From time to time I am asked about the sources and, in particular, the veracity of the many anecdotes, incidents, and occurrences that form the basis for Hap’s Corners.
In my half century of competitive shooting I have met a good deal of people, done a good deal of things, seen a good deal of events, heard a good deal going on about me, and have been told a good deal history. It is fitting as shooting has been a very good deal for me. Being blessed with a good ear for a story, a mind that is a sink hole for trivia, and the gift of gab I am able to embroider some nice filigree onto whole cloth.
As a kid The Old Man was a source of great wisdom which I did not truly appreciate at the time. It was a case of the Mark Twain quotation concerning his father, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
The Old Man did his best to keep me on the straight and narrow with his insight. Recognizing my limited potential he insisted on two things: being on time and the truth. He preached that, “If you are ten minutes early you are on time, if you are on time you are late, and if you are late you are forgotten. Being on time,“ he told me,” lets people know that you care about them while being late was rude as it said you were more important than them.”
Truth was simple, “Honesty is not the best policy, it is the only policy, especially if you have a poor memory.” Being truthful meant only having one thing to remember an advantage to his scatterbrained son. This brings us to the subject at hand; the veracity of Hap’s Corners.
One of my favorite western films is The Cowboys. It is a coming of age movie that is one of John Wayne’s better performances, right up there with The Quiet Man’s Shawn Thornton, Ethan Edwards in The Searchers; She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’s Nathan Brittles, and Kirby York from Fort Apache.
It is also one of the eight movies in which Wayne’s character is killed, shot by a gunman in this one and The Shootist, killed by a sniper in both The Fighting Seabees, and Sands of Iwo Jima, speared by a Mexican lancer in The Alamo, drowned in The Wake of the Red Witch, killed in the aftermath of an attack by a giant squid in Reap The Wild Wind, and died in a plane crash at sea in Central Airport. Wayne toyed with death in three other films, he was already dead at the start of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he played a corpse in The Deceivers, and may have died in the ambiguous ending of The Sea Chase.
The Cowboys tells the story of rancher Wil Anderson’s efforts to get his herd to market with the help of a black cook, Jebediah Nightlinger, and a bunch of young boys after his regular crew abandons him to set off for a nearby gold strike. During the cattle drive the boys grow into manhood learning from a strong willed, righteous, and tolerant Anderson that the world is a hard, cruel, and random place where nothing comes easy.
Anderson hires Nightlinger to cook for the drive in a delightful scene where he is asked to give the recipe for apple pie. Nightlinger replies, “Green apples sliced thin, lard, flour salt, water to bind, sugar, cinnamon, a dab of butter. Three slashes in the crust, one for steam and two because your momma did it that way.”
Nightlinger’s character was created by Emmy and Obie award winner Roscoe Lee Browne, an actor with a deep mellifluous baritone voice and patrician air reminiscent of Paul Robeson or James Earl Jones.
After he is hired he shows up in the bunkhouse the night before the drive begins where he menacingly says “It smells of boy in here” as he prepares for bed. The boys are taken aback, and a bit frightened, as they have never before seen a black man. With some trepidation they tentatively ask him a few naive and childlike questions, about his color, to which he answers in a straight forward manner.
After the questions taper off he launches into a poetic monologue about his heritage.
“Ohhh, children… My father was a brawny Moor, six feet six inches tall. He bound his head in a red velvet cloth. He wore a curved sword, forged from the finest Toledo steel. He captured a lady, bright and dark. He took her in his arms and wrapped her in a warm quilt and carried her off. They came to a castle and he battered down the doors with the trunk of an oak tree and KILLED EVERYBODY IN IT, just so they could rest the night. Later, while she slept, he walked the parapets…………. and became a king.”
An awestruck youngster stutters, “Is that true?”
Nightlinger replies, “If it isn’t, it oughta be.”
And that also pretty much sums up the veracity of Hap’s Corners.
