Saturday, October 27, 2018

The Cheyenne Social Club


The Cheyenne Social Club is a 1970 western comedy film directed and produced by Gene Kelly and starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Shirley Jones and Sue Ane Langdon. Set in 1867, it's about an aging cowboy, John O'Hanlan who inherits a brothel and decides to turn it into a respectable boarding house, against the wishes of both the townspeople and the ladies working there.

O'Hanlan (Stewart) and Harley Sullivan (Fonda) leave their jobs working on open cattle ranges in Texas to make the 1,000 mile trek to Cheyenne. Along the way, they engage in quite an interesting conversation, except it's Sullivan who does most of the talking.

Harley Sullivan: "I remember when I was about twelve years old. My daddy asked me, he says, 'What do you want to be when you grow up, Little Harley?' And like a fool, I said a cowboy. I've been making wrong moves ever since."

Harley Sullivan: "Did I ever tell ya how my Uncle Charlie got stoved up?"
John O'Hanlan: "No, Harley."
Harley Sullivan: "His home set right out in the prarie. One day he went in the outhouse and got caught right in the middle of a stampede. When he went in there wasn't a cow in sight. A few minutes late 365 longhorns ran over him. Broke him up something terrrible. That was nineteen years ago and he's still constipated."

John O'Hanlan: "Harley, did you ever get married?"
Harley Sullivan: "Yes, John, I did."
John O'Hanlan: "Well, I never knew it."
Harley Sullivan: "Well, John, it ain't something I like to talk about, but I was married once. And once is enough for any man. You can't smoke, chew, dip, drink, scratch in the parlor, or cuss. When you leave the house, they ask you where'd you go. And when you come home, they ask you where have you been. And right now with you, it is just like when I was married."
John O'Hanlan: "Why, how is that, Harley?"
Harley Sullivan: "Well, John, when a woman's talking to you, you can be pretty sure that she thinks she's in control. And when she's not talking to you, you can be pretty certain you're in control. Take Helen. She had flame red hair, pitch black eyes, ruby lips and no teeth - but talk about a body! She could straddle two horses at the same time. I went with her until I found out she dipped snuff. There's something awful unfemale about a snuff dipper - don't you think so, John?"

John O'Hanlan: "Harley, I want you to do me a favor. Don't ever tell anyone here in Cheyenne I voted Democratic. You'll do that for me, won't you?"
Harley Sullivan: "If you say so."
John O'Hanlan: "Thank you."
Harley Sullivan: "John, you don't mind if I still vote Democratic, do you?"
John O'Hanlan: "Just so long as you're not seen with me when you do it. Be bad for business."

John O'Hanlan: "What are you lookin' at?"
Harley Sullivan: "You."
John O'Hanlan: "Why?"
Harley Sullivan: "I don't know. You look different some how."
John O'Hanlan: "What do you mean different?"
Harley Sullivan: "John, its kind of hard for me to put my finger on."
John O'Hanlan: "Well, try Harley. Use 'em all."

Harley Sullivan: "Hank Jameson had fourteen brothers and sisters. She only had three toes on her left foot. I remember one day..."
John O'Hanlan: "Harley, who only had three toes on her left foot?
Harley Sullivan: "Hank's sister, Cora B. Cora B. Jameson was her name. Folks used to pay her to take her shoe off."

Harley Sullivan: You just ain't the man you was yesterday. At least ways not from where I stand."
John O'Hanlan: "Well, maybe you're not standin' in the right place Harley! What do you mean I'm not the man today I was yesterday?"
Harley Sullivan: "Just, like you lost yourself when you took a bath!"

Fonda drones on and on as the pair travel across the vast Western landscape, about his family and dogs and heaven knows what all else. Finally...

John O'Hanlan: “You know where we are now, Harley?”
Harley Sullivan: “Not exactly.”
John O'Hanlan: “We’re in the Wyoming Territory and you’ve been talkin’ all the way from Texas.”
Harley Sullivan: “Just been keepin’ you company.”
John O'Hanlan: “I appreciate it, Harley, but if you say another word the rest of the day I’m gonna kill you.”

