Once upon a time, about 1955, Knott's Berry Farm was still a real farm with some rides and an old town. It cost nothing to get in the place and the rides cost very little. They had great chicken dinners, gun fights, and a fellow named Rod Redwing who did fancy stuff with pistols, knives, and whips.
In the old town was a real, live gun shop run by a man named Harry Durrant. The shop sold guns, ammo, souveniers, leather goods, etc. No modern stuff to speak of, and some very nice original antique Colts, Remingtons, S&Ws, etc.
Into this store walked a thirteen year old kid who had a love for guns. He looked around for a bit, then walked up to Harry and commented that the six shooter in the man's cross draw holster wasn't a Colt. Harry looked around the store, and not seeing anyone else, pulled the gun from the holster, unloaded it, and gave the kid a short lesson on the 1875 Remington, letting him handle the gun. He answered all of the kids questions, commented on how good the questions were, and encouraged the boy to stydy western historry and keep his love for guns alive.
The kid went back every day for the week that his family was vacationing in California.
Fast forward to 1975. The kid is now a 33 year old Marine Staff Sergeant stationed at Seal beach and is working in his off time at The Flintlock In Hobby City, a store specializing in muzzle loading guns in Anaheim.
One day an 80-something year old man walks into the store and pours himself a cup of coffee and sits down by the stove. The 'kid' walks over and introduces himself to the old gent. Before the man can respond, the 'kid' recognizes him and sits down to tell him the story. Harry smiles and finishes the story...he remembers, too. Says he recalls the kid's questions and how impressed he'd been by how informed the boy already was and his knowlege of guns.
They become friends and the kid learns more, a lot more, from Harry Durrant. He goes to Harry's house on occassion and sees the autogyro that Harry built using a VW engine for power. He helps Harry, who is a more than adequate gunsmith on older guns, and learns even more. His love for guns and all things western grows along with his knowlege.
Harry Durrant is long gone now, but his lessons remain.
Rest in peace, Harry. Thanks for the lessons, and for the friendship. I hope I haven't been a disappointment.
"The Kid"
A touching story! Thanks for sharin' pard! ;)
I remember that berry farm, started going there around 63 or so.
Most of those old western buildings came from the Calico ghost town, which old man Knott pull most of best buildings out of for the berry farm when the county started taxing him too much he just donated what was left of the ghost town to San Bernardino county.
Wasn't much going on in those days, a stage and a train that always gets held up. A few buildings, one made out of old whiskey bottles, one that slanted on the inside.....soviner shop were you could get all kinds of stuff like little Sheriff's badges, wanted posters with your name on them............Hey, when you are a little kid, a wanted poster with your name on it was much more appealing than it is today...... ;)
I don't recall Harry or the gun shop, but I was quite little then, sorry I missed that part.
Thanks for making me think about it again Forty-Rod
I enjoyed that, Forty.........Buck 8) ;)
Nice piece of reminiscing there, Forty Rod. I don't remember the gun shop, but my family went to "the farm" quite often in the early fifties. But by '55 (I, too, was 13), we were in the throes of changing family dynamics, and I didn't go back until some years after I got married; that was in '64, so it was probably in the late '60s or early '70s. I discovered The Flintlock about '75; used to drop in for a visit and a drool, and a cuppa once in a while, when I had a day off to go wandering. I was working in El Toro at the time, and going to school at Saddleback, too, so my time was pretty used up. I always enjoyed the place; went to a few of those small "rondevoos" that they put on, and dreamed. We might have met, there.
EP, we must've crossed paths a few times. i worked at The Flintlock part time and full time from 1975 until 1986.
You might remember me...I was the strikingly handsome one.
Strikingly handsome ---- sort of like I was (still am) the strikingly "hairy" one. ::) ;D Yeah, I know we've crossed paths a few times, but I sure couldn't recall a single one. In The Flintlock, I didn't ever feel out of place, like I did in most of the rest of the "OC". I tried on a coyote skin hat and cape at one of those affairs that they put on, and my face disappeared - except for the eyes, I just blended right in with the rest of the pelt. The trader who was peddling the skins got a good laugh out of that.
Heck of a memory! Sometime progress ain't. Most kids today won't have those kinds of storys to pass on.
Touching story, F.R. I wish I had some memories. I like this very much. Greetings to Shawna.
Joe, if you can't have those memories you can create some for some kid who has no one else to give them to him (or her).
Become a memory. I'm hoping I can be one for just one kid.
Wouldn't that look great on a gravestone?
Quote from: Forty Rod on November 11, 2005, 11:31:19 AM
Joe, if you can't have those memories you can create some for some kid who has no one else to give them to him (or her).
