Yeah, I've had that "Indian burn" twist on my forearm. Hurt like hell.
Shane is a good name. I remember Alan Ladd as "Shane" in the movie of the same name.
Boys in the 1950s saw all kinds of masculine black and white movies that inspired us. "Shane" was one of them. "Don't go, Shane!" We all identified with that kid.
At the same time, we had some black and white cowboy movies that caused us no end of trauma. For me, it was one where Jack Palance was a bad guy who met his end at the business end of a pitchfork inside a barn. I mean, did I really need to see him get impaled by a pitchfork against the inside of a barn wall?
Damn.
I do have a good Jack Palance story, however. Back when I worked for Bolthouse Farms, we were subleasing acreage to a company, based in the mountains up in Tehachapi, that grew sod for sale to the big box stores who then sold it to homeowners and landscapers.
The guys who owned the company took me and my supervisor out to lunch. They were going to sublease quite a bit of acreage out in the Lancaster/Palmdale area of Los Angeles County from us. They wanted the property that we had recently converted to pivot irrigation. The Lancaster/Palmdale area is quite windy and carrot acreage, once planted with those millions of tiny seeds, has to stay moist and pivots can move back and forth and keep freshly planted acreage moist. Carrot seed is tiny and is planted only 1/4 inch below the surface of the soil. Once you put water on the seeded acreage, it has to stay moist to germinate. If it gets hot and/or windy, the soil and seed can dry out and the seed will die and there goes your crop.
So, we are at lunch with these guys and they start to talk about Cummings Valley up near the Tehachapi State Prison. That's their main growing acreage and they need to expand. Everyone knows everyone in Cummings Valley. One of the residents was Jack Palance. They got along just fine with Jack. Jack was married and would sometimes get a bit sideways with his wife. One time, the two sod partners were having lunch at Jack's house. Sandwiches and a few beers. Jack's wife walks in with a 10 pound bag of kibble for their two huge dogs that were inside the house. She cuts the top of the bag of kibble open and pours it all out on the floor. The dogs start in on it. Jack turns to the guys and says, "That's how she likes to feed the dogs."
She sits down with Jack and they guys and she and Jack start knocking more than a few beers back. They get into a loud argument and Jack says, "Fuck it! Let's go, guys!" The guys follow Jack outside and Jack says, "I'll see you guys later. I'm headed for the other side of the Valley!"
The guys leave in their pickup and Jack peels rubber out of his place. I'll call it "Ranch House A," because there is a "Ranch House B" on the other side of Cummings Valley. When Jack and the wife get into a nasty spat, one of them will leave and go to their other house at the other end of the Valley for a few days. One of them will move back in with the other one after a few days. Two houses. One leaves when things get hot. No violence that way. I guess that's one way to handle an argument.
Cummings Valley. There is Cummings Mountain up there, as well, I met the men of the Cummings family back in the early 80s. The son that I met was in banking. He was having a party up at his family ranch. My first wife and I went to the party and I got to meet his father. He was a silver-haired cattle rancher. Compact. Well-built. No fat on him. I wandered through the house and saw his diploma from St. Mary's College in Moraga (East Bay not far from Oakland). My son is an alum. I saw him in his football uniform. This was back when St. Mary's was a respectable football power.
I saw the team photo with their coach. It said "Slip Madigan." Slip played for Rockne at ND.
Slip also took that team back to New York and beat a well-respected Fordham, that featured the "Seven Blocks of Granite," a line that included Vince Lombardi.
I spoke with Mr. Cummings about his days at St. Mary's. He loved Madigan. I felt quite at home up at the Cummings Ranch that day, talking about football and Slip Madigan and Notre Dame.
Sometimes, when the weather is clear and I can see Cummings Mountain peek through our Valley haze, it doesn't take much for my mind to think of Rockne and his wide, wide influence, even all the way to Cummings Valley.