Friday, October 12, 2018

William Christian Shearer Was Well Respected

My 4th great-grandfather, William Christian Shearer's, roots can be traced back to Northern Ireland. According to the 1938 book, "A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky, 1800 -1900," by Augusta Phillips Johnson, sometime around 1740, four brothers: George, John, William, James, and their families came to America from near Ulster, Ireland.

William settled in what became Wilkes County, N.C., where, according to Geni.com, his son, William Christian Shearer, served with the 16th Regiment during the American Revolution. It says after migrating to Wayne County, KY around 1812, he and his son, Jacob, ran a freight line that transported household goods, machinery and merchandise between Monticello and Louisville. It said that he was educated and well liked in the community and that he set up and conducted the first Bible study class in Wayne County.


William was married twice, first to Hannah Hoover, who died in North Carolina, then to Sallie Walters. He reportedly had numerous children with both wives. His son, Daniel, was the father of Margaret Shearer Huffaker. Her daughter, Hettie, married U.S. "Grant" Frost. They were the parents of my grandmother, Vada Boles. Christian and his son, Jacob, and Christian's wife, Sallie, are all buried at Bethesda Cemetery. Christian's granddaughter, Margaret, and her husband, Henry Clay Huffaker, my great, great-grandparents, are also buried at Bethesda Cemetery.

Chapter five of the book, "A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky, 1800 -1900," tells that in 1828, Christian Shearer's son, Daniel, my 3rd great-grandfather helped to build a church at Pleasant Bend, now Cooper. In the book, author Augusta Phillips Johnson wrote that Daniel's son, Adam Napolean Shearer, then a lad of nine, remembered going with his father to do this. They called it the Church of Christ. In 1852, they organized and planned to build a church in Shearer Valley. The Civil War came on and this house was not completed until the war was over, but enough was done that the soldiers camped in it during the war. This house stands yet, and members of the Church of Christ meet there for worship. Jenkins Shearer, and later Daniel Shearer, preached in this church. Daniel B. Shearer was born on May 12, 1791 and died on April 21, 1865, at the age of 73. He and his wife, Margaret Vickery Shearer, are buried at Shearer Valley Cemetery.


Sunday, October 7, 2018

Be A Winner!


Remember the football gag where Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she will hold a football while he kicks it?

"KICK THE FOOTBALL, CHARLIE BROWN!"

At first, he refuses because he doesn't trust her. Eventually, she talks him into it and, just as he is about to kick the ball, Lucy picks it up.

"AAUGH!"

...yelled Charlie Brown as he went flying through the air, followed by...

"WHAM!"

...as he hit the ground.

The message was clear...

"DON'T GIVE UP!"

While Charlie Brown may not have ever kicked the football held by Lucy, he never stopped trying.

So it is with life, where the impossible can become possible if we are determined enough to not quit.

Never stop trying...a quitter never wins, but a winner never quits.

Be a winner!

YOU CAN DO IT!

Monday, October 1, 2018


Life is not measured by the amount of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."

Such was the moment that day as I walked across the parking lot of the grocery store when - above the hustle and bustle of the busy street that lay behind me, above the noise of the shoppers walking to and fro from the store in front of me - suddenly, I heard the voice of a child calling out my name over and over again.

I looked toward the store in front of me and saw nothing. I looked toward the street behind me and saw nothing, I looked to my left and still nothing. I thought that perhaps the voice I had heard was only my imagination, that is until I looked to my right.

Across the street in the school yard there had to be at least a hundred kids enjoying recess and, right in the midst of all those children, I saw one solitary outstretched arm reaching up toward the sky and the hand that was attached to it was waving frantically at me!

It was then that I realized the voice calling out my name belonged to my niece, Chrissy. My first thought was, "My, what great eye sight you have!" My second thought was, "My, what a great set of lungs you have!" Better to love me with, I decided, as I held up both my arms and frantically waved back to her. I smiled as I turned to walk toward the store, wiping away a couple of tears as I went inside.

Later, as I recalled that wonderful event, I remembered something I once read by the Italian poet, Cesare Pavese: "We do not remember days, we remember moments." What happened that day with Chrissy was one of those moments.

Unexpected, but pleasurable.

Long may our Land be Bright with Freedom's Holy Light

Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, but after voting to approve it, a draft do...