in her chemo treatment, although she couldn’t be present. And then to consider something a bit more light-hearted: Pleasant showed up WITHOUT HIS BEARD! Yep! He’d had

Pleasant –

The Beardless Cowboy

it 14 years and then said, “Good bye Beard.” Why? Here’s how he explained it: “My wife said it scratches.” He may not be macho, but he sure knows his priorities.  Mesquite Millie commented: “You look a lot younger without it.” And getting rid of it didn’t hurt his shooting: he placed 7th in overall competition and 1st among the Gunfighters

Good Bye, Buckshot

L-R: Pleasant & Buckshot

Shortly before the July Shoot, we learned that Buckshot, AKA James Allen Ware, joined the posse in the sky on February 5, 2007.  Buckshot’s been an Ocoee Ranger in spirit for years, but his health hasn’t allowed him to shoot with us since 2000. He’s kept up with us through our newsletter.

Buckshot’s wife, Jean, informed us about his passing and said that she has his gun cart that he never got to use in competition, and she’d like to sell it.  If you’re interested in buying it, call Jean at 423-472-4336.

Good bye, Buckshot. You were a good cowboy.

Linc – Ailing Cowboy

Linc – Miracle Cowboy

Linc has received bad news from his doctor.  He’s scheduled to have cancer surgery on August 7th.He and his better half, Nancy, have asked that they be remembered in your prayers

Linc is 1 of our Miracle Cowboys. That means that he is a regular cowboy who sets up the range on Fridays, before we shoot on Saturdays.  Some folks probably think every month a miracle occurs, and the targets just appear on the range.  Well, it ain’t so. Linc and his pardners perform the Miracle.

SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – S.A. Pondwater

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                                 July 2007

THE REAL WEST   –  Lillie Langtry   (1853 – 1929)

Lillie Langtry

What do you know about Lillie Langtry?  If you’re like me, probably not much beyond that she was English, an actress and the apple of Judge Roy Bean’s eye. So, here’s the scoop, briefly and a bit flippantly told.

Lillie Langtry was born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton on the Isle of Jersey in 1853. Her papa was a high-level minister, religious type.  Her mama was an attractive lady with good social skills, who supported Lillie’s papa in his socializing church duties. And Lillie? Well, she was the only girl among 6 brothers.  So, she grew up a scrapper with a mind of her own.  She read a lot. So, not only was she educated and smart, she had lots of opinions and wasn’t shy in sharing them with others. And she was attractive.  Shucks, when she was 14, she received her 1st marriage proposal.  But she was too young, and her suitor was out of luck. 

In 1874, when Lillie was 20, she married her favorite brother’s wife’s brother-in-law, Edward Langtry. Ed was a plump and pompous widower and not the greatest of folks, but he had a real nifty yacht. And he appeared to be wealthy. He was husband material.

It didn’t take long for Lillie to discover that she really didn’t care much for Ed. After a personal illness, she convinced ol’ Ed that she’d be much healthier in London. So, he sold his boat and took her to the big city, where she plunged into London society and the whing-dings that went with it. All the guys noticed her, and she became a hit.  Shucks, several artists convinced her to model for them, and she appeared in several of their paintings. One of them, John Everett Millais, painted her holding a Jersey lily and titled his portrait, The Jersey Lily.  And from that she acquired her famous title, the Jersey Lily.

The Jersey Lily –

by John Millais

Artists weren’t the only fellers who noticed Lillie. Several rich fellers also noticed her. And she had several flings.  That means she messed around with fellers that weren’t her husband. Before long, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria, and future King Edward VI, took a shine to her, and she became his mistress for a time.  When that ended, she became the companion of other wealthy fellers. In 1880, Ed Langtry declared bankruptcy.  But that didn’t matter.  Lillie had been using her likeness in early day commercials, selling soap and stuff, and doing a little theater.  Then, she took up with Prince Louis of Battenberg, and sometime thereafter, she got pregnant. Of course in them days, unwed births weren’t as acceptable as they are now a days.  So, Lillie’s daughter was raised by Lillie’s mother and grew up thinking Lillie was her aunt. She only learned the truth shortly before she was married.  But that didn’t matter.  Evidently she didn’t cotton to Lillie as and aunt and didn’t like her any better as a birth mother.  Such is life.

Remember, Lillie was a smart gal.  She became an actress, banking on her looks, figure, and fellers hoping for a glimpse of her legs when she was in costume.  Later, she went to acting school and became a real, talented actress.  And over the years, she grew wealthy.  She managed theaters, had her own theater company, bought racehorses and California vineyards.  And she even broke the bank in Monte Carlo.  From her enterprises, Lillie became a multi-millionaire.

