I’m feeling good right now, so, why not?
Hey, remember this song? The Davy Crockett craze of the 1950s, kicked off by Walt Disney’s TV episodes? I never got the coonskin hat, but I had Davy Crockett T-shirts, a genuine cardboard Davy Crockett log cabin, a Davy Crockett cup, and even a Davy Crockett marionette. The fad was about the biggest fad there ever was, while it lasted.
How young Fess Parker looks in that picture!
Here’s one thing you should remember about the real David Crockett.
When he was elected to the House of Representatives, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. He loved being a Congressman–the campaigning, the speechifying, being in on important public business: not bad at all for a man born into poverty on the wild frontier.
And yet, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to go along with his president (Andrew Jackson), his political party, and popular opinion, Rep Crockett absolutely refused to support the president’s “Indian removal” policy–that is, forcibly evicting the Native Americans from their lands. He opposed it because it was unjust and wrong. Knowing it would cost him his beloved political career, and that his opposition was futile, he opposed it nevertheless, and swore he would oppose it even if he were the only man in America to stand against it. And that was the end of David Crockett, Congressman. When he ran for re-election, he was creamed.
No one ever heard him say he wished he’d saved himself by voting for a wicked policy that was bound to go forward no matter what he did.
Father in Heaven, send us more like him!
I agree with you that God needs to send more singular-thinking men like Davy Crockett. I had a kiddie version of a coonskin cap and a fringed shirt which I wore until they both got wore out. I was a tomboy during the time of the television Crockett popularity and Davy was a hero to me. My husband and I went to San Antonio to see our son graduate from basic training in the Air Force. We visited the Alamo while we were there. What those men, including Davy and Jim Bowie, went through at the hands of Santa Ana gave me pause to think. I’m originally from Philadelphia but Tennessee is Crockett Land and I enjoy seeing this place or that named for Davy. I liked your post.
I’ll make you a deal, Marge. You can drink White Rock orange soda out of my Davy Crockett cup, if I can wear your coonskin hat.
I love that story. Davy Crockett was a real hero…. and when he lost that election, he went on to fight and die at the Alamo. What a man.
And Fess Parker didn’t do a half bad job, either!
The only evidence I have of my old coonskin hat is in a photograph with my grandmother. My sister and I are standing with her in our neighborhood park, one on each side of her. My husband and I bought coonskin hats for our grandkids a couple years back but I don’t know what they did with them. I don’t think they understood what’s so special about that hat. When they are here, I try to zone them on American history. When we lived in Philadelphia, historical sites nearly were at our doorstep. All it took was carfare for the bus to take us to Olde City Philadelphia. Here, in TN, is history as well. I’m still learning about Old Tennessee. When we take our grandkids somewhere historical, I’m learning along with them. And speaking of cups: several years ago a coworker gave me as a gift a thermal mug with a printed image of Davy on the front with Vols on the back. I’ve never seen any other like it. I used it quite a lot until one of my sons decided to take it with them when they went fishing. And that was the end of that! ………Do you still have a Crockett cup?
Oh, good heavens, no! I was six or seven years old at the time, and with all the moves my family made over the years, most of the old stuff disappeared.
Lee, I just found out recently that Ben Franklin was fond of wearing a coonskin hat.
I was 13 in 1955. I really enjoyed those TV shows. Thank you for the history, Lee. Is there a full history of Davy Crockett someplace?
Oh, sure–“The Frontiersman” by Mark Derr is a good book to start with.