Become a memory. I'm hoping I can be one for just one kid.
Wouldn't that look great on a gravestone?
Yeah, You're richt F.R. But I think You can wait for a couple of years before it's setting on Your gravestone. We are much too Young for "Riding Away". ;D
Hello Forty Rod :) I read your belated thanks and it brought such a smile to my face. I never got to meet Harry, but heard about him my entire life. From my mother, my uncle, my grandmother, and my great uncle. He died before my mother got married, but she never grows tired of telling us stories about my great grandfather. She told us about the autogyro and what Knott's used to be like. She also told me about how much she lived him - see, my uncle was my grandmother's favorite and my great grandfather always made my mother feel just as special. She always tells me about how wonderful he was, marrying a woman who already had a daughter and raising said daughter even though it wasn't common practice at the time. He always seemed like a super hero to me growing up.
For most of her adult life, Knott's has denied Harry Durant's involvement in the gun shop. My mother was beginning to doubt what my great grandfather had exposed her to, even questioning her own childhood in Buena Park. But then she stumbled upon his picture on Flickr and I swear - I've never seen my mother break out into tears so suddenly. She was ecstatic.
Now, I don't know if you met my mother when you visited Harry, but my mother lived with him for a while. My mother is Laura. Her mother is Harry's adopted daughter Lorraine. His biological son, my grandmother's half-brother, never actually had kids. Lorraine died in 2006. Dick died in 2008. But his family still goes on.
If you're still in the area and/or remember my mother, I'd love to get in contact and set up a meeting. I don't know much about guns or western things. I don't even know how much my mom knows or if she would even remember you, but I do know she would enjoy reminiscing about her grandfather if you were interested.
Also: I'm sorry if my post above broke rules. I signed up here just to post what I did. I really do find your story incredible and I am so proud of a man I will never know, but can only wish I did, for being such an inspiration to 13-year old you.
I seriously doubt he'd consider you a disappointment. Blessings to you and to him Forty Rod. :)
Quote from: jessicanfly on June 14, 2012, 05:40:10 AM
Also: I'm sorry if my post above broke rules. I signed up here just to post what I did. I really do find your story incredible and I am so proud of a man I will never know, but can only wish I did, for being such an inspiration to 13-year old you.
Jessica, I don't remember your mom, but I'd be happy to meet her some time and discuss Harry.
He came into the store one day and sat staring at the coffee pot and muttering about getting old. I asked him what was wrong and he told me he couldn't get permission to fly the autogyro at any of the local airports, so he flew it out of the street...and got caught. The FAA was going to pull his license. (IIRC, Harry had the first commercial pilot's license ever issued in the U. S.)
Harry had a friend named Roscoe...I wish I could remember his last name...and they used to sit by that coffee pot and tell stories about chasing Pancho Villa before WWI, Harry flying a "linen covered kite" and Roscoe running a string of pack mules.
I'll forever regret not recording their stories in some way.
Let me know how to contact you and we can all get together for a visit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/5685877950/
Here is a link to the pix in flikker
I loved Knotts and the old Calico. (I first went to Calico in 1956)
Knotts was my second home after a day surfing at Huntington. also probably crossed sabers with 4T at Flintlock a couple of times.
more to come
curley
Wow what a story,that had to be cool hangin with that guy!!! Thanks for the pics Curley..Boy the stories you could hear,ole Panchy Villa huh,woo hooo~
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/gunclickrick/knottsberry010.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/gunclickrick/knottsberry005.jpg)
I'll ask my mom about Pancho Villa. She doesn't get off work until after I get off work :) I remember hearing stories of the gun shop, and the archery range (my mom boasted that she and my uncle were the best because they practiced there all the time), and that his house had a lot of land (practically a farm), and that he had a pet panther. I didn't believe my mom on that one until she showed me pictures. We have pictures all over the place of 'Grandpa Durant'. He was very loved.
We have his guns too, as well as a shooting trophy in my brother's room (it was given to him when my brother was little). I will definitely have to ask her about Roscoe and more adventures. I'll update you as to how to contact her. Until then, you can email me at jessie.pndrgst@gmail.com
I'll see if she'll let me scan some photos for you too. We seriously have tons. I remember having a semi-large portrait of him on our piano growing up. My grandmother's father left her and her mother when my grandmother was a baby and Harry officially adopted her (after being married to her mother some time) when she was graduating high school. She loved him a lot. I wish she could see this thread, I wish I'd known about it before 2006 when she died. She would have been so happy.
