I Shot an Arrow…

Here's a picture of me (recently fallen out of a photo album) that captures some of the zeitgeist of the 1960s. I'm pretty sure this was taken at 1000 Acres Dude Ranch (though they call it a horse ranch now). I'd be stuck there for much of the summer, anxious to get back to my comic book and monster magazine racks and color television (a Sony Trinitron). I remember one summer I almost missed a critical Fantastic Four issue with the Silver Surfer and Galactus, but, luckily, when I got back home from the ranch, the corner luncheonette, which was awesome for getting my monthly comic and magazine fix, had been closed for vacation too. I didn't miss the issue! It was still on the rack waiting for me.

But the ranch wasn't all that boring for a Brooklyn kid. I learned how to shoot an arrow, row a boat, play pool, tilt a mean pinball, play ping pong and shuffle board, and ride a horse without falling off. Getting on was always a challenge, and one fine day a horse stepped on my foot and refused to move. Man, that hurt like a son of a… All of that was fun (sort of) but my point is more related to those arrows and bow in the photo. I'm pretty young there.  Those arrows were steel tipped. I shot them into fabric targets wrapped around straw, about 10 or more feet away. No fencing, no protections for bystanders or passersby, and I'm, like I said, pretty young there. If that doesn't say much about where we've been and how paranoid and litigious we've become, I can't think of a better illustration. I also remember one summer when I walked into the ranch's management office and up to the counter. I asked for the bow and arrows  and was told they had discontinued it. Some idiot kid had aimed the wrong way and that was that. He ruined it for the rest of us. 

And isn't that always the case? It's always some idiot messing up the good stuff for the rest of us; or complaining about the good stuff and how evil the rest of us are for liking it; or preaching about how bad the good stuff is for the rest of us and we must return to the light. Seems there are a lot more idiots these days than back in the 1960s. I miss the comic and magazine rack. I miss Joe's corner luncheonette. But mostly I miss the good stuff we can't have anymore because of so many idiots now ruining it for the rest of us. 

Perhaps that's why I like horror movies so much. It's pretty much the only genre where the idiots always get their due. Go monsters!