The Time Machine

By Will "Cherokee Slim" Lacey

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Going West

Here a while back some buddies and I got together and formed a club.
Most of us are in Junior High School now, barely off the elementry rug.
We're just your average run of the mill startin' in teenage guys
Who are anxious to explore the universe and breathe the Roy Roger's skies.

We've all taken western nicknames like Slick and Roper and Grizz
And Tex and Thunder Eagle just like in real show biz.
They all call me Cherokee Slim. Then there's Bandit, Buck, and Durango,
And Chippewa and Dusty and Cowboy and Cheyenne and Colorado.

One day we all brought wood to this tree and together we built a fort,
But sometimes it's real spaceship and sometimes a huntin' resort.
Whatever fits our imagination, it winds up doin' just fine.
But here lately we've had a problem and it's kinda gettin' out of line.

One afternoon on the spur of the moment, we dubbed it a time machine,
And let our imaginations run wild like they do in them magazines.
We all sat down and concentrated and said magic words and jerked,
Then amazingly, and I'm tellin' the pure truth, the darn thing really worked!

First we had Cowboy to get up and write "Yesterday" on the wall.
Then we visited the Untamed West. We really were standin' tall.
I guess the brains of fourteen juvenile boys all operating in sync
Created an unforgettable Jules Verne trip and we were there inside a blink.

We saw Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill and all of Custer's Gang,
And for about the next four hours, it was draw, shoot 'em dead, bang bang.
Then after about an hour of playin' tag and marbles and blind man's bluff,
We decided to try that thing again. We just hadn't had enough.

This time I said we done "Yesterday," now let's try for "Tomorrow."
But that Cowboy Kid not knowin' how to spell, up'n wrote on the wall "The Marr."
Well we wound up in this big ranch house in this little valley town.
It was the Marr Ranch in California. Oh what a surprise we'd found!

The Marr Ranch house is really neat though, and it looks like a movie lobby,
And it's got pictures of our movie heroes like Red Ryder, Gene, and Hoppy.
But we're forty years in the future and we all look older'n our Pa's,
Bald heads and beards and wrinkledy skin and double chins and jaws.

The Lady of the house, Miss Nancy, said the only way we can get back
Is to spy clues in a B-Western movie and there's a thousand of 'em on the rack.
And she said we could only watch one movie a week just after the Wed-Nite fights,
So we congregate there weekly hoping that night's the night.

We've all taken secret identities like Will and Dave and Ron,
And are trying to adjust to this future world and trying to get along,
But I hope we find the right movie soon just between you and me,
'Cause it's a much simpler world where we belong in nineteen fifty-three.

By Will "Cherokee Slim" Lacey - November 29, 1994

Will Cherokee Slim Lacey