<<While I'm evidently too old to know this Teenybopper lingo about knocking
boots, I'm not SO old that I listened to Gunsmoke.  I didn't even know
Gunsmoke had been on the radio (are you sure? Maybe you're confusing radio
with the steam telephone, or the speaking tube).  Are you really THAT old?>>

People are always figuring I'm older than I really am. Perhaps I *am* older
than I really am. It was the 1950s when my dad and I listened to Gunsmoke on
the radio -- every Sunday afternoon, It was great. For some reason I always
liked Chester (probably because he always had peanuts in his shirt pocket).
Anyway, we'd lay there on my dad's bed imagining the scenes as the story
unfolded. After the show we would make up new scenes to expand the story
line. When us kids started wanting television by the late 50s there was no
way our family could afford one so my dad said, "all right, bring your
sketchbook for Gunsmoke today." After that we always listened to Gunsmoke
making sketches of the scenes and details. When I asked him what a
"Peacemaker" looked like he surprised me by saying, "just about like this,"
and reaching into the top drawer of his chest he whipped out a Colt Army
Single Action Revolver, aka Frontier Six-Shooter, aka Colt 45, aka
Peacemaker. Yaawwweeeeee -- The Real Thing. He said that some day the gun
would be mine, but for now I could be happy drawing it. And was I. He showed
me how to handle it and take it apart. That was when I started to learn
mechanical drawing. He showed me how you could draw each part with a front,
side and top view. After that I learned isometric view and assembly view
with the little dotted lines that have arrow heads showing how the parts fit
together. As the Peacemaker appeared my Gunsmoke sketches it started looking
more and more like the real thing.

My dad passed away in '89 and now the Peacemaker is in my own top drawer.
I've just gotten it out -- cold steel, still hefts like it weighs a ton. The
black hard rubber checkered grip feels warm though, like it ought to be part
of your hand. At the top of the grip there is an oval with the famous colt
rearing up on his hind quarters. Have you ever been on a horse when it
reared up? A honest to goodness thrill, just like holding this gun.

Hey ! I just realized I've seen that rearing colt design many times
before. When my dad had our house built in the year 1950 he made a
decoration for the floor of my bedroom. In the middle of the floor, perhaps
two feet across is a silhouette in black of this same rearing colt. He drew
out the pattern across nine of the linoleum tiles and cut it out on the jig
saw for the contractor to lay in with the other tiles. I know the pattern
real well because I used to lay a piece of paper over it and trace out the
curvy line with my pencil following the slight crease at the edge of the
black tiles. The only difference between that pattern and this rearing colt
design is that there is a cowboy on the colt's back -- hey, that's me on
there.

You know, I've wracked by brain and cannot recall my dad's story about how
he got the Peacemaker.

John Leeke
by hammer and hand great works do stand
by pen and thought best words are wrought