My Heroes have always been Cowboys

My heroes have always been cowboys. Ivy and her friends are at the movies tonight. Well not really tonight, more like tomorrow morning. Ivy’s hero is some guy with glasses and a Beatle haircut. You guessed it, Harry Potter. She is going to see Harry Potter at the midnight showing. As I understand it, this is the last of the Harry Potter movies. The last Harry Potter movie, yippie. That doesn’t really make me all that sad. Truth is, I have successfully avoided all the others. I might have fibbed a little. Ivy asked Elaine and I to take her to the first one. As I remember, we must have arrived at the theater late. We were forced to sit in the front row. Ivy was really happy sitting in the front row. She was in heaven. I was asleep in the first twenty minutes. That was quite a feat for me as the movie was incredibly loud. It’s really hard to sleep sitting bolt upright in those little chairs with that kind of noise around you. Just between me and you it was the worst seven dollar nap I have ever taken. I haven’t read any of the books. I have this thing against witches and wizards. I just can’t get into believing in them. Cowboys are and were real. Maybe it was the time I spent as a child hiding under my bed every year when my family would watch the Wizard of Oz.

That old lady riding her bike with that little dog in her bike’s basket put me under the bed faster than if some would have left a cherry pie under there. To this day, when I see an elderly lady riding a bike with a dog in a basket I have the urge to splash her with water and melt her. I’m not afraid of witches anymore, I just don’t like them. Harry Potter is the most unlikely hero. If he had been in school with John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, they would have beaten him up and taken Harry’s lunch money. Who would blame them? Harry rides a broom for Pete’s sake. This guy’s been in like a half a dozen books and movies. He has to have enough money to buy something real to ride by now. Why can’t he get a horse or a motorcycle or something? Ivy is really a fan of this Harry Potter guy. She belongs to Harry Potter knitting clubs. She has knitted Harry Potter socks. Don’t tell her but they are incredible. Red and yellow socks with some kind of pattern that has something to do with Harry Potter. She even has a Harry Potter cookbook. With any luck, she will never use it again. I guess I got wrapped up in cowboy movies and television shows when I was younger. A kid needs heroes, and I had plenty. Ivy might have different ideas, but if bad guys ever come to rob our ranch, shoot our help, kidnap our grandson, I’m calling for Big Jake McCandles. Ivy and all you Harry Potter fans can call for ol’ glasses boy and his broom.