Dad took a real interest in Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch near Amarillo Texas.  He made several trips there.  He even took Linda Lou and me along on one of those trips, to see the super rodeo that the Ranch put on each year.  In 1949 Dad gave the Ranch 300 pairs of boots from the Ranger Boot Company.

Dennis Powell was one of the boys who spent several years at the Ranch.  He sent me a couple of pictures that he has given me permission to share with you.  The first one is of Dad holding a pair of the boots and the second is of Dad with the superintendent of the Boys Ranch, Dorey Funk Sr., a retired wrestler.

Thanks, Dennis, for sharing your pictures.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to see Mackintosh & T.J., look for it on Amazon.com or on your late-night channels. It is a wonderful film (not that I’m prejudiced). Here are excerpts from the review Rex Reed did on the film when it came out in 1976, and he was a tough critic!

Roy Rogers, a movie legend who still lives in the hearts of little boys like me, has come out of retirement to make this heartwarming, lyrical toast to the New West. He’s exchanged his horse Trigger for a Ford pickup, and wife Dale Evans has been replaced by a shelf of the world’s great books.  The Republic backlot has turned into the real West, with the peppermint mesas and cobalt-blue skies of the Texas panhandle serving as a panoramic backdrop for an affectionate yarn about a dusty cowpoke of yesterday and his bracing friendship with a cocky would-be delinquent of tomorrow.

The film is weak in some of the narrative essentials–plot and conflict–but it has a nice, easy way of defining and developing character.  There’s homespun music by Waylon Jennings, magnificent cinematography, and a sweet gingham softness to the way real people in a still-rough area of America are shown, without Hollywood sensationalism.

Time has been good to Roy Rogers.  He’s in perfect physical shape and has developed into a genuine, deeply moving actor in his autumn years.  The film, like the man, is full of good, healthy thoughts.  It’s the best American Western since Will Penny, offbeat and thoroughly satisfying.

How’s that for a great review?!!!