Always Wanted To Be Daniel Boone

In my childhood there was one television program I never missed and that was Daniel Boone. I can remember today sitting cross legged in front of that old black and white TV, traveling back to a time before the American Revolution. Just imagining what it would have been like to explore the wilderness of America as he did.

And like most boys of the time the adventures witnessed on television always became a part of outside play. While we never actually built a frontier fort it wasn’t hard to imagine a few old logs or dead tree limbs placed just right being just the perfect place to protect us from an Indian attack. And a crudely built tree house was the safest place to watch out for whatever dangers might be lurking outside.

With only a few steps into the woods you could travel hundreds of miles into the badlands where danger lurked around every tree. But Ol Danl’ could defeat any threat, because after all didn’t he kill a bar with old “Ticklicker”. It was fascinating how quickly a toy rifle or a BB Gun could become that same Kentucky Long Rifle that Mr. Boone carried everywhere with him.

And don’t forget that in every show there had to be at least one fist fight, so no adventure would be complete without a play fight or a staged wrestling match rolling on the ground. Even if you somehow really got hit or hurt in any way you couldn’t show it because Daniel Boone was invincible.

Even as the Bible talks about putting away childish things and television shows run their course we all had to grow up. As we grew up the play times ended but the fact we grew up with real heroes never did. You see television shows when we were kids depicted real and even fictional heroes who a young boy could really look up to and pattern his life after.

Even today we would do ourselves well to teach our children about real American heroes who carved this great nation out of the wilderness. The real stories were never as easy as a television show or playtime. They were about people who loved their God, their families, and their country. Men and women who poured their blood into the ground and saw a lot of it spilled in battles to make this country free and great.

As for me I’ll cherish the memories I had playing Daniel Boone, and just as he left his mark on the tree where the bear was killed, my childhood heroes have left their mark on me. Who knows maybe it would do us all good to just stop for a moment, close our eyes, and travel back to those simple days of childhood again.