While last Thursday’s winter storm failed to materialize, it was close enough to open the memory bank of winter storms from the past, like the day Gene Autrey was scheduled to perform in Austin.

Tuesday, January 25, 2000

While last Thursday’s winter storm failed to materialize, it was close enough to open the memory bank of winter storms from the past, like the day Gene Autrey was scheduled to perform in Austin. The same day we had one of our worst winter storms.

The only thing then that could have been better than Gene Autry would have been Roy Rogers "the king of the cowboys," the king at least in my mind. Gene was pudgy, not tall and trim like Roy.

Champion, Gene’s horse, was a pinto, not a palomino like Roy’s Trigger. Besides Trigger, Roy had a Bullit, his German Shepherd, and Gabby Hayes – not to forget Dale Evans – noteworthy in itself that she kept her maiden name way back then.

My older brother and sister maintained Gene was the real "King of the Cowboys," or was until he went in the service. Roy didn’t. So while Gene was serving our country, Roy stole his crown.

My brother still tells of the time he ducked down behind the seat when Gene Autry was about to kiss a girl.

The show was set for Friday, as I remember, a Friday evening event at the high school auditorium. Snow started falling early that day.

Gog, my cousin, was coming in from nine miles south of town, just off the River Road. My worries were would he get to town with the snow falling as hard as it was and secondly, would Gene make it?

I can’t remember a day I worried more. It snowed most of that day. Finally, the school clock made it to 3 p.m. and we were dismissed. The snow was deep by then, easily as deep or deeper than the snow that fell last Wednesday and the wind was blowing hard. It didn’t look good.

Hurrying from the bus to house my anxiety level peaked. What if my cousin’s not there and why would Gene be here in weather like this?

First glance, coming in the back door, I didn’t see Gog. He would have been at the door to greet me if he was there, I thought. The biggest disappointment, probably in my life, begin to unfold. I wanted to cry. I wasn’t going to get see Gog or Gene Autry as I made my way upstairs heading toward my room. That’s when Gog popped out of the closet in the room at the end of the hall with the big smile he always wore – and yes, Gene Autry made it, too, that night.

A couple hours later, we were seating in a jam-packed auditorium listening to Gene Autry singing the same songs he sang in the theater, and this was live.

For the next hour or so or he sang his heart out and for the time being I forgot about Roy Rogers.

I guess cowboys were our heroes back then. Besides Gene and Roy, there was the Lone Ranger, Lash LaRue and Johnny Mack Brown, to name a few. You would usually find one of them playing at the Austin Theater, the State Theater or the Roxy, on the east side. The Saturday matinee was 12 cents if you were under 12.

And there was Hoppalong Cassady. Hoppy was pretty cool too. One of those summers, for a short time, I was the proud owner of a Hopalong Cassidy jackknife with a picture of Hoppy rearing up on his horse Tipper.

One day I set it down on the back bumper of our 1949 Plymouth and it rode away never to return again, kind of like the Long Ranger and Johnny Mack Brown would at the end of the show.

Had I not lost it, you can bet I would have taken it to school, come fall, for show and tell without fear of suspension.

Hoppy was as good as any of them when it came to pulling villains off their horses. Invariably, the tumble seemed to occur on a hill. Hoppy and the villain would roll head over heel, get up at the bottom of the hill and Hoppy would look as spiffy as ever, not a hair out of place, his white hat still white.

A couple slugs and the villain would be down.

Over the years I’ve come to know a friend out west who once rented an apartment Hoppy owned and managed.

My friend asked Hoppy how he managed to keep himself so tidy when he rolled and tumbled in his battles with frontier villains? Hoppy explained that the tail of his shirt would go under his crotch, come up in front, and snap to his shirtfront.

Dugger, my friend, also said nobody swore like Hoppy.

I never did tell Dugger about my close encounter with Gene Autry nor did I tell him about sitting in our front yard on summer afternoons waiting to see Johnny Western drive by in his red ’53 Buick convertible on his way to the television station. He sang country western songs every weekday afternoon on Channel 6. Then he went west in search of fame and fortune and became known for singing the theme song of "Have Gun will Travel" where his name appeared at the end of the credits – "Paladin" sung by Johnny Western.

Happy trails to you…

Bob Vilt’s column appears Tuesdays