When I was a little girl, we got only 
one television channel. Fortunately, it was the channel with Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger and Sky King. As a kid, I ranked these shows in the same order I just listed them. Roy was, without a doubt, the king of my Saturday television lineup. The Lone Ranger second, and Sky King third. The reason? Why Sky didn’t ride a horse. He flew an airplane. His niece, Penny, rode a horse, however
, so that made the show worthy of my attention.
Looking back, however, I think Sky had the most interesting premise–to someone who hasn’t put on her cowgirl shirt in preparation for a Saturday spent with her heroes. The show may have been based on Jack Cones, The Flying Constable of Twenty Nine Palms, California, although that has not been verified. The hero of the show, was Schuyler “Sky” King, a former military pilot. He lived on the Flying Crown Ranch in Arizona with his niece, Penny, played by Gloria Winters, and nephew, Clipper, played by Ron Hagerthy. Like many ranchers l
iving in remote areas, he had a small Cessna airplane, Songbird, but in addition to checking the herds, the condition of the range, and traveling to town for supplies, Sky also used his plan to capture criminals and spies, solve crimes and find people who lost their way in the desert. He had help in the form of the local sheriff, Mitch, played by Ewing Mitchell.
During the half hour show, people would get themselves into trouble, and with the help of the Songbird, Sky wo
uld rescue them. I particularly remember Penny getting into a boatload of trouble. She was forever getting captured, and that kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering how Sky was going to get her out of this mess.
The radio show ran from 1946 to 1954 and the television version, starring Grant Kirby as Sky, started in 1951. For a time the radio and television versions ran simultaneously. The television version lasted until 1962. According to Wikipedia, “the plot lines were often simplistic, but Grant was able to bring a casual, natural treatment of technical details, leading to a level of believability not found in other TV series involving aviation or life in the American West. Likewise, villains and other characters were usually depicted as intelligent and believable, rather than as two-dimensional. The writing was generally above the standard for contemporary half-hour programs, although sometimes critics suggested that the acting was not.”
Hmm–I remember the acting as being superlative. And if Sky had ridden a horse as often as he flew the plane, Sky King might have bumped The Lone Ranger out of second place in my personal favorites standings. Interestingly, the show was popular in the aviation community, even though it was written for kids, and several astronauts noted it as a show that influenced them as they grew up.
If you remember Sky King, or want to know more, there is an official Sky King website you might want to check out, and all the episodes are also available on DVD. There is also a Sky King Fan Club page.
Quick question–do you remember Sky King? If not, did you have a favorite TV cowboy? Or pilot?
Have a great day!
mer drought, began to die. In January, the temperatures plummeted, perhaps as low as -63°F. A chinook came then, melting the top of the snow, then temperatures fell again, creating a hard crus on top of the deep snow. Stories tell of horses and cattle cut and bleeding from the knees down as they attempted to navigate the crusted snow. Cattle roamed into towns, bawling for food and eating shrubbery. Since little forage had been put up, ranchers had 
no choice but to watch their herds, their very livelihoods, starve and die.
tranger to cold weather. I was born in northern Idaho and I was there for the record cold temperature of -42°F in 1968. My dad was in college and we lived in a house with no insulation to speak of. My bedroom window, frame and all, would occasionally fall into my room if the front door was shut too hard and the nail holding it in wasn’t adjusted just right. I remember my mom putting so many blankets on my bed during that cold snap that once I was under them, I could barely move. The horses started running because of the cold and broke through the fence into the wheat fields. They had to be caught. Good times.
w in the world did the early settlers on the prairie–and I’m thinking the wind-whipped prairies with no mountains in sight–stay warm in those little cabins and sod houses with no wood to stoke the fires? The answer is cattle and buffalo chips and hay twists. The chips are, of course, dried bovine dung. The hay twists are bundles of dry grass twisted together. Both of these fuels burn hot, creating a lot of ash. The fire needs tended full time. One excerpt I read talked about one family member leaving the cabin with a bucket of ashes every time another came in with a load of fuel.
The following excerpt illustrates the ongoing battle of staying warm and cooking with cattle chips.
involves participating in the 
er, I had a little bit of problem fitting into the old costume. I was close–as in if I wore a corset, I’d be fine. I don’t want to wear a corset all day, so the only thing I could do was to make a new dress. Fast. In the middle of moving. We do not yet have water in our house, but we have electricity, and that was all I needed to make the sewing machine run.
created by Kay Gnagey, faithfully recreates the original. You can read more about the original pattern 
redo the skirt tabs so that they are not spaced so far apart. But that is a project for another year. I’m debating about tassels on the buttons. The tassels I bought are too small, but Britex Fabrics is one of my San Francisco stops, so perhaps I will have tassels when I attend the Fair.
involves snaps or hooks and eyes. But I persevered and got the darned things sewn on.
5. In addition to loving to sew, I collect vintage patterns on ebay, then sew them into clothes that I may or may not be able to wear. Sometimes they look a lot different on the pattern than they do on a real body. I’ve discovered that I have 1930s shape. Those patterns fit me well.
7. I started running when I was in my forties because my kids were in cross country. I hated it, but like sewing, eventually came to embrace it. I’m slow and steady.
10. My family and I
attend the Great Dickens Fair in San Francisco every year. I made all the clothing for the family. I found that I really enjoy tailoring. I think we look very dapper.
And the winners are…Susan P., Teresa Fordice and Eliza! Please email me at jeanniewrites @ gmail .com (without the spaces, of course) to claim your prize. Eliza-I’ll send you a print copy of my latest Harlequin Western.
Hello and Happy Wednesday! Today I’m in Florida, attending a writing conference and hanging out with my fellow authors. My husband is home packing the house for our move to Montana, which earns him a Great Guy Award.
oned. Eventually some of the ships were refurbished and put back into service, while others rotted away at their moorings.
The Old Ship Saloon, still in operation, opened in 1851 in the hull of the Arkansas. Original patrons had to walk up a plank to enter the saloon.
Hey everyone and happy Wednesday! When I got back from the Romance Writers of America National conference one week ago today, I was greeted by a house with no electricity or water, and a slightly stressed out husband. He also had to replace the refrigerator while I was gone. I was kind of getting afraid to answer the phone while I was in San Diego.
Hey everyone and happy Wednesday. Today I’m going to toot my own horn and discuss a western craft I love.
n see some beautiful hitching in the prison gift store, along with other crafts created by the inmates.
ou hitch? First you get some decent tail hair. Tail hair is different from mane hair—it’s courser and longer. Mane hair is used for the tassels and also can be twisted into ropes called mecates.
ady cleaned and of equal length. I get it in black, brown and white. The white I dye on the stove, using plain old Rit dye, to create the not-so-natural colors.
it has a knot in both ends, it stays put.