Update: I just called my mom who I found out is on lunch. She doesn't remember Roscoe (though at the time she would have been a teenager/young adult and possibly not as involved as she was at a younger age), but she remembered the Pancho Villa stories and was ecstatic that you knew about the autogyro. She says Grandpa Durant died at 85.
She would be very interested in having you contact her. I have her permission to post her email address here. pndrgst@yahoo.com
Thank you for posting this story about my great grandfather. It really brought a lot of joy to my mother.
I wanna watch this on tv :)
Forty Rod, thanks for bringing a tear to an old fools eyes first thing in the A.M.
My folks bought the first house in a housing tract called La Mirada. As a young un, I also found my way to Knotts Berry Farm where I hung out most weekends. The gun shop was my favorite spot. Out the back door Harry had an archery range, and I was usually there shooting bows and arrows.
Fast forward a few years.
I went to a place called Hobby City to pick up some stuff at the Indian Store. They had built a new white colonial style building in the back, so strolled on back. I walked in the door and began to drool all over myself. Ray and Jackie Taylor both walked up and introduced themselves too me and welcomed me to their grand opening. A couple weeks later I returned and bought a Berdan (Wesson) .45 caliber rifle and all the supplies. At that time I joined the Golden Bears. I was a regular there for the next 5 years.
Shortly after I met a fellow by the name of Jim (no balls) Burton and we become close friends for 20 years. Six months after starting shooting soot burners, Jim and I decided to go to a Rendezvous in northern California at a place called Butte Meadows. When we went to the store to get supplies, Jackie asked me if I had a tomahawk? No! Well you can't go to Rendezvous without a tomahawk! Jackie gifted me that hawk and I have and throw it too this day.
Wish I still had that Rifle!
I miss those days but am also thankful for these days. I miss Ray and Jackie as well, they were great people with a pure love of the soot.
Sometimes things should just stay small and simple,my favorite part was the cowboy statue in a wooden frame small building,that knew my name when i went up to him,crimeny! This guy knows me,how the heck???Man i know a real cowboy!!! We even had a good lil' talk,yep gonna get me some cap guns!
Is there a book anywhere of Knotts Berry Farm,with good stories and pictures?If not we should get one started of folks memories,my first glass blower i saw was there too that made the little animals and such,i think i had a clear glass horse with gold main and tail.wasn't someone here related to the talking cowboy?And of course the gold panning slue..
Tell "em that story Curley ;D
Quote from: GunClick Rick on June 15, 2012, 08:54:35 AM
Sometimes things should just stay small and simple,my favorite part was the cowboy statue in a wooden frame small building,that knew my name when i went up to him,crimeny! This guy knows me,how the heck???Man i know a real cowboy!!! We even had a good lil' talk,yep gonna get me some cap guns!
Is there a book anywhere of Knotts Berry Farm,with good stories and pictures?If not we should get one started of folks memories,my first glass blower i saw was there too that made the little animals and such,i think i had a clear glass horse with gold main and tail.wasn't someone here related to the talking cowboy?And of course the gold panning slue..
Tell "em that story Curley ;D
Of course I was a young fellow, so one of the most vivid memories were the girls in their saloon finery.
My best memory and where I spent a heap of time was listening to and talking with Aunt Nellie while she fascinated me playing her hammer dulcimer.
Quote from: TwoWalks Baldridge on June 15, 2012, 10:07:33 AM
Of course I was a young fellow, so one of the most vivid memories were the girls in their saloon finery.
My best memory and where I spent a heap of time was listening to and talking with Aunt Nellie while she fascinated me playing her hammer dulcimer.
Was there an old guy with her who payed a fiddle? He had a thin braid of hair on one side just forward of his ear. I t seems I recall them playing together, at least part of the time.
Quote from: Forty Rod on June 15, 2012, 11:24:42 AM
Was there an old guy with her who payed a fiddle? He had a thin braid of hair on one side just forward of his ear. I t seems I recall them playing together, at least part of the time.
Memory is not that good, but over time I seen a number of different folks play along with her.
Did you see my post above that ... seems I have known you for 30 plus years,. ;D
http://www.amazon.com/Knotts-Berry-Farm-America-Publishing/dp/0738569216
GCR
I have 2 real good books on Knotts. The one above is good, stories and pix from early daze...and also Dave Bourne (piano player from Deadwood) has a book of pix from the days he played at Knotts. (ya know Steve Martin used to play at the BirdCage..)
I have both of them and they are really good. (altho, sadly the gun shop is very minimized in them...)
get em, and that price at Amazin is a good price too.
curley
Quote from: TwoWalks Baldridge on June 15, 2012, 08:21:00 AM
Forty Rod, thanks for bringing a tear to an old fools eyes first thing in the A.M.
