I had my coonskin and my replica Ol' Betsy and the records and.........I really loved Davy Crockett and all of his adventures with his pal Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen). Fighting the Injuns or with Big Mike Fink, he was the hero of my early youth.Looking back on it now I can't begin to describe how important that Davy was to a 5 year old......or at least to this one.
Years later I read something Jim Kunen wrote that struck me as both funny but also had some truth behind it. The things that Davy did and said played a large part in many of our lives even though I doubt we knew it. The show taught some value lessons and morals and especially Davy's advice that a "man has to do what he thinks is right." The 60's came along and as our generation came of age we began to question what the was going on in the world, in Civil Rights, and race relations, and Vietnam. Davy's advice was right there for us..........Poor old conservative Walt may have helped to raise up a whole generation of radicals!
BTW, as an interesting note here, we had a 'Catter around here for a long time who still drops in occasionally who was cast as an "Injun" in the series and spent his time running around in the woods. He wore a necklace in the show that he kept and it became his hatband in later life.
And for the definitive and long version of the song, listen to "Riders in the Sky" as they do The Ballad of Davy Crockett with the lyrics so you can sing along!