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

Posted by Kevin Nye on March 20, 2010 at 9:56am
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...
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Steve Vai - Whispering A Prayer (Attn. John Ruiz)

Posted by John Richeson on February 28, 2010 at 6:30pm
This has nothing to do with this site but I recently discovered Steve Vai. (Yes, part of my life was purposely sheltered....he's been around for decades and I missed lots of things along the way). I captured this clip off a concert DVD from 2007.

I was asking John Ruiz about Steve Vai's amazing guitar skills. John, being a guitar guy, knew all about his history and his unique style (which is not for everyone). My brother who plays lead guitar in a band in Virginia, also filled me in. He says Steve Vai is one of the guitar legends. I have to agree.

So John, if you are in shouting distance...here is that performance I was talking about. This is hosted on my own site, not You Tube, so let me know if it misbehaves. Turn up the volume and have decent speakers to appreciate.

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