Somewhere along the way, Lillie divorced Ed Langtry, and when she was 45, she married Hugo de Bathe.  Hugo, ain’t that a fine name, was 18 years younger than her and some sort of nobleman.  He convinced her to retire from acting and to sell her racehorses.  It just didn’t look seemly for his wife to be acting and racing horses.  Then he packed his gear and trotted off to fight in the Boer War in South Africa.  And Lillie, being an independent female, promptly came out of retirement and came back to the U.S. to do another very successful theater tour. Their marriage, such as it was, lasted for 30 years, with both largely going their own ways.  In 1907, Hugo’s pappy died and he inherited his pap’s title and became Sir Hugo. That made Lillie, Lady de Bathe.

In 1904, Lillie was on 1 of her American tours and stopped at Langtry Texas to meet Judge Roy Bean, who for years had sent her letters and had named his saloon after her: the Jersey Lilly.  Unfortunately, ol’ Roy had died about 10 months earlier.  He died with her memory, and she went away with his six-shooter: some friendly townsman gave it to her. Lillie died in 1929, the same year that Wyatt Earp died.  Both had lived exciting lives and are still remembered.

Ok.  Technically, Lillie wasn’t an Old West character. But you can’t consider Roy Bean and not hear about Lillie Langtry, the Jersey Lily.  And face it. Most of us know little or nothing about her.  But … she’s part of the myth of the West.

Shoot Results – June 2007

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Volume 5, Issue No. 6                                               June 2007

Roma Jane Shoots Clean, Dajango Slim Says, “Adios” & Lightning McCoy Kicks The Bucket At The June Shoot

The June shoot was a hum-dinger. There were lots of steel bad guys to shoot, on 1 stage each shooter could choose to shoot from close up or back a ways, and Roma Jane shot her 1st no miss match as an Ocoee Ranger.  It was a good day.  Unfortunately, 1 of our regular shooters said “Good bye”.  Dajango Slim is moving to Athens – Georgia, not Greece. And that’s a bit far to commute. We’ll miss him. But he says he’s not giving up Cowboy Shooting.  He’ll just have to do it some-where else.

Roma Jane Didn’t Miss

Dajango Slim Says Good Bye

Sometimes unexpected things happen at matches. Right off the bat, Lightning McCoy kicked the bucket. No, he ain’t dead. He was just clumsy, and kicked 1 of the stage buckets – accidentally. Dustin Clays quickly remarked, “I can see the newsletter now. Lightning kicks the bucket.”  Well, if he reads this, he’ll see it. Festus D. Deputy also wanted to go on record. At stage 3, each shooter could shoot targets from a short distance or a longer distance.  It seems that Festus shot his from the longer distance.  He said “(Marshal) Too Tall chickened (that ain’t the real word, but it’s close) out and shot’em from up close.  And he still beat me by only a couple of seconds.”  Giving shooters a choice to shoot long or short was a terrific idea.  Hopefully, we’ll see it again.

You’ve gotta load’em before you shoot’em.  L-R: Tio Don, Last Kiss & Tenn Critr.

Are these patriotic cowboys, or what?

If you were not at the shoot, we dispensed with awarding certificates in a group gathering.  They were presented individually as shooters registered to shoot.  And we didn’t do a lot of announcements.  And Deadman got busy earlier assigning posses. And we finished somewhere around 2:00 – 2:30 pm.  Simply stated, we had a terrific shoot, ended a bit earlier, and got out of the heat.  And we shot 5 complete stages while doing it. So if heat ain’t your thing, come on out and shoot with us. You can have a full shoot, a good time, and get away early.

Badlands Beck times Tennessee Tombstone shooting Outlaw

Cowboys & Cowgirl Having Lunch on the Range

How’d the shooting go? Very good. Here’s how. In the before match Buffalo Shoot, Calibre .45 won the Long Range Pistol Shoot. Kenesaw bested the other shooters in Long Range Single Shot Rifle competition.  And Marshal Too Tall won the .22 Cal. and Long Range Lever Action Rifle Shoots. Unpleasant was the main match Top Gun, and Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter. Here’s how the Top 10 Shooters stacked up: (1) Unpleasant (2) Marshal Too Tall (3) Pleasant (4) Polecat Carl (5) Dustin Clays (6) Ocoee Red (7) Festus D. Deputy (8) Tucson Tuco, (9) Cherokee Maddog and    (10) Widowmaker.  8 shooters shot Perfect Matches (no misses): Roma Jane, Marshal Too Tall, Polecat Carl, Dustin Clays, Tarantula Jack, Tucson Tuco, Awful Close and Deadman.

SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – Unpleasant … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Calibre .45 … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle –  Kenesaw … Long Range Lever Action Rifle – Marshal Too Tall

Duelist

1. Cherokee Maddog

2. Tarantula Jack

3. Horseshoe John

TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $344.17 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR CHRISTMAS SHOOT AND FAMILY EVENT.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                           June 2007

THE REEL WEST, THE REAL WEST & THE WEST

OF OUR IMAGINATION

THE REEL WEST – Strother Martin  1919 – 1980

Strother Martin

Do you remember Strother Martin?  If not, shame on you.  Strother, or T-Bone as he was nicknamed in high school, was a rascally looking little feller who frequently played shady characters.  But he made the movies he appeared in better for his contribution.

T-Bone Martin was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1919 and grew up there. Although he didn’t look like an athlete, he was a champion diver in high school.  His swimming and diving in some way resulted in his class chums giving him the nickname “T-Bone Martin”.  In WWII, Strother served as a Navy swimming instructor, and after the War, he was on the Diving Team at the University of Michigan.  Eventually, he moved to Los Angles, where he worked as a swimming instructor and as an extra doing water scenes in movies.  After a time, he began getting bit parts and then graduated to being a “character actor”, and if you’ve seen him in his movie roles, he was sure a character. 

What’s his cowboy connection?  Well, ol’ Strother’s been in a bunch of cowboy flicks, on the big screen and on TV.  He was 1 of the bounty hunters in Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH.  And he was a horse trader who had to deal with the young gal in John Wayne’s TRUE GRIT.   And he was a cantankerous mining engineer in Bolivia who hired Paul Newman and Robert Redford as payroll guards in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.  And he was 1 of the villains in Raquel Welsh and Robert Culp’s HANNIE CAULDER. And he was in a bunch of other Westerns. And on TV he appeared on GUNSMOKE. And …. You get the drift.  Strother was a busy feller. His most famous movie line was spoken in a non-Western. As the prison warden in Paul Newman’s COOL HAND LUKE, Strother said,  “What we have here is failure to communicate.”  He said that just before he had a sharp shooter shoot Luke (Newman).

Strother Martin died in 1980.  He was 61.

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Owlhoot Hardin

Owlhoot Hardin

Owlhoot Hardin is a 1-handed shooter. His philosophy is a cowboy, or cowgirl, is supposed to stand up and shoot just like John Wayne and Roy Rogers and all them other cowboys.  None of that 2-handed stuff for him. Why? Well, it just ain’t cowboy. And Owlhoot has been shootin’ cowboy for years.  He shot his 1st cowboy match in 1994 at a Mule Camp Shoot.  After that, he started working to get Cowboy Shooting started in the Knoxville area.  The 1st match there had 6 or 8 shooters.  They passed the hat and pooled saddle money and bought some targets and stuff.  And, well, today the Smoky Mountain Shootists are alive and well. In 1999, Owlhoot became their Territorial Governor.

Of course Cowboy Shootin’ ain’t the only shootin’ Owlhoot’s practiced. He’s shot Bull’s Eye and PPC and high power rifle shootin’ competition. And he’s been a shootin’ instructor in the military and for TVA.  And he’s taught Cowboy Shootin’ to some familiar cowboys: Dustin Clays, Curly Bill, Double Eagle, Fast Harley and others.

How’d he get his alias? Here’s his reasoning, when selecting his alias: an owlhoot is a low-grade criminal, and that sorta fits. So, he became Owlhoot Hardin. And as Owlhoot, he’s shot Mule Camp several times and several state shoots and a bunch of local shoots.  He prefers the state and local shoots. And he prefers something else: real, live Colt pistols.  Just look in his holsters, and you’ll see some real classy shootin’ irons.  And the feller shootin’ them is a classy feller himself. You can tell that by just lookin’ at him, if you can see him through all that smoke.  He’s become a black powder shooter.

THE REAL WEST – Mickey Free

1847 – 1915

Have you ever heard of Mickey Free? Well, if you’ve seen the 2-part TV movie MR. HORN, starring David Carradine, or taken time to read about either Tom Horn, or Al Sieber, or the Apache wars, you have.  Otherwise, you’ve probably never heard of him.

Mickey was born Felix Telles in Mexico sometime around 1847.  His papa was either Irish or part Irish and his mama was Mexican.  His papa was killed when he was still a pup, and his mama found a new feller and moved to Arizona, taking little Felix along with her. But Felix didn’t grow up to be a farmer.  Nope.  In 1861 when he was 14, a band of Apaches captured Felix.  Of course his capture led to bloody battles between the Americans and the Apaches.  While they were fighting each other, his captors traded him to a member of another tribe, the White Mountain Apaches at San Carlos Indian Reservation. The feller who traded for Felix freed him, and he was adopted as a White Mountain Apache. From his new pappy, Felix learned the skills and lifestyle of the Apache. He became, in essence, tres hombres (3 men): he spoke American, Spanish, and Apache.  Add that to his Apache skills that he’d learned, and he was well equipped to become a scout in the Apache wars between the Yankee Army and the warrior Apaches.

