ROAD STORIES
BRUCE DERN SHAVING MY LEGS
I am not one of those people who has ever been at a cross road. My roads have always crossed over. .
I was in my very early teens I'd have to look up the year another of those crossovers. My moms sisters boy died that yearIt was the same year the movie The Cowboys with John Wayne and Bruce Dern was being filmed. in their hometown..
My mom loaded six of the seven of us kids in the big cruiser , panelled staionwagon with the facing rear seat and aircon my dad bought for her to fit us all for our annual summer western tour. We hit every state west of the Missisippi River. My mom ran the Miss American state final pageants along the way and scouted Texas Cowgirl team member possibilites.
This years tour was routed to spend time in Pagosa Springs ,Colorado where my Aunt Maimie Ruth and Uncle Doug lived with their kids, at the base of Wolf Creek pass on the continenatl divide. . The Cowboys movie was on location for the summer being filmed there. This was not known by me until I was already in town.
On the road along the way my mom would plant the six of us in double feature movies in towns along the road while she went to view potential Texas Cowgirls showing her what they had. We were always at the pageants helping with choreography ,selling tickets and program books ,setting up ballrooms or running the interview times.Even at 10 or 13 we had some responsibility.. At four my brother Kirk knew how to find his way from a hotel pool to our room or get ice at the icemaker and back to saftey. My little sister Beth on the other hand consitantly asked if we were still in the United States with every hotel we landed in. We'd stay in hotels across every state from spring to summer, along the way.
The Hotels my dad and mom's pagents were in comped our room and room service usually the exclusive Presidentail Suite. Like the one in the Brown Palace in Denver with lit dressing rooms and white gloved servers standing by our room service table.
I had decided to stay longer in Pagosa with my sister Julie my brothers Todd, Scott . My mom took the littler two Beth Ann and Kirk Douglas on the road with her. to go on to California Nevada Oregon and Idaho.My mom would come back and get the rest of us for Washington ,Wyoming Montana ,Utah and the Dakotas.
I had just started shaving my legs . My mom told me not to "because stubble would not be pretty on my skinny athletic limbs banged up from horse riding and mini bike accidents". So I had a few weeks or hairy outgrowth and my cousin Bobby Forrest Lynch decided it was time to give in and share his shaving razor with me. He took me horse back riding, to his band jams and trout fishing. He was working as an assistant on the movie set he had the responsibility of giving John Wayne his favorite donuts he had flown in from his favorite bakery. The boys in the movie stayed in a little motel right across the street from my aunt and uncles house.
I had a feverish crush on local boy Eppifanio Trilljillo . He was 16 long black hair ,road a bycycle and the rumor had it robbed the grocery store for drugs. I'd follow him everywhere sun up to sun down. The carnival was in town, the 4th of July Rodeo and the movie set and Eppifanio .
The actor Bruce Dern ran every morning at at 7 a.m. . faithfully then showed up to shoot hoops with my two little brothers 10 and 9 waiting with basketball in hand at the outdoor court at the highschool. I'd tell Bruce Dern about our life and he'd say "would be a great movie your life, is hang onto it" . That was one of my crossovers I knew then at 12 or 13 I'd meet the right hollywood person when the years had filled more storyline and we had all lived more.
Summers were magic visiting 22 states in 3 months
No comments:
Post a Comment