The Badge

I can’t remember when I acquired this badge.  I don’t recall if it was during one of my trips there, or whether it was snagged in a yard sale.

But the truth of the matter is – I had to do this on Sunday.

Yesterday I went to the Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom amusement park.  I actually received discounted tickets for Sunday’s attendance, thanks to a promotional program with my local credit union  – $20/person got us parking, admission, a picnic lunch, and free soda refills – all-inclusive for one day only.

Can not go wrong with that.

Yes, I did the usual traditional things that I do upon visiting the park – I rubbed the nose of Porcellino the pig for good luck; I rode on the Comet – front seat, natch – and I e walked around the Great Escape, riding whatever rides I could (the Raging River and Storytown Train Station were not operational that day, but I  had fun on the Alpine Bobsled and the swan boats instead).  It was a fantastic time.

But there was one important place I needed to visit.

See, earlier this year, Sheriff Wild Windy Bill McKay, the sheriff of the park’s Ghost Town Western area, passed away.  For 50 years, he gave out little tin badges to all his junior marshals, and we all promised to behave ourselves and go to school and become good citizens.

At one point, I had several of these badges – the original one from the first time I went to Storytown U.S.A. back in I think 1974; and several Great Escape badges that I acquired either through eBay purchases or park visits (Sheriff McKay didn’t discriminate on the age of a junior deputy).

I lost a lot of the badges during my move from a house in Pine Hills to my new apartment. Somehow, though, one of the badges did survive the move.  I found it in a box yesterday.

Later in the day, I went to Ghost Town.  The best way to enter Ghost Town is through a tunnel in the Storytown part of the amusement park.  You pass a skylight – where you see dozens and dozens of dried wads of chewing gum – and once you see daylight, you’re in Ghost Town.

I walked around the structure, took a ride on the Steamin’ Demon and the Canyon Blaster, and I went into the old sheriff’s office, where people could pose for pictures inside the sheriff’s jail cell.  How many families pretended to “lock up” daddy or kid sister and take a picture of them behind bars?

Up on the wall of the sheriff’s office was a picture of Sheriff McKay, along with Lady Marshal Tommy Atkins and the Deputy Marshal puppet Oogie.  Awesome.  I didn’t see this the last time I was at the Great Escape, and it’s great to see that the park took a moment to remember its goodwill ambassador.

I knew what I had to do.  I carefully placed the badge on the picture.  The kindness that Sheriff Wild Windy Bill McKay did for all of us was more than anyone could ever anticipate.  He was a part of our childhood and he will always be part of our lives.

Oh, and just so you know, I wrote a small message on the back of the badge.  Sometimes a symbolic gesture is just that – and sometimes it’s more.

I walked through some more of Ghost Town, and I thought things were done.

Then I saw something that surprised me.  It sounded as if there was something going on in the main streets of Ghost Town.

Naw, it couldn’t be.

It couldn’t be… but it WAS!

There were three actors – one playing a sheriff and two playing bank robbers – as part of a “High Noon Holdup,” a Wild West showdown, complete with interactions with the audience and blank-loaded gunplay.  It wasn’t the same as the old Wild Windy Bill McKay show, but I don’t think it should have been.  This was a new Wild West show for a new audience.  And it was an appreciative audience.  People afterwards posed for pictures with the actors; I even snapped a few shots for people who wanted all of their friends in the picture.

After the show ended, I asked the actors how long they had participated in this show.

“We started this year,” the sheriff said.

I asked if they knew of the legacy of Wild Windy Bill McKay.

They nodded and said they appreciated all he did, and they hoped to continue the legacy – at least for the rest of the 2011 season.

This actually touched my heart.  For the longest time, I thought that the Great Escape would have given up another part of its Storytown past.  Thankfully, the addition of a new Wild West show in Ghost Town – even if it isn’t Wild Windy Bill McKay – is a step in the right direction, and I applaud the park’s directors for adding the Wild West show.  As I said before, it wasn’t in the same vein as the old Wild Windy show, but that show was for my generation – and this new Wild West show is for a new generation.

Seeing that show made me glad to return to the Great Escape.