< PREVIOUS ] [ 1991 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Doubtless the Unique Theater in Historic Downtown Salida does its best, but when there's a movie that occasions much anguished commentary, several months generally elapse between the commentary and the film's appearance here.
Thus all I know of Thelma and Louise
is mere
hearsay. It bothers some people because the two heroines
tote guns as they cross America and run afoul of would-be
rapists and long-haul truck drivers.
These fretful critics act as though a woman with a firearm is something unprecedented in America. Obviously, they've never been to Kremmling, where I lived from 1974 to 1978.
The first time I ever saw a gun in a saloon was in
Kremmling. We were eating dinner in the Hoof and Horn one
night. There was a scuffle across the room. Suddenly the
bartender hollered Look out everybody, she's got a
gun.
New in town and unsure of local etiquette, I glanced at the other patrons. They were diving under their tables.
When I dared look out, a woman on the dance floor was putting her pistol back in her purse as she finished telling another woman that she'd best not be making eyes at a certain man.
A year later, a feisty woman came into the newspaper
office and complained at vehement length about her
subscription. After she stomped off, a friend who was in
the office said Ed, I would have been more polite to
her.
Why's that?
About 10 years ago, she got up one cold morning to
build a fire. There wasn't any wood, so she told her
husband to get out of bed and go fetch some. He didn't. She
said she'd shoot his worthless lazy butt if he didn't get
up. He stayed in bed. So she kept her word and shot him in
the rump. Now he jumps right up whenever she needs
something done.
One morning I walked into the sheriff's office, where the deputies all looked a lot worse for the wear.
Turned out that a ranch couple had an argument. She threw him out. He marched over to the bunkhouse, 50 feet away, grabbed a .30-06, and started peppering the house. She responded with a .30-30. Neighbors called the sheriff. The deputies spent a cold night, crawling through cactus toward the ranch buildings to negotiate a cease-fire in the Williams Fork War.
It must be said that the question of printing the name of a rape victim never came up at the Middle Park Times during my tenure -- there just weren't any forcible rapes in that end of Grand County.
During those years, though, I often thought of Kremmling
as a frontier backwater. But now, thanks to Thelma and
Louise,
I realize it was actually on the leading edge
of contemporary culture.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1991 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >