He rode tall in the saddle through Dodge City

Published 5:47 pm Tuesday, September 6, 2005

By Staff
You know you are getting old when you come in to work after watching a good portion of the Gunsmoke marathon over the weekend and the "youngsters" at the paper say "Isn't Matt Dillon an actor?"
The theme of the old Gunsmoke shows didn't seem to vary. there was a good guy - the law played by James Arness.
His sidekick never carried a gun and seemed to mumble the words out when the Marshall was needed as a fight was about to break out in the Longbranch saloon. Chester, Dennis Weaver, said he came up with the stiff leg routine never dreaming he would be dragging around his leg for nine years while the series was filmed.
There was Doc who patched up those who were lucky enough to actually live after they were shot. Oh, he also continually saved Dillon who must have had dozens of bullets in him and knife wounds.
Young boys probably enjoyed watching the show to see Miss Kitty and her girls from the Longbranch.
If Miss Kitty and Matt had ever decided to marry the show probably would have been ruined. I can just see her making him wipe his feet before coming into the house. She would have stopped him from going off on his buckskin horse to chase the bad guys.
Then who would have kept all those cowboys who never seemed to have a job and just drank in the saloon and shot off their guns for fun under control.
There were also the real evil cowboys who killed innocent women, stole cattle and had no conscience.
Those men were usually brought back into town slung over their saddle.
The undertaker always seemed to be busy.
During the marathon of shows one after another, there were some made after the television series had been over. Arness was old and withered and Miss Kitty, Amanda Blake, showed some lingering signs of a stroke she had in her real life.
They still didn't so much as kiss, but we learned old Matt had fathered a child with a woman who found him wounded and unable to know his name.
Now the daughter was 21 and in trouble and needed saving from an Indian who wished to bring her back to his tepee as his bride.
Maybe the shows back in my time also had there share of violence only the gunfire wasn't quite as loud and the blood was in black and white. Instead of cars crashing, horses fell.
Ah the good old days.