Sgt. Mickey Free

In 1872, Mickey became a Sergeant of Scouts.  Somewhere along the way, he’d ceased being Felix and became Mickey Free, named after a character in a then popular novel.  Mickey became 1 of Al Sieber’s scouts, and a very good one.  He was tough, he knew the Apache and the country, and he earned his pay. Folks said that Mickey was part Irish, part Mexican and all SOB.  (That last part ain’t really what they said, but it’s all the Rev. Adam Jones will let me write.)  Mickey served as a scout during various campaigns in the Apache wars, several times against Geronimo, until 1893, when the conflict ended. After that, he moved to the White Mountain Apache reservation, where he married and had a passel of young’uns. He died there in 1915.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 3                                          June 2007

Have Gun, Will Travel

Do you remember Paladin, Richard Boone’s alter ego? Well, most of us do. He’d flip out his business card, Have Gun Will Travel, pack his guns, put on his gunslick duds and hit the trail to do battle with bad guys.  That’s sorta what several Ocoee Rangers have done in the last few weeks. They’ve hit the trail to fight steel badguys. On our May shoot day, paw Pleasant and his boys, Pyro and little Unpleasant, journeyed west to Mississippi and shot in the Mississippi State Cowboy Shooting Championship with the Mississippi River Rangers. Last Kiss and her trail pardner, Fast Harley, were also shooters in that match, and so were Sheriff Donald and Deadeye Daisy. Last Kiss placed 1st in the Lady Gunfighter category. Here’s how all these Ocoee Rangers placed, in a field of 196 shooters: Unpleasant (24), Pleasant (34), Pyro (50), Fast Harley (63), Last Kiss (84), Sheriff Donald (95), and Deadeye Daisy (169).

Pleasant and Unpleasant

Last Kiss & Fast Harley

During that same week, south and east of the Missippi Shooters, several other regular Ocoee Rangers shooters helped battle steel badguys at the Shoot Out At Mule Camp, just south of Atlanta. Killin’ Time placed 1st in the Lady Duelist category, and her shootin’ pardner, Rusty Spur Slim, placed 1st in the Frontier category, shootin’ black powder and cap & ball pistols. Of course they had company from other shooters frequently seen on the Ocoee Rangers range.  Here’s how they fared in overall competition in a field of 415 shooters: Sunshine Billy (28), Widowmaker (90), Rusty Spur Slim (95), Polecat Carl (116), Tabasco JOT (123), Judge’m All Duncan (162), Wildcat Wilkey (201), and Killin’ Time (203).

A few weeks later and down south in Sorrento, Louisiana, Deadman buckled on his six-guns, drug out his double barrel shotgun and ‘73 Winchester and helped Blayde & KD Hollister, former Ocoee Rangers, and their Deadwood Marshals fight their steel outlaws. Nope, it wasn’t a championship shoot.  It was just a small Cowboy Shooting Club’s monthly shoot.  But they have an in-place small-town setup with lots of targets.  They also have a pond that sometimes has a resident alligator in it. Nope. It wasn’t there the day Deadman was in town. In a field of 17 shooters, Deadman did about normal: he was somewhere near the middle and didn’t miss any targets, although he did manage to acquire a procedural on the last stage.  But he ain’t too smart anyway; Horseshoe John and T-Bone will attest to that. Here’s how he and his young’uns placed: Blayde Hollister (5), Deadman (10), and KD Hollister (17).

The Deadwood Marshals of Sorrento, Louisiana.

Kneeling L-R:  Blayde Hollister & Deadman.  KD Hollister is standing behind Deadman. The Galvez Kid is standing in the last row at the left, wearing a white hat.

KD Holllister took a goodly amount of ribbin’.  At the May Deadwood Marshal’s shoot, she flicked the lever of her rifle while shootin’ a stage, and the hot brass went up in the air — and then down the front of her dress. She did a Cajun 2-step until she could pull her gun-belts away and let the hot cartridge fall to the ground.  1 of the cowboys kiddin’ her was the Galvez Kid. He placed 1st at the June shoot when Deadman visited them and 42nd when he shot with Last Kiss and the gang at the Mississippi State Championship shoot.

What does all this mean?  Well, it means that Cowboy Shooting is fun in lots of places, in big regional shoots – like Mule Camp, and state championship shoots – like the Mississippi State shoot, and at small monthly shoots – like the Sorrento cowboys’ / Deadwood Marshals’ shoot.