“Be always sure you are right – then go ahead.” Happy Birthday to the King of the Wild Frontier, Davy Crockett, 1786. Contrary to the song, he didn’t kill a bear at age three. Most sources say he didn’t fire a rifle until age 8. When he was 13 his dad sent him to school. The fourth day there he beat up the school bully. Being afraid that the victim would bring friends to work him over, Davy skipped school. About five days later the teacher went to Davy’s father to find out why the young lad wasn’t in school. Dad his the roof over the wasted money. In order to avoid a beating from Pa, Davy ran away from home. He came back when he was 16 and all was forgiven. In fact, Davy helped pay off some of Dad’s debts by working them off. He gradually gained a reputation as a good guy and good storyteller and this helped him get elected to the US House in 1826. He kind of burned down some bridges from being very outspoken against President Andy Jackson’s “Indian Removal Act” which would allow the President to “negotiate” terms with the Indians of the SE and arrange to have them moved to really swell land west of the Mississippi. He lost the next election. Two years later he ran again and won. Then, after two more years he was voted out. This time he gave his farewell speech, “I served you faithfully… You can go to Hell, I’ll go to Texas.” And he did. He was going to help Texas get their independence from Mexico and every city he hit on the way, he was greeted with cheers and had guys volunteer to go with him. By the time he hit the Alamo on February 8, 1836, he had 65 men with him. Everything was kind of a grand adventure until the 28th, when Santa Anna and his army showed up. The fun and games started immediately, with cannon fire going on almost continuously. Finally, on March 6, the cannons stopped. The men in the Alamo weren’t sure what was going on, but this turned out to be major assault by the Mexicans. The last battle lasted about 90 minutes. An eye witness said that Crockett was killed in the battle with about 16 dead Mexican soldiers around him. Later, stories started coming out that he and a few others survived and they were all executed on orders by Santa Anna. Many historians believe the stories started as a means of making Santa Anna a bigger butthead than he already was. Whether Crockett died in action or was executed is still kind of a mystery, but several survivors were executed so it’s possible that the story has some truth to it. Anybody born before around 1950 or earlier can’t possibly not be aware of Disney’s take on the legendary guy. In 1955 no less than three versions of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” were in the top ten at the same time. Bill Hayes hit number 1, and Tennessee Ernie Ford and Fess Parker (who played Crockett) weren’t far behind. You’re getting the Hayes version. I you choose check out the Parker version, you’ll notice pretty quickly that he’s not a professional singer. youtube/watch?v=lZoq8yjOvxs
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:24:41 +0000
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