Tarzan on Kirtland AFB

In the summer of 1963, I lived in a military housing area on Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque NM.  Our street was lined with identical red brick, military houses and adorned with lots of cottonwood trees – ripe for climbing  I was 4 years old in the summer of 1963.  I had several very good friends on my street: Bill Tinkle, Wolfkin (I don’t remember his last name), and Johnny Crawford.  We lived a very outdoor life and were always getting in to some trouble: playing in the black water they were pouring on the street, climbing our neighbors trees and walls, chasing the girls… and then there was the Tarzan incident.

That day, I know that Johnny and I were playing together.  It is possible that Bill and Wolf were there, saw what was coming and decided to depart.  I don’t remember.  It all started, as it usually did with an innocent game of cowboys and indians.  We had our gun belts, cowboy hats and I had my brand new cowboy boots!  When we played, we would gallop around on our horses and occasionally see a bad guy or Indian and have a 30 second gun battle with our imaginary enemy.  Well, summer in New Mexico is hot and eventually we decided that it was OK for a cowboy to go without a shirt.  After a little while, it became obvious that being a cowboy in New Mexico in the summer was crazy.  One of us came up with the bright idea that Tarzan never seemed over heated and he lived in the jungle.  Well, we sat right down there and took off our cowboy persona – including undies and transformed into Tarzan and, well, Tarzan (I am not sure how we justified the dual superhero, but it didn’t seem to bother us.).

Just as we were about to abandon the cowboy realm of the ground for the freedom of the jungle canopy, I eyed my brand new cowboy boots.  Surely I thought that if Tarzan had a new pair of cowboy boots, he would not abandon them.  Well, I sat right there and put the cowboy boots right back on.  Johnny asked me about this and after I explained my logic to him, he followed suit.

After that, we climbed into the canopy of our cottonwood jungle canopy and transformed into the dual Kings of the Jungle – naked except for a flashy pair of shinny new cowboy boots.  All would have been fine at this point, except we were not climbing a tree in either of our yards. No, the best climbing tree for the “Kings of the Jungle” was in the yard of our neighbor, a woman without children.  I don’t recall her name, but she was the one who, after looking out her kitchen window into the jungles of Albuquerque, had to call the Air Force police and try to explain to them that there were two naked 4 year olds climbing her tree and yelling like animals.  Oh, yea and I am sure she added that they were both wearing an impressive pair of shinny new cowboy boots. 

When the police arrived, there was a lot of repressed laughter as they tried to get us to understand the error of our ways.  I didn’t really understand what they were getting at.  I thought that my only mistake had been to have Tarzan wear the cowboy boots, but I still believe that if he had a brand new pair of cowboy boots, he would have worn them as well.