Hi Ho Silver and Away

When children come to the mountain it is amazing the adventures that come to life.  The time there is really not a “visit” because the mountain is home.  It is interesting how the influences from wherever the children live and go to school can all come together and be blended in to one common event or adventure on the mountain.   The likes of Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, James Bond, Al Capone, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Bart Star and a thousand other celebrities all roamed that mountain at some time in the minds and adventures of the children who played there.

One day David James, Donnie Hudson and Tony Peoples were playing outside and decided they needed a horse to enhance the adventure.  The characters of the day were Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger.  Oh, they all had toy guns and various other cowboy accessories like the hat and some rolled up hay twine for a lariat.  But, if they only had a horse it would be even more fun.

Ben Vanderpool lived on the adjacent farm and owned the fiery steed that was about to become “Silver” for the day.  Normally, this horse was a work animal pulling a plow, wagon or sled for Ben.  But on weekends and other play days he was fair game for whoever caught him and rode him.  In truth, the old horse was so docile that most days you could just walk up to him anywhere in the field, jump up on his back and ride.  You did not need a saddle.  The sway in his back was like having one built in.  Sometimes Ben or whomever we could find would saddle the horse for us and other times we just tied rope or twine to his halter and jumped on his back.  What seemed like a horseback riding to us was actually being perched on the old horses back while he grazed and meandered through the fields.

Catching the horse and getting it to cooperate was no big deal.  Who was going to ride first was a big deal.  Not every decision or activity went without a little disagreement.  We certainly knew that if any adult caught us arguing it was “game over”.  The horse would go home and this Lone Ranger episode was done.  So, who was going to ride first?  All of us!  It was the only fair way.  As in most of our activities, there was a pecking order about how things are done.  So, David was older than Donnie and Donnie was older than Tony and that’s how we were arranged on the horse.  They always told me that  they were "oldest” and got to go first at everything.  That is the way it was and I would like to take this opportunity to remind them that they are both “still” the oldest and that I am younger.

Off we went, to right wrongs and catch the bad guys and protect the mountain from an Indian uprising.  We rode at the speed of a plow horse all over the mountain fields and yard for a good part of the day.  Occasionally all three of us screaming and kicking could cause old Ben’s horse to break into a trot or even about three steps of a gallop but, mostly just a casual walk plodding along from one clump of grass to the next.

The signature move of the Lone Ranger was to have Silver rare up on his hind legs with the lone ranger calling out, “Hi Ho Silver” and away they would run into the horizon.  It seemed that most cowboy features of the day could not end without the star riding off into the sunset.  Wow, what if we could get our old white plow horse to do that?   We tried every way we could think of to get the old horse to rare up.  It did not occur to us that if he had rared up, we would have all three slid off into a heap behind the horse.  After all we had watched the lone ranger and Roy Rogers do it at least once a week and they never fell off.  Okay, let’s do this!

The plan was to get Ben’s horse going up the hill on the North side of the house and on to the earth roofed fruit cellar.  Perhaps the sudden increase in elevation would inspire the horse to rare up.  If not, it was as close as we were going to get. So, when we get there we would all draw our toy guns and yell, “Hi Ho Silver and Away!”  Then turn and run him as fast as he would go back down the hill.   Here we go; with all three kicking we were able to get the horse to a half hearted lope up the hill and on to the cellar. The horse stopped on top of the cellar like he had rehearsed it or heard our plan.  We all drew our toy guns and screamed Hi Ho Silver and, and, and wait one of the toy guns was a cap gun and it was loaded. 

I heard years later a story told by uncle Lytle that might help explain the next few seconds.  It seems that he and probably Gerald, Lex, and maybe Bruce had been to town and bought some firecrackers.  They used firecrackers to flush out squirrels when they ran into holes or at least that is why they said they bought them.  One day, they saw Ben’s old horse laying down right next to the fence and decided to practice their stalking skills.  They crept along the fence until they were right next to the horse and gently pulled his tail under the fence.  Then they tied a string of firecrackers to the tail.  When the firecrackers were lit and began to go off the plow horse suddenly became a thoroughbred quarter horse.  Funny how when you are running for you life, you can always set a new personal high speed record.

So, now, we all know what that horse was thinking when the caps went off and he had no intensions of being around for the next shot. Terrified and remembering the firecrackers from years earlier, the horse wheeled and took off in a full all out run toward his barn on Ben’s place. That was NOT the same route that we came up the hill.  This new direction would be through the chicken yard past the out house and on to the barn.  We did not have to navigate all these obstacles because before we even get to the chicken yard is the clothes line and clothesline posts.

Remember, David is sitting in front and he can see what’s coming.  He is yelling, “Jump off, Jump off now!  He is scrunched up against the horse’s neck by Donnie and Tony sitting behind him and he can’t get off.  Tony bailed off and rolled down the hill to safety.  Then Donnie jumped down and rolled safely away.  David, well, he should have started yelling sooner, I guess.  Because before he could get his leg thrown over to jump he was at the clothes line post.  The wooden cross member broke with a loud crack as David rode through it.  That knocked David off the back of the horse and gave the horse new speed to head over the hill toward Ben’s.

 Miraculously, David was not seriously hurt and the three amigos lived to ride and play another day.  Everyone was convinced that the old horse would never hurt anyone and I am certain we have all done worse things to the old horse without any adverse results.  This did teach us though that if you are going to climb on the back of a fiery steed named Silver…you better be prepared for a ride.  I can still see that old horse, with tail flying, dirt and rocks kicked up by his hooves going over the hill  disappearing into the horizon.  Just like the ending of a Lone Ranger episode...well, sort of.

And that's the way I heard it on the mountain,

Tony Peoples