The Origin Of Species
By Wyatt Earp | July 4, 2008
So, after a terribly busy night at work, I came home to a sleeping wife, two sleeping children, and one sick boy. Erik, my four-year old has been battling a stomach virus for three days, and when he isn’t fighting a fever, he’s throwing up. I needed a break.
Luckily, I found that break, courtesy of The History Channel. God, I love that network!
You see, early this morning, THC was showing Tombstone. It is arguably my favorite movie of all time, and obviously, the inspiration for my nome de plume here on the blog. Did I ever tell that story? Well, I reckon I had better.
On January 29th, 2004, I started my first blog. It was called “Middie Back!” which is a lacrosse term. It was simple – like me – but had a small cult following. The blog lasted for a little over a year, until I made the biggest mistake of my blogging life: I deleted the blog because of a couple of trolls. A year’s worth of posts – gone. Actually, that was the second biggest mistake of my blogging life. The first was linking Captain America. Ha!
Any hoo, after a six-month absence, I came back by popular demand (Yeah, right!) and created the little slice of heaven you’re reading now. I needed a catchy name for the blog, and thought Support Your Local Gunfighter covered all of the bases. It was a hat tip to Tombstone, highlighted the fact that I am a police officer, and was a suggestion to the people in the city and county of Philadelphia – many of which couldn’t care less if all of us lived or died.
Now, all I needed was a name. I went by my real name in the last blog, and we all saw where that got me, so I used Wyatt Earp. Yeah, Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday was the stronger character in the film, but Wyatt was a little more like the real me. Fairly quiet, but ready to pistol whip someone who tried to hurt my family and friends. I adopted the name, and it stuck.
Even when my real name got out there after landing the gig at Family Security Matters and the radio interviews, people still referred to me as Wyatt – not only on the blog (as I’d like them to do), but in e-mails. After three years, I have come to a point where I’ll answer to either in person. It’s both creepy and cool.
Two years ago, my family and I had the pleasure of going to Tucson, Arizona to visit my son Kevin’s godparents – Kevin and Deanna. The only thing I requested from the trip was that we visit Tombstone. I felt if “Wyatt Earp” didn’t stop there on his vacation, it would be sacrilege. We went, and it was the only day of the week that it rained. In fact, it poured. Maybe Wyatt thought I was not deserving of the name. We stayed, anyway, and had a blast, but the re-enactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral was canceled. Dang
So, here we are. Me, your humble host, and you, my terrific readers. Why not pull up a stool, grab a whiskey, and watch my favorite movie?
Topics: Movies, Site News | 4 Comments »
July 4th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Husband and I also watched it; it was on last night as well.
After watching Gettysburg (we watch that every July 1-3, ya see) I had quite a Sam Elliot fix.
Yum…
July 4th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Great movie.
July 4th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
GroovyVic – I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t seen Gettysburg yet. I heard it was terrific, though.
RT – Yes, it is.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
What????
And it is good, a lot better than the prequel..and I was in that one…