Over the years I have been complimented on my writing. Thank you! But in school I never excelled in English or grammar. And if you knew Ernest, he won buckles for his writing, and published three books.
In a phone conversation with grandpa, I asked him about his writing style. He said, “Tobe, so many people wanna make the story more than it is by colouring it up; a lot of time, you don’t need to; you just tell it how it is.’ The more I read his articles and stories, the more I realise less is more….not to say I don’t overdo0 pop it, but I try to paint a picture.
Ernest didn’t have ‘that’ Facebook, but I would show every picture and let him read what I posted I think he realized I was ok at story telling. Truth be told, he wrote his stories and my grandma, Peggy, corrected and fixed a lot of his errors. He wouldn’t admit any typos or grammatical errors. Man those nights of staying over at the ranch house and sleeping on the pull out crouch…Peg pounding away on the typewriter for Ern. Weird to think I have all those stories he wrote and she typed in boxes here in my office.
Ernest passed away in 2018 & Peg in 2021…think about them a lot, but with Feek’s Vision official release date coming, both are on my mind more than usual.
These pics were capture by Mary Peters at our reenactment at the ranch. Ernest was gone, but I think about how he would have taken over the set, whether Ken liked it or not. I can hear Ernest saying this is accurate and this needs to be changed. I think Ken & I, along with everyone would have loved to have him on set that day.
This arena is built just over the hill from the buildings on our ranch outside Ekalaka. Ken Howie did the majority of it by himself; I was able to help a few days….dad….JO and the girls. I remember the day of filming….the clothing was period correct, no cell phones on site, and I couldn’t believe locals were putting their cars and wagons out there….risking a Tooke bronc tearing some shit up. It was just perfect—one of my favourite days.
We ran out of beer…the weather clouded up, so filming stopped….LIGHTING….Ken is a wizard with lighting, so we had to stop production. So Mac Tooke jumped on the motorcycle and rolled up the hill with the only cell phone on set that could call Ekalaka…
“Dawg House?”
Bartender (guessing it was Charlie): “Yes, can I help you?”
Mac: “ Hey, how many you got in there on a Sunday?”
Bartender “A couple; why?”
Mac “Well, we are out here on the movie set at the Tooke ranch, and we are out of beer; you bring us a couple of cases?”
An hour or so later…we had beer on set.
Granted we had to toss the girl in the cooler out to keep the beer cold. Gotta love small towns!
The more drinks we got in the cowboys…I realised we might need even more beer. But unfortunately, the sun was going down. So Ken shut down the cameras, but we had cowboys saying ‘CAN WE RUN ONE MORE THROUGH.”
My grandma was there that day, and I remember her telling me, ‘I wish your grandpa were here; he would love this!”….I just smiled and hugged her and said, “Me too, and your hat looks silly!”…you can see her in some of the shots, but here is a pic; it looks more like a mug shot!
Some of you wonder how authentic this documentary is…we have a hall of fame cowboys, we have contractors with our bloodlines, we have Feek’s family and friends….and we pulled off a 1940s rodeo on the Tooke Ranch just like the Tooke boys did almost nine decades ago.
With a world filled with screens and crime and lots of bullshit….that day will stand with me forever…a simpler time…people horseback, people talking & laughing. I wish there were more of that today.
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