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No massacres to mess up Fort Griffin's Christmas
event
By Bill Whitaker
Good news for all of you acquainted with the famous re-enactments
of battles, Indian attacks and other frontier mayhem at old Fort
Griffin: Nobody gets killed this weekend.
Although the historic fort has been scene to some gruesome
and historically accurate re-enactments over the years, all should
be peace and joy this weekend. That's because park officials and
area "re-enactors" will portray Christmas pretty much
the way it used to be more than a century ago.
"I guess this is the fifth year for us to do this,"
said park manager Lester Galbreath, who has overseen "Christmas
at Fort Griffin" from the start. "I was doing some reading
and discovered the commanding officer, Col. Buel, really enjoyed
Christmas.
"He was kind of a sociable man and liked for his officers
and enlisted men to get together, especially this time of year,"
Lester said. "And, of course, the settlers living nearby
were always invited. They had a Christmas celebration in the bakery,
it being the most substantial building."
And so it will be again, from 1-5 p.m. this Saturday at Fort
Griffin. Special programs will be mounted at 2 and 4 p.m. The
program is part of the park admission fee -- $2 per person if
you're between the ages of 13 and 64.
"It'll be very nice, but we're pretty exacting about keeping
it just like in the days of old Fort Griffin," Lester said.
"We'll have refreshments of the era -- coffee and spiced
tea and cookies -- and the women will decorate the bakery with
candles and lanterns and Christmas trees."
But no yuletide scalpings.
PAINFUL BIRTH
That does introduce an interesting question: What did frontiersmen
do for Christmas trees in bygone times? "Well, they did use
cedar trees," Lester said. "There weren't a lot of them
back then, but there were a few west of here. But in some instances
they just used dead mesquite trees."
Dead mesquite trees?
Guess that made sense. Once they were done, they could toss
what passed for Christmas trees into the fire.
For the record, the state's official longhorn herd will be
on the grounds as usual during Saturday's seasonal salute. It's
the herd philanthropist Sid Richardson, folklorist J. Frank Dobie
and "cattle detective" Graves Peeler assembled after
longhorns became more scarce than the buffalo or whooping crane.
Lester says park officials still get a myriad of questions
about the striking beasts -- mostly from city folks who wonder
if the animals, with their long, pointed and potentially deadly
horns, are born with horns intact. Although they are born with
the button-like beginnings of horns, one woman visiting the park
apparently didn't grasp this fact and made a horrific conclusion.
"Boy," she told a park official, "I'll bet that's
real rough on the cow!"
MEANWHILE, BACK IN RANGER
About the time Fort Griffin is wrapping up its Christmas celebration,
folks in Ranger will be mounting what has become an annual community
feed sponsored by Mesquite & Rusk Street Church of Christ
and the Ranger Volunteer Fire Department.
Held last year at the Ranger firehouse to help extinguish the
fires left from several years of in-town divisiveness and political
unrest, the dinner was free to all and featured lots of down-home
entertainment besides. Best of all, it was a big success.
Judging by the lengthy Christmas parade Ranger had a few weeks
ago, things are, indeed, looking up in our area's most famous
oil-boom town.
Saturday's feast, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., features Mark Adams
playing classical music as well as country music acts from the
area. Co-organizer Don Adams says the evening is to "promote
unity among citizens of Ranger and give thanks for the year about
to end and hope for an even better year to come."
That's not to say things couldn't be better, as roaring Ranger
raconteur and rancher Bill Herod pointed out the other day. A
cowman pal of his actually found a lamp in an open field outside
Ranger and, despite the foolishness of the notion, began rubbing
it lest there be a genie inside.
Sure enough, a genie appeared before the old Ranger rancher,
though it proved a surly genie, very much in a hurry and in no
mood for nonsense.
"I'm very busy," the genie said. "Normally,
I grant three wishes, but today I can grant but one, so make it
fast."
The old rancher thought a moment.
"Well," the rancher said, "I've always wanted
to go to Hawaii, but I'm afraid of traveling by boat and I'm sure
as heck not getting on any airplane. So how 'bout building me
a highway from California all the way to Hawaii?"
The genie wrinkled his brow and shook his head.
"I haven't got time for that kind of foolishness,"
the genie said. "Make another wish."
"Well, sure, OK," the old rancher said. "How
'bout making my wife the most beautiful, most gorgeous creature
on the face of the earth, one who does everything I tell her without
question and who won't flirt with my friends and who will give
me comfort and joy for all the rest of my days?"
The genie stared incredulously at Bill Herod's Ranger friend
a moment before speaking.
"Would you like that highway two lanes or four lanes?"
Bill Whitaker, who plans on heaping it high with turkey and
ham during Ranger's big community feed Saturday, can be reached
at 676-6732. E-mail Bill at WTWARN@aol.com.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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