Doc Holliday

[RSnyder]

Just wanted to say good to meet you since I'm new to the site.  I was born and raised in Griffin, GA - home of the infamous Doc Holliday. 

[Standpat Steve]

Howdy RSnyder,

Welcome to CAS City. Just what, exactly do the natives of Griffin think about their native son

[RSnyder]

We actually have "Doc Holliday Days."  We're pretty proud considering.  I think it's that it's a name and a character that have endured.  A lot of businesses here have stuff about him posted.  The relationship got the Cowboy Action stuff going around here in a big way, too.

[Standpat Steve]

Howdy,

That seems fair enough, I think there is a romance about some of these characters from the old west, even when they clearly were of questionable character. I went to a talk given by a niece of Doc Holiday, who had written a book about him. Karen Tanner, if I remember correctly. I found it interesting, even if kind of a (understandably) whitewash.

[St. George]

Don't be too swift to judge.

These 'characters' were men of 'their' time - not ours.

They were living by the standards of the era - and some of those were harsh.

When researching and assessing the Old West and the people that inhabited it - you can't ascribe today's mores to yesterday's  - you can only judge against what the societal 'standard' of the place and time happened to be.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Chantilly]

Howdy,

That seems fair enough, I think there is a romance about some of these characters from the old west, even when they clearly were of questionable character. I went to a talk given by a niece of Doc Holiday, who had written a book about him. Karen Tanner, if I remember correctly. I found it interesting, even if kind of a (understandably) whitewash.

The book you refer to is Doc Holliday:  A Family Portrait by Karen Holliday Tanner.  It's a good read.  I always think its a good idea to read material from multiple perspectives and then mull it around a bit.  The truth is somewhere in there.  I always check the reference/bibloiography list of books - helps to check sources when you've a mind to - see if you come to the same conclusion as the author.

Actually, Doc Holliday is an interesting character.  IMHO, he seems to have been a rather bitter man due to many circumstances in his younger years - not just the "consumption".  Life was not easy in those days.  Not just the unruliness we usually think of in the West.  Feelings following the Civil War, very rapid change in industrialized society and way of living, poor health and sanitary conditions EVERYWHERE - urban and rural conditions - raw sewage - less sophisticated medical and mental health care - leach 'em or lock 'em away - the list goes on and on.  Rather turbulent times.  For a man (or woman) facing early guaranteed death and living in the conditions of the time and the social pressures (Holliday came from a family of means and education), well who knows what any one of us today would have done.  There were a lot of rather "famous" alcoholics (by our definition anyway) in the last half of the 19th century.  Actually, a lot of alcohol problems that impacted families in a negative way - thus rose the Temperance movement. 

Calamity Jane by McLaird is another good read, if you're interested.  Talk about someone who had a rough life with little or no chance to be or do other than what she was/did.  I have to admire her grit.  I don't think most people would survive in her shoes as long as she did - actually, there is a lot of documentation on the high number of suicides in that era.

Regards,

Chantilly