NOTE: This is a bit of history. The references to “Indians” are made because in those days we didn’t know better. I intend no insults to First Nations, Native Americans, or Indigenous People. In fact, from the age of 4, I idolized them.
In the days before television there was radio, and two evenings of every week my father and I would tune in to the broadcast of a program called “Straight Arrow”.
The basic plot centered on a mild-mannered rancher named Steve Adams, a Comanche Indian who was taken in by ranchers very early in life. He kept a beautiful palomino steed named Fury hidden in a secret cave, and every episode told the tale of Steve sneaking off to that cave and then emerging astride the horse in war paint and “Indian” garb while shouting “Ken-ee-wah, Fury!” a supposed Indian war cry. He would then right the wrong and “disappear” without a trace, leaving the beneficiaries of his rescue or good deed to wonder (as the beneficiaries of The Lone Ranger wondered) who he was. The only one who shared Straight Arrow’s secret was his trusty “whiteman” sidekick, Packy McCloud. I began calling my father “Packy”, and I continued to call him that until he died a few months shy of his 90th birthday.
In 1949, ‘though my father was never very “crafty”, he obtained a good quantity of lightweight canvas and made two tents: a small wall-tent for himself and my mother, and a teepee for me. He then painted “indian” designs on on the teepee. On my first camping trip, we slept in those tents in a campsite at Eighth Lake in the Adirondacks. That was my introduction to family camping and to the Adirondacks, the love of which I never outgrew.
Here’s a link to the first episode of Straight Arrow: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Straight%20Arrow%20radio%20show&mid=B7345D9BF1A1185646ADB7345D9BF1A1185646AD&FORM=VIRE&fbclid=IwAR3bkj2G0Q518e2za3W_CBBcUwfuB8qYp6r5uVOUIGWqSgqny1vAB_V_WdU
Wizened Wizard 