Fess Parker Now Rests In Peace, OR, Is He Still Laughing At The Nickname He left Me?

[Kevin Nye]

Fess Parker Now Rests In Peace,

OR,

Is He Still Laughing At The Nickname He left Me?



I got to thinking about the show "Daniel Boone" with Fess Parker yesterday when I learned that Fess had passed away at 85 years of age. Then I thought of an incident that my wife and I continue to laugh at whenever we think of it. Do you all remember Daniel Boone's main Indian enemy on the show? His namewas "Little Redstick", or maybe just "Red Stick", wild ass son of some chief, and always wanting to mix it up with 'ol Dan'l. Well, when I moved toAlaska, back when I was 25 after graduating from the Tenth Corps, I met an Indian gal named Trish who is mostly Tlingit, and part Aleut Indian. We spent a lot of time together, and naturally, I met a lot of her Nativegirlfriends and their families. One evening, when at her apartment withthree or four of her girlfriends, one of them told me that I should"get into and learn the "Native Ways", meaning that I should learn moreof their culture, etc. And so, I said with faux indignation; "Well, Ijust want you to know, that when I was a kid, I was involved in the"Indian Guides" which was/is a father son program like the boy scoutsand was promoted by the YMCA!"

Theyhad never heard of it before, and only knew of the YMCA because of thesong by the Village People. And being Indians, they all thought thatwas pretty dang funny and wanted to know more about this white boy'sinvolvement as a "fake Indian". I knew I was going to have themlaughing pretty good (the majority of them had been smoking some reeferand really had the laughing thing going on), so I continued on with a stern voice; "Notonly did we all have Indian names, but our "tribe" was called theOneida's who are part of the great Iroquois Nation!" "And", Icontinued; "My father was the chief, and his name was "Chief ThunderStick!" And man, did I have these gals laughing! I was on a roll andknew I had really touched their funny bones. They had not heard of theY Indian Guides (my Dad called it the "YIGs"), and this was really funny to them, imagining all ofthe white boys and their dad's masquerading as Indians and doingperceived Indian things together. I continued on and told them thatwe all had head bands with feathers in them and had a "tom tom" drumand how we'd all do a war dance around a fake fire going "woo woo woo woo" whileflapping the flat of our hands over our mouths. And, I demonstratedthis to these stoned Native American Beauties and they laughedhilariously! Oh, it was great, it was almost like doing stand up comedytelling this story to them and it was so fun to have them all laughing sohard.

And then, one gal, Marilynn, asks; "So, who named your DadChief Thunderstick? Your Mom? Does your Dad have a thunder "stick"? Andthey all cracked up some more! It was rich I'm tellin ya.The clash ofcultures and the ludicrousy of we white boys trying to be "Indians", andtelling it all to that small delegation from the true Tlingit Nationwas cracking all of us up! But then it hit me. I knew what the verynext question was going to be. Right then, Trish asks; "So Kevin, what was your Indian name, hmm"? And at that, I turned completely and totallybeet red, and I mumbled something like "well, I'd rather not tell". Butwith much prodding and cajoling, knowing that I would never ever liveit down but also knowing that it would crown the whole evening with evenmore hilarity, I bit the bullet and said proudly and in a deep voice; "My name was LittleRedstick!" And they all looked at each other and burst out in anexplosion of laughter that never seemed to stop! They were holding their bellies and out right horse laughing! Braying! Squealing! Trying to catch their breaths! And then, after a big breath, Marylynnwiggled her pinky finger at me and said; "Hi Little Redstick, hi!" Andthey all started wiggling their pinkies at me as tears poured fromtheir eyes as I sat stoically with a look of mock indignation whicheventually crumbled into more red faced embarrassment and then morelaughing. Lamely I tried to say that I'd only been an 8 year old when Icame up with the name "because of the Daniel Boone show", but my voicewas drowned out by their laughter. It was useless! There was no way out of it, really. Theylaughed so hard their stomachs hurt! And mine did too! All in all, it was worth it becausethat was one of the funniest moments I have ever experienced, even though it was at my own expense...

Andto this day, 27 years later, whenever I see Trish or her sister, orMarylynn around town here in Juneau, half the time, they wiggle their pinkies at me and yell; "Hi LittleRedstick!" I even had to re-tell that story (war dance and all) years later at a New YearsEve party with Trish's whole family. And I mean, her Mom, her Dad, andGrand parents and the grand kids, her brothers ansd sisters, and the cousins and nieces and nephews wereall just rolling, hearing about this peculiar "way of the white man".My wife listened and laughed as they teased her too about "Little RedStick..."

Thanks a lot Fess Parker, and may you rest in peace...

[Mimi Finnegan]

Mrs. Wierwille's brother who lived at HQ. He liked to eat special soft cookies, worked in town sweeping up a store, polished his old car unendingly. Mrs. Wierwille would stand next to him with her arm around his shoulders on his birthday while we sang to him.

[Kevin Nye]

Who was Alfred?

[Mimi Finnegan]

Ah, yes. Alfred. Always a testimony to me of Mrs. Wierwille's kindness.

[John Richeson]

His better story telling is definitely not in front of a large group.
His best is with a few people sitting around after hours somewhere late night with the beer flowing freely . I suspect the same is true for you.

Donnie Fugit, God rest his soul, was another one. He had some of the funniest stories he would tell one-on-one. Like when he first went to HQ out there in the country. He had been a hippie and had been on drugs for a while. Donnie spotted Alfred sitting under the apple trees and thought he was having an acid flashback. Ya gotta know who Alfred was. That's all I have to say about that story here. (No offense to Alfred rest his soul too.)

[Kevin Nye]

Gary was my elder Corps guy my first year in rez. He used to make us laugh exceedingly all the time on the top floor of the Wierwille Library. He is one funny son of a gun! Always liked him even though I didn't get to know him like I would have liked to...

[John Richeson]

Between you and Gary Matsuk......I'm not sure who is the better story teller. You both have some good ones and a knack for it. He was a our BC here in Tampa bay eons ago when there must have been 50 twigs here then. He has stories about his WOW year in Iran that will have you rolling laughing.

[Kevin Nye]

Thanks for posting the photos John, and thanks for the compliments.

And, who new has been added to the Memorium page? I noticed that Skip Mequite has passed on now. Damn. I haven't told Shannon yet. She knew him pretty well, and she'll be so bummed. Send me a note and maybe we can keep some of the sadness off this blog...

And so yes! Light heartedness is in need here! And yes, those gals really had me there on that one didn't they? Too dang funny, that one...

Signed,
Little Redstick

[John Richeson]

I might as well add this too. Anyone over 55 will hear it rigning in their ears from decades past. Good TV indeed:

[John Richeson]

Awesome Kevin. I laughed as hard as those girls did I think. You have a gift for story telling. I needed a good laugh what with all these memoriams lately.

Daniel Boone was a great influence on me and my other 7 brothers as you can imagine, growing up in KY. We wanted to be him and had fun trying hard to do so.

Thanks for that lightheartedness. I treasure that story. I look forward to meeting you in person one day and hearing some more stories.

[Gail Spicer]

TOO FUNNY!!! thanks for being human...you rise to the occasion!!!laughing is the BEST emotion you can give to another human on this planet..THNK_YOU!!!