By Norman M. Covert  

(Editor’s Note: We offer a “two-fer” with this article written in answer to readers’ questions about the Roy Rogers Riders Club. The original article is included herein. We welcome your further comments.) 

My commentary Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, on guns and children at www.thetentacle.com included recollections of my dazzling Roy Rogers cowboy outfit and double pistol rig, plus the excitement of the Roy Rogers Riders Club. It sparked a request to recall the rules for young people to live by and printed on the back of the club membership card.

 Here they are: 

1. Be neat and clean.
2. Be courteous and polite.
3. Always obey your parents.
4. Protect the weak and help them.
5. Be brave but never take chances.
6. Study hard and learn all you can.
7. Be kind to animals and take care of them.
8. Eat all your food and never waste any.
9. Love God and go to Sunday school regularly.
10. Always respect our flag and our country. 

I did an on-line search and came up with a YouTube™ video of the film clip that featured Roy and Trigger welcoming us to the “meeting.”  I didn’t remember that Roy actually dismounted and had us join him in the Cowboy Prayer:

      Lord, I reckon I’m not much just by myself,
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do.
     But Lord, when trails are steep and passes high,
Help me ride it straight the whole way through.

     And when in the falling dusk I get that final call,
I do not care how many flowers they send,
     Above all else, the happiest trail would be,
For You to say to me, “Let’s ride, My Friend.”
Amen

 Club “meetings” were held in the Warwick Theater on the corner of 34th

Roy Rogers and Trigger

Street and Washington Avenue in Newport News, Va. I was reminded by Brother Harry that John Bateman, the theater manager, was probably the on-stage rah-rah guy. He appeared stage left to preside when the Roy clip ended. Events brought kids on stage to answer questions; to react to funny skits and challenges, but take home movie passes and other prizes donated by downtown sponsors.

 Harry noted that Mr. Bateman was his P.O.N.Y League baseball coach. I enjoyed tagging along for the games. The field was opposite 72nd Street/Jefferson Avenue and adjacent to the C&0 Railroad tracks.

John Bateman Sr.

Being in the theater was a treat for me because I wasn’t able to attend often. Family obligations were often an impediment on Saturday mornings. To get there, I had to link up with my neighborhood cronies Henry (Pete) Hughes, Robert (Buddy) Helterbran or David Saunders. We would hustle across the 34th Street Bridge and hope to arrive in time for the opening segment.

 Being a preacher’s kid (P.K) meant there were lots of rules to follow (aside from the Riders Club admonitions) and sometimes I “made the Cut.” Dad’s Christian zeal included set-in-stone “don’t-evers” like dancing, movies and television.

 Curiously, Dad apparently was convinced — perhaps through some revelation in his attic manse — that a more liberal attitude might be tempered by responsible execution of the rules of Christian piety. We wound up being the first family on 33rd Street to have a television, a 16-inch Admiral – but that’s another story.

 Dad never commented on my cinematic absences, perhaps looking the other way. After all, I was always at his side for annual camp meetings in Manassas, Va., and his Sunday night services of song and sermon. These provided ample opportunity to atone for straying off the straight and narrow. Dad also remembered his days as a rambunctious pre-teen and cut me a lot of slack.

 So thank you Dad, Roy, Mr. Bateman and my childhood pals. Happy Trails.

 (Contact Norman M. Covert at nmcovert77@aol.com )

 Guns, Children & Roy

Memories of Adolescent Senior Citizens

By Norman M. Covert 

(Editor’s Note: We offer a “two-fer” with this commentary and the followup article written in answer to readers’ questions about the Roy Rogers Riders Club. We welcome your further comments.) 

Frederick County (Md.) Sheriff Chuck Jenkins won’t be issuing concealed carry gun permits to my neighbors this year – probably never will, as a result of the decision to drop the proposal from the 2011 “courtesy”

Cowboy Norm

legislative package. It wasn’t going to gain traction in Annapolis anyway, considering the statewide implications.  

 The reality of the proposal, though, isn’t lost on those who view the need for Maryland to be a “shall issue” state. Self-defense should be an option considering the huge number of criminals who are armed without anyone’s permission. Their guns come with only the requirement of cash and carry.

 My first guns were faux engraved Colt Peace Maker, single-action revolvers, carried in a double holster rig. It adorned my Roy Rogers cowboy suit. I could get ammo – a roll of caps, at the grocery store after exchanging empty soda bottles for the two cents deposit fee. My neighborhood was filled with desperadoes foraging for bottles.

 Toy stores rarely stock toy guns and outfits in favor of today’s “super heroes,” none of whom use guns – lasers perhaps, but not GUNS. That would be a dangerous example to set for our innocent children.

 Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys and Silver Screen, exists now as a purveyor of roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken; Dale Evans and Trigger, “Smartest Horse in the Movies,” remain as memories of adolescent senior citizens and the growing population of Western Cowboy aficionados.

 My pals and I could escape to the movie theater “over town,” where we were card-carrying members of the Roy Rogers Riders’ Club. Excited kids took part in on-stage games, entertainment and prizes. Then came a couple of gripping movie serials to get us ready for the “feature attraction” starring such Western heroes as Roy, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Elliot, Rex Allen, Bob Steele – the stable was full of stars.

 The feature unfailingly showed a posse chasing bad guys, guns firing at will with a seemingly endless supply of ammunition. Horses never tired; good guys wore white hats, the bad guys wore black. The Western Channel rates these movies usually as “mild violence.”

 Nostalgia for the innocence of youthful fire fights is offset by the heartbreaking reality that today’s children grow up far sooner than they should. They are bombarded with multi-media broadcasts of real guns, violence and blood.

 Children in low income neighborhoods are beset by thugs of all ages, brandishing weapons that often kill innocent bystanders as well as street rivals. These drug dealers and assorted small-time criminals play a deadly game. Their arsenals include assault rifles and urban machine guns, often a step ahead of police procurement.

 Frederick is just as likely to have illegal gun violence as Baltimore, Prince Georges County, Md., or Washington, D.C. Random neighborhood shooting incidents in recent days have caused property damage, thankfully no deaths or injuries. It is probably a given that the guns were illegally obtained.

 The demand for pistols and rifles, whether for recreation, hunting or self defense has not relented among the law-abiding populace. One dealer said whenever there is an inkling of more gun ownership restriction, the public increases its demand for both firearms and ammunition.

 My first experience firing a real gun was at Camp Skimino, Va., where Boy Scout instructors introduced me to shooting and safety with a .22 cal. single-shot rifle. My country cousins dubbed me “Deadeye” for my display of erring accuracy while joining them on hunting safaris in the Virginia foothills of Orange County.

 My first gun was purchased in 1962 from the WOOLCO discount store in Hampton, Va.. The 1933 model military surplus 6.5 mm Italian Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was inexpensive and was dubbed the “firein-shpittin-loud-n-boomer.”

 The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was used in several iterations during World War II and later was weapon of choice for President John F. Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

 Those of us who co-exist safely with firearms share our joy of shooting with other law-abiding citizens and continue to be in the majority, albeit not by much in the halls of Congress or the Maryland State House. We must encourage and support legislators who understand the Second Amendment to the Constitution and, as much as anything, the threat we face from armed criminals.

 Contact Norman Covert at nmcovert77@aol.com

(This article was published in its original form on www.thetentacle.com Jan. 26, 2011 and is reprinted with permission of The Octopus™ LLC and the author.) •