Frontier Town

Frontier Town was one of those low tech theme parks of the 1950/60’s built to look like an old western town. Sort of a Gunsmoke in the flesh.

You basically just walked around and got to see what life was like in the old west…… (Or a TV director’s idea of what life was like in the old west ….)

You could ‘drink’ at the saloon, see the outlaws in the jail and buy ‘real western’ souvenirs at the mercantile.

There were also actors dressed in period costumes interacting with the patrons.

It was kinda cool for its day.

AND there was a ‘ride’.

A working stagecoach with six horses, a driver and a guy riding shotgun.

The premise was, you got to ride along as they delivered the payroll (a bag of 'gold dust') to the mine on the outskirts of town.

So….we all climbed up into the coach.

There must have been a few too many kids because I ended up sitting on BigBrother’s lap.

Just before they closed the door the sheriff leaned in and said, “In order to fool any bandits along the way we’re going to hide the gold in here. Let’s put it between Big Brother’s legs and you can sit on it! They’ll never look there!”

The coach took off and sure enough along came the bandits, kerchiefs over faces and all!

They harassed the driver for a minute and then they came into the coach.

They pointed their guns at us and demanded the gold sack.

Nobody moved!

Not a peep out of any of us!

I remember feeling scared but determined to protect the cache.

The ‘bandits’ threatened, yelled, bullied, pressured and cajoled, pretty much anything they thought would frighten us into giving up the goods.

One by one the other kids pointed at me and said, "She has it!”

But I wasn’t about to give it up!

And with encouragement from BigBrother I denied having it.

Finally (out of frustration I assume) one of the 'bad guys' leaned in and said, “C’mon kid! It’s all just for fun; give me the bag so we can get on with the ride!”

I stood firm!

I wasn’t going to be the one who gave away the hard working miners pay!

Finally one of the hold up men turned around, pulled down his kerchief and called into the throng of spectators, “Hey! Could the mother or father of this kid come over here and tell her this is all just make believe and to give us the bag!”

My mother stepped out of the crowd, to the laughter of the onlookers, and I guess she finally got me to give it up.

Looking back, methinks I might have been a problem child………..