ROY ROGERS COLLECTION

You can talk about your Hopalong Cassidy, and you can talk about your Lash LaRue, and you can talk about your Gene Autry, and you can talk about your Lone Ranger, and you can talk about your Tex Ritter, and you can talk about your Rocky Allan Lane, but after the sun has set in the cloudless Western Sky, and after the dust has settled in the old corral, and after the ranch hands are tucked in their bunks in the bunkhouse, and after the Sons of the Pioneers have sung that last chorus of Tumbling' Tumbleweeds, the greatest of them all, the real one and only, the Man, The King Of The Cowboys, was Roy Rogers, who with his life partner, Dale Evans, and his life horse, Trigger, and his life hard scrabble gang of faithful compadres, Gabby Hayes, Andy Devine, Slim Pickens, Buckwheat, Larry & Shemp, Harpo, Indjun Joe, some kind of Jeep they called LollyBelle or something like that, and all of them, the whole lot of them, they fought for truth, justice and the American Way in the Great American West way out West, and after those rough days of ridin' and ropin', they sat around the campfire, in the cool of the evening, relishing that last forkful of grub, and singing Happy Trails as the little prairie dogs poked up their little heads up out of their little holes like in the Walt Disney animal shows on TV, and you know, we were there with them, singing along, part of the gang, rubbing elbows, because when we were just little tykes, just little sapling's, just knee high to a grasshopper, just little cowpokes with our hats and vests and genuine Roy Rogers chrome plated revolver cap pistols with neat leather holsters and belt buckles that shined just like the silver in Roy's bolero bandana holder, we watched Roy save the girls on the railroad tracks, and run the cattle rustlers out of Dodge, and capture the bandits before they were able to heist the gold out of the bank, and shoot off at least fifty perfect shots from that trusty nickel plated Colt six shooter without even having to reload as he fought off the Indians trying to stop the train out in the middle of nowhere and rob all the passengers, and yes, we were there with them, because every Saturday, we rounded up all the change we had saved over the week, and we walked uptown to Islay's for a chipped ham on white bread sandwich and a Klondike, and then we walked across the street, just up from the Loop, where the trolley that came from downtown turned around to make the trip back downtown, right across from the medical building where Dr Bryant had his office on the second floor, because just two doors down was where the Dell Theater was, and we walked to the ticket booth, and we bought our tickets, and bought our popcorn, extra butter, please, and stepped across the sticky floors to seats in the middle, and started chanting, 'We Want The Show,' and then, the lights went down, and the curtains opened, and it was seventeen cartoons, then the next installment of the Buster Crabbe Serial, and then, what we had waited for, the Roy Rogers Movie, and we saw every one of them, and some of them twice, and some of them more, so when we were redoing the second floor at The Institute, and we realized that across from the auditorium, there was some idle space, enough space, in fact, to have a space for a space where we could set up our Roy Rogers Museum and Memorabilia Space, we decided to do it, so we did, and we cleared out the space to make the space for the Roy Rogers Space, and we did it, so when you are here for a visit, plan on at least half a day to see everything in the space, and even more important, if you have some stuff that you think should be here in our space instead of taking up space there or where ever it is now, you can pack it up and bring it along with you, and we'll put it in our space, and if you don't think you'll be coming over soon, send over a note, and we will be able to send you shipping instructions to our space, because we would like this dedicated space to be really a nice space in The Institute, a really great part of The Institute, because, in our opinion, this would be good.