It is Charlie Waters' birthday today. He would have been 72. Miss the boy.
The Seeds of Interest Lay Dormant
I had a great talk with a fellow Boomer about the current lack of interest in the Old West.
We are both impacted about it. He is the director of a history based museum and I am the editor of a history magazine. A huge part of that apathy is a direct result of the rejection of the significance of that era, based on identity politics and revenge narratives, among other trends and the key to the following quote is in the last line:
"The West is dead my friends
But the writers hold the seed
And what they sow
Will live and grow again
To all those who read."
—Charlie M. Russell
I fear the old West is going through the same changes that the native Americans were forced to travel. From being free, open and spread out, to being condensed, corralled and looked upon as leftovers that outlived their time
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see more large scale Western based theme parks open across this country, but not the new age types with their metal rides and non-educational attraction rides.
A place where you park your vehicle and walk around a village or small town, like Williamsburg, Va. A living, breathing historically correct day trip through a Western History book.
The old West isn't dead, it's simply been relocated, pushed aside,