Tag: Mom Is Right

If you don’t know who Roy Rogers is, this may not make as much sense. If you don’t, just imagine that you got an opportunity to make a commercial with your favorite pop star when you were a kid.

When I was six years old, my dad managed the riding stables at a resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Southern California. The area was also home to some large cattle ranches that had big roundups twice a year and my dad always participated in this. People don’t normally associate being a cowboy and driving cattle with Southern California, but it was the real deal.

The resort’s main customer base was in Los Angeles. People could get away for a week or a weekend and golf, hike, ride horses, or just relax. The management decided to hire Roy Rogers to do a commercial and it would be filmed on-site at the resort. Because they needed to show that the resort was fun for the entire family, I was invited to be a part of the commercial. I had watched many old westerns starring Roy Rogers and he was still very popular and made public appearances with his wife, Dale Evans, and of course his horse, Trigger.

I knew about this several weeks in advance and the anticipation and excitement built every day for me. On the day before we were to film the commercial my mom called me into the kitchen and gave me a brand new hat to wear. I remember trying very hard to be appropriately thankful and excited, but I hated the hat. It was not at all a traditional cowboy hat. It was more of a flat top hat and more round than oblong. It was not the style Roy Rogers wore in the old movies I had seen. My mom was so excited about it and she never said anything about it being a Roy Rogers style. She said she just thought I needed hat to wear for the commercial. I was in a pickle. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I sure didn’t want to wear that hat!

I was up early the next morning to eat breakfast and be ready to go. After breakfast my dad said it was time to go and I ran to my mom, gave her a kiss, and then ran out and hopped in the truck. I “accidentally” forgot to get my hat out of my bedroom. We arrived at the resort and I helped to get my horse saddled and ready and about an hour later, Roy Rogers showed up. When he walked up, he was wearing a hat that was nearly identical to the one my mom had bought for me. I panicked. I ran to my dad and told him I had forgotten my hat, but alas, it was too late to go home to get it.

Of course, Roy Rogers, was incredibly nice and had no idea about my missing hat. I got my photo taken with him, got to talk to him for a few minutes, and then had an incredible learning experience shooting a commercial all day long. I was amazed at how many times we would take the same shot. I was amazed to learn that it wasn’t filmed in the order that it would run. For example, we shot the opening scene and ending scene of the commercial back to back. Roy Rogers finished up all of his part by lunch time and then the rest of the day was spent shooting footage for the middle of the commercial.

When I got home that night, my mom was a little disappointed that I had forgotten the hat. She had gone to some trouble to find the hat. I think she probably knew that I didn’t like the style, but she didn’t try to make me feel bad about it. I can tell you that I wore that hat out though over the next several months. I made sure I didn’t forget it for show-and-tell day when I took my photo in to show the class. I learned a valuable lesson that day: sometimes, (nearly always), moms are right.

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