My folks bought the first house in a housing tract called La Mirada. As a young un, I also found my way to Knotts Berry Farm where I hung out most weekends. The gun shop was my favorite spot. Out the back door Harry had an archery range, and I was usually there shooting bows and arrows.
Fast forward a few years.
I went to a place called Hobby City to pick up some stuff at the Indian Store. They had built a new white colonial style building in the back, so strolled on back. I walked in the door and began to drool all over myself. Ray and Jackie Taylor both walked up and introduced themselves too me and welcomed me to their grand opening. A couple weeks later I returned and bought a Berdan (Wesson) .45 caliber rifle and all the supplies. At that time I joined the Golden Bears. I was a regular there for the next 5 years.
Shortly after I met a fellow by the name of Jim (no balls) Burton and we become close friends for 20 years. Six months after starting shooting soot burners, Jim and I decided to go to a Rendezvous in northern California at a place called Butte Meadows. When we went to the store to get supplies, Jackie asked me if I had a tomahawk? No! Well you can't go to Rendezvous without a tomahawk! Jackie gifted me that hawk and I have and throw it too this day.
Wish I still had that Rifle!
I miss those days but am also thankful for these days. I miss Ray and Jackie as well, they were great people with a pure love of the soot.
T Dub, that Wesson .45 was a keeper. I let mine go, too, but wish I still had it. The only problem was the "receiver" wasn't very good metal and the barrel would shoot loose over time. Spectacular looking son, though.
We probably met. I started going in there in early '75 and Ray hired me to work PT while I was still in the Corps and when I got out in March '78 he put me on full time.
(http://sdough.smugmug.com/Art/Just-For-Fun/i-ZZGPLRT/0/M/calico1-M.jpg)
Here is what Calico looked like in 1927, (about what it looked like in 1956 when I first saw it)
I put this pix up to show that the common misconception that Knott took buildings FROM Calico to KBF was just that. Most of the buildings at Knotts were brought in from all over the states. The school house is from some place in Kansas (I could tell you exactly but Old Top has my book at the moment.
I loved the way Calico was when I first went there...no gas, no electricity...just rough as it should be.
thought some of you would find this interesting.
curley
I'm gonna get those books..Thanks for the link :) Man look at those adobe walls? How the heck did they keep them up?
Quote from: Forty Rod on June 15, 2012, 03:02:35 PM
T Dub, that Wesson .45 was a keeper. I let mine go, too, but wish I still had it. The only problem was the "receiver" wasn't very good metal and the barrel would shoot loose over time. Spectacular looking son, though.
We probably met. I started going in there in early '75 and Ray hired me to work PT while I was still in the Corps and when I got out in March '78 he put me on full time.
I have no doubt we crossed paths there. From the week they opened and about 10 years forward, Jim and I were regulars in there. Did you work with a crazy fellow named Tom by chance?
I made a name for my self onct in that archery range. A Saturday nite, I was with a cute date. There was rubber balls hanging by string from the ceiling. I called the shot and stuck a arry in one of the center balls. Before I could draw another arrow there were dozens of arrows flying trying to hit the balls to impress the other girls....Do you think I tried to do it again....NOPE...I walked away having done it once. For the longest time my arrow was the only one hanging there stuck in one of them balls...
Once in a while ya look good for the girls...most of the time....not...
curley
That's what i call "Stickin it to "em" :-* ;D
Quote from: TwoWalks Baldridge on June 15, 2012, 10:01:16 PM
I have no doubt we crossed paths there. From the week they opened and about 10 years forward, Jim and I were regulars in there. Did you work with a crazy fellow named Tom by chance?
I was one Tom (Taylor) and the other was Tom Winters, a gin-you-wine mountain man sort. He had a beard and long hair and I was the pretty one. ;D
Quote from: Forty Rod on June 16, 2012, 01:09:28 AM
I was one Tom (Taylor) and the other was Tom Winters, a gin-you-wine mountain man sort. He had a beard and long hair and I was the pretty one. ;D
That be the one "Tom Winters". Now that helps me put things right. We did meet for sure. Tom, Jim and myself use to trek together in the day. Thanks to this electronic contrivance, it has become a small world.
Quote from: TwoWalks Baldridge on June 16, 2012, 07:50:16 AM
That be the one "Tom Winters". Now that helps me put things right. We did meet for sure. Tom, Jim and myself use to trek together in the day. Thanks to this electronic contrivance, it has become a small world.
Last I heard of Tom Winters he was in Big Timber, Montana working for a gun cart company. That was maybe 6-7 years ago.
