![The Redditch Westerner's Trapper.](Pandoras-box/wild-west-trapper.jpg)
The Wild West, of
American legend, was a era as well as a real place. A time starting around the American
Civil War, on to the turn of the century, some where west of Kansas, Missouri to the
Pacific Ocean. There have been countless films, stories & myths of this lawless place inhabited by
pioneers of a kind, who have now passed us by. Many British people no longer
dream about their interest in this period, they actively re-enact it with a
dedication & enthusiasm. Not only re-living their heroes in real life but sharing it with
all who come to see them while raising money for charity.
My friend "Badger" & his companions, from the Redditch Westerners, are such
people. They travel all over England to join like-mined folk with a common
interest. Often setting up a Western town's main street to entertain the public
with their show, they are with
Civil War Re-enactors, Native American villages (the people we innocently called
Red Indians in our youth), mine shack & homestead tableaus'. There are fast draw
competitions where the ladies join the men, Native American dancers
communicating with their spirits & the air is
filled with the smell of black powder, as all the muskets fire off from a line of
Company E of the 1st. Maryland Regiment! Its not just cowboys
either. All those
characters you saw in "The unforgiven" or "The outlaw Josey Wales"
are there. Miners for
gold, sheriffs, dance hall girls, Sioux Indians & mountain men. Here is the
freedom to live your fantasy. You can research a person, a lifestyle or just
walk around armed to the teeth with knives big enough to chop down a pine tree.
Peacemakers, Winchesters & muskets are everywhere. People drink beer & take
Country & Western music intravenously & there is peace & welcome everywhere!
In a period where knife crime is reported as
being rife, lager louts abound & we
think gun crime stalks the towns, come visit a happy crowd of Westerners. See
the original Bowie knife hung on a handmade leather belt, gaze on a man with a Smith & Weston on one side, a
Navy Colt on the other side & a Henry Rifle in his hand. They do all the things
the West did! Eat, drink & make very merry, only this time there is gun
smoke without a hint of violence. I did see, at the Blue Rodeo show in
Stratford-upon-Avon,
a horse thief dragged out of his wife's arms & shot on the spot. Of
course, I suspect it was more for his dress code than any actual horse! I
bet there are many wondrous arguments in the beer tents or round the camp fire
in the evening. Was John Wayne's "The Searchers" better than "The Wild Bunch".
Someone will be telling someone off for wearing a time peace that didn't come
out till 1909 & he is dressed in 1889 garb. And someone will be glowing in the
knowledge he beat his best time in the Quick Draw earlier that day.
The is an air of obsession for accuracy. The people seem to be immersed in a
real single person. As if they know their name and where they came from. And there
they are, re-born & walking tall before you. Stroll by an Indian Tepee &
hear all about Running Dog & his Crow Indian family. Walk down the picket line
of the American Civil War Society members. They will be delighted to talk till
dawn about the life on either side of the conflict. You can hear of the real
hardships of settlers from Europe trying to make a better life for themselves in
a truly wild land. Battling against odds that would daunt all but the brave &
dedicated.
Many are there to see if they could beat Shane to the draw. I think there is a
huge admiration to the simpler way of life where Westerners overcame
unbelievable hardship & raised families. I suspect that the book, "Bury my heart
at Wounded Knee",
inspired many an attempt to re-create an Indian way of life. I
also think that many, like me, were raised on "Cowboy" films. We read books
about Tom Horn, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, of Wild Bunch fame & Geronimo.
Its just that these guys have the bottle to wear a tee shirt with "Custer had it
coming" & live the life for our entertainment (& definitely theirs!).
In an early life I sold plastic kits & saw people who were dedicated to producing a perfect model of an crashed Me 109. They knew who flew it, where it came down & who shot it out of the sky. I have witnessed people giving every spare moment to restoring steam trains & running them on branch lines. Well people all over the country are like that about the Wild West of America. We would be a poorer country without the efforts of the Redditch Westerners, The American Civil War Society & their kind.
Links for information:
The American Civil War Society