A Letter to Duncan Renaldo

Dear Duncan

I was like a lot of young kids from my time – we loved cowboys. And you, Duncan, as The Cisco Kid, were the most readily available to me on television.

The Cisco Kid!

Those days of the black and white, the rural luxury of two stations – three if the wind was right – saw The Cisco Kid on ABC television in the early evening. Not that my younger sister and I were able to see it very often. That time clashed with the news on our other main station, then a regional television outlet, so we were either watching the news or eating dinner in the television-less kitchen. But we got to see it now and again, most often on occasional overnight stays with our grandmother or on holidays with our great-aunt and great-uncle.

Leo Carrillo - Pancho

Those visits to our great-aunt and great-uncle were a week in our summer school holidays, travelling eighty miles up from home to the small town of Kerang. Aunt Agnes and Uncle Dunc would indulge us and we all watched The Cisco Kid prior to Auntie and Uncle watching the ABC news. And Uncle Dunc used to particular enjoy it when your partner in crime, Leo Carrillo, appeared on the screen. "Pancho!" Uncle Dunc would cry in delight. And we two kids would giggle like mad.

It was that delight of Uncle Dunc that I remember most of all. We adored him and that his delight would always make me feel that much closer to him. Come the end of the program, it was a chorus from Uncle Dunc, my sister and I, all calling out yours and Leo's catch-phrases. "Oh Ceeesco!" "Oh Pancho!"

In fairness, your program was a product of its time; simplistic, predictable. But you also were the means of some very pleasant memories of my childhood. So thanks for that.

Oh Ceeesco!

Regards

Ross

Ross's disclaimer - don't be afraid to make a comment to the blog or hit me up via Twitter or my website. I don't bite. At least not often.