If there’s one thing constant and consistent in my life it’s the tie I have both in mind and heart to Hazzard County.
Funny thing is as close as it could have easily been Shiloh County, as it was in the pilot movie to the Dukes, called MoonRunners. Also narrated by Waylon Jennings with some cover music by Jerry Reed.
The Cooter we see today was not the original Cooter. Cooter was a outlaw contracted to foil the Haig cousins. That is if you ever saw the movie. Young actor then Ben Jones did a cameo as one of the revenue agents, and yes Boregard was a mule, not one driving ye old General. In fact Bobby Lee was one of the Haig cousins. And so it goes.
I think Gy Waldron caved to TV execs when he took the idea of what should have been the Dukes and created what he did , the way he did it.
However not to split hairs, but the outcome has guided my life and has been the center of it from 1977 all the way to now.
Over the years by chance and blessing I have come to know all the cast of the Dukes, my 2nd cousin in real life Richie Montgomery played the radio personality on Hazzard County’s only radio station WHOGG. Oh forgot, 10/90 AM. Ain’t that a twister? Which is how I got tagged our DOH fan club, combined with grassroots hot rod club here in Idaho that you came to know as the Hazzard County Knytes, aka Knytes-of-Anarchy. But because Cousin Richie was the radio guy on the Dukes the club thought in real life I be the radio guy.
However life has as well as God, has other plans.
It was the second night in Salt Lake City, at the 1981 Salt Lake City Autorama, the same night I stupidly turned down the offer of escorting Catherine Back aka Daisy from the show to her hotel room across the street. Our true to life General Lee was in one of the show halls, the TV shows General in the other. The screen had the TV shows bad caved in door covered , and more folks thought ours was the real deal. Guess it shows what happens if you watch carefully.
But trying to sleep that second night, I got to thinking, both me and my friend from what had become in all ways Hazzard Idaho, but neither myself nor Bro looked anything like Bo or Luke Duke, but some erry similarities between Ben Jones’ character and I in real life mirrored each other. We both looked allot alike, in real life I drove a tow truck, so did Cooter, I ran a kountry hot rod shop, in Hazzard, called officially the Hazzard County Garage, so did Cooter.
It was at that point, that I decided that I would concentrate my efforts more on one wicked hot rod tow truck worthy of the Hazzard County Garage, and so it goes.
Over the years I have tried to sideline things Hazzard, I have tried to get away from some of the images , and folklore. But as it was said in the GodFather, every time I try to get away it draws me back in.
I don’t need to try to embark on citing the history of the club, nor do I want to ramble on, as how and why things Hazzard have been the one piece of lifeline that kept me sane after Mom died in 1983, what I will say is this. Dixie Toewing remains, likewise , Hazzard County Choppers.
Now there are those who say, the show nor its supporters etc , never have paid for or offered a red cent to the club, that on more than one account did allot of letter writing and campaigning , likewise lobbying to get then TNN now Spike, CMT’s sister network, to put on the Dukes even reruns of the old show. I would relish it if Alma or Ben would offer me the ability to cut some tapes for Hazzard County Radio and they sell them at Cooter’s Place, But that’s not the way those life lessons of things Hazzard that Uncle Jessie taught. The friendship I have with Alma, Ben and that entire cast right down to Flash is payment enough.
Ben remains the executive President of the Knytes-of-Anarchy, Vee-Pee is John-aka Bo Duke, and so the rest is history.
No matter where I truly live on Earth, from one end of this Union states, the one thing is certain, Hazzard County is not just a place on Earth, but Hazzard County is a place in the heart. Or to put it another way, you can take the man out of Hazzard County, but you can never ever take Hazzard County out of the man. That man is me. And to close, should something ever happen to me I have it in my Will that LexiBelle, my Tow truck, be donated to Ben & Alma to display at Cooter’s Place.
05:38 I need sleep.
Next entry what happened to my General Lee?
L8R Ya’ll
Quote of the Day:
Dishonesty, cowardice and duplicity are never impulsive.
--George A. Knight
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