Quote from: Forty Rod on June 16, 2012, 01:09:28 AM
I was one Tom (Taylor) and the other was Tom Winters, a gin-you-wine mountain man sort. He had a beard and long hair and I was the pretty one. ;D
The one with the face only a mother could love :o ;D :-* ;D
It is funny just how small the world can be sometimes. My memories of Knott's Berry Farm are not as clear as some of yours, but I went there with my family at least once or twice a year; it was always a fun trip. We lived in the San Gabriel Valley from '47 to '55, and then moved to Azusa for a few years before leaving civilization and moving to Twentynine Palms, so it was not as easy for me to get to the fun spots like that. After I got growed up and was chasing a career, we moved to South OC in '68, and every time we got company from aout of town, we had to squire them about and KBF and D'Land were always on the agenda, along with the other attractions that were in that general area. We actually got tired of going there.
I discovered Hobby City in the early mid seventies, and went there as often as I could manage. In the early eighties, I started working in Orange and Stanton, and visited more often; frequently after a graveyard shift, I'd get a bite of breakfast and drop in just after opening time at The Flintlock. I would wander through, have a cuppa if there was any available, and sometimes listen in on the Saturday gabfests. I seldom had much to say, but I did enjoy just hanging out with folks of like mind. The rondeevoo affairs they had out in the "park" were always fun. Forty Rod and I have already established that we surely met back then, but just never knew we'd be corresponding like this years later; so I'm sure I rubbed elbows with some more of you folks, too.
Quote from: El Peludo on June 16, 2012, 12:43:02 PM
It is funny just how small the world can be sometimes. My memories of Knott's Berry Farm are not as clear as some of yours, but I went there with my family at least once or twice a year; it was always a fun trip. We lived in the San Gabriel Valley from '47 to '55, and then moved to Azusa for a few years before leaving civilization and moving to Twentynine Palms, so it was not as easy for me to get to the fun spots like that. After I got growed up and was chasing a career, we moved to South OC in '68, and every time we got company from aout of town, we had to squire them about and KBF and D'Land were always on the agenda, along with the other attractions that were in that general area. We actually got tired of going there.
I discovered Hobby City in the early mid seventies, and went there as often as I could manage. In the early eighties, I started working in Orange and Stanton, and visited more often; frequently after a graveyard shift, I'd get a bite of breakfast and drop in just after opening time at The Flintlock. I would wander through, have a cuppa if there was any available, and sometimes listen in on the Saturday gabfests. I seldom had much to say, but I did enjoy just hanging out with folks of like mind. The rondeevoo affairs they had out in the "park" were always fun. Forty Rod and I have already established that we surely met back then, but just never knew we'd be corresponding like this years later; so I'm sure I rubbed elbows with some more of you folks, too.
What do you mean "if there was any available"? First guy in every morning turned on the lights, made coffee and then whatever else was needed, like sweeping up, setting up the register, hauling out trash and any dead critters, etc. After that...all day long...whoever emptied the pot, or found it empty, made a fresh batch. If you didn't get a cup, it was your fault. Noy Nixon's (he came in one time) or Dubya's, but
YOURS!!! We got some truly awful coffee that way and some that was very good, but there was always something called coffee in that pot. ::)
Sometimes I really miss that place. It didn't pay much (and I
NEVER ONCE got home with complete paycheck, but there was always something there I just had to have and I bought lot of cool stuff at employee prices) but the work was agreeable and the people I met there were priceless.
Quote from: Forty Rod on June 16, 2012, 01:36:07 PM
What do you mean "if there was any available"? First guy in every morning turned on the lights, made coffee and then whatever else was needed, like sweeping up, setting up the register, hauling out trash and any dead critters, etc. After that...all day long...whoever emptied the pot, or found it empty, made a fresh batch. If you didn't get a cup, it was your fault. Noy Nixon's (he came in one time) or Dubya's, but YOURS!!! We got some truly awful coffee that way and some that was very good, but there was always something called coffee in that pot. ::)
Sometimes I really miss that place. It didn't pay much (and I NEVER ONCE got home with complete paycheck, but there was always something there I just had to have and I bought lot of cool stuff at employee prices) but the work was agreeable and the people I met there were priceless.
That is the truth. I could never work at a paistry shop (altho did a donut shoppe for a bit) a record store, a book store or a gun store because I knew that I would be leavin most if not all my pay there.
The Flintlock wasn't real close to my home grounds, but I still made it there often enough and there are more than a couple of things that I still have that came from there. Funny how folks paths cross thru time ain't it.
curley
Hey 4T
I got my books back from Top tonite, and in one of them is a picture of the gunshoppe and standing out front is Harry and his wife.
It was taken around the time he opened the shop in 1951.
curley
Harry working on a gun stock.