One hot summer day before I was six, Roy Rogers ate lunch with Mama and me. Oh, both Mama and I knew he wasn’t really there, but since I had been playing with him out in the yard all morning, it seemed only polite that I should invite him to lunch. Mama agreed and set a place for him.
I guess Dale Evans had not come with him that day since she didn’t come in for lunch, but I do remember that at some time in the morning, Pat Brady had driven up in Nellybelle. He must have been on his way somewhere else, for he didn’t have lunch with us either. And Roy and I must have left Trigger tied to the peach tree with Bullet resting nearby in the shade of one of the old oak trees.
I don’t remember what we had to eat, but it was summer, so maybe it was tomato sandwiches—the tomatoes red and juicy, fresh from Mama’s garden. Or maybe it was homemade pimiento cheese on white bread. Or, perhaps, banana sandwiches or canned pineapple sandwiches, all of which were my favorites. I’m sure Roy would have been polite enough to eat as much as he wanted of whatever was offered. And since it was such a hot day, Roy must have drunk his fill of sweet iced tea.
After lunch, Roy rode off on Trigger with Bullet loping along beside them.
I’m so glad to have this memory. Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye in 1911, died in 1998. Dale Evans Rogers, born Lucille Wood Smith in 1912, died in 2001. Pat Brady preceded them, dying in 1972. Golden Cloud, the real name of the Palomino who portrayed Trigger in many if not most of Roy Rogers’ shows and movies, died in 1965, and was preserved and displayed in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. Bullet the Wonder Dog, no date of death listed on Wikipedia, was also preserved in the museum. The museum was later moved to Branson, Missouri, where it closed in 2010. Sadly, the owner/operator of the museum reportedly said that no one visited the museum any longer because no one remembered Roy Rogers anymore.
More than 1,000 items from the museum, including Trigger, Bullet, and Nellybelle were sold at a Christie’s auction in 2010. Steve Gottsch, owner of RFD-TV, bought both Trigger and Bullet with plans to display them in a western museum.
(Many thanks to Wikipedia for the dates and other facts.)
Roy on Trigger, Dale on her horse Buttermilk, Pat Brady driving the silver jeep Nellybelle with Bullet the Wonder Dog sitting in the front passenger seat may have all ridden off into the sunset, but strains of “Happy Trails” still play in my head. The five-year-old girl who enjoyed their imaginary visits remembers them well and still loves them all.
Myrna Adams West grew up in Oconee County, but now lives in Athens with her husband, Herb, and their kitty, Chloe. A retired English teacher, Myrna enjoys, reading, writing, and singing.
