A fond memory of Tombstone Territory

Whistle me up a memory
Whistle me back where I want to be
Whistle a tune that will carry me
To Tombstone Territory

If your past has run afoul of the law
It’s a handy place to be
cause your future’s just a good as your draw
In Tombstone Territory

Whistle me up a memory
Whistle me back where I want to be
Whistle a tune that will carry me
To Tombstone Territory


Have you ever wondered why someone would want to be back to Tombstone Territory if it was such a dangerous place that "your future's just as good as your draw, in Tombstone Territory"? As a kid I wondered why the singer would ever want to go back to such a horrifying place and time.

I also note that the theme song says that Sheriff Clay Hollister was rather unsuccessful in protecting the weak and nonviolent from the strong and cruel, if a person's future was just as good as their draw. Note the song doesn't give any limitation to the set of persons whose futures depended on their draws. It does mention outlaws in a couple of lines, but if the futures of outlaws were just as good as their draws, it would be a terribly dangerous place for them, and not "a handy place to be". Tombstone Teritory would only be a handy place for criminals to be in if it was the futures of honest citizens that were merely as good as their draws, and the criminals could commit crimes with inpunity because they were better with guns than most people.

Apparently black and white, red and yellow, male and female, old and young, and even little children, were all doomed unless they were handy with guns.

This makes me wonder whether the "tombstone territory" mentioned in the theme song & the title is supposed be the Boot Hill Cemetary instead of the town of Tombstone.

You might guess that most successful murders and other crimes happened outside of Clay Hollister's knowledge, and the episodes showed only those crimes that he learned of and brought the perpetrtors of to justice, or even managed to prevent.

Thus the episodes and the theme song paint contradictory pictures of what it would be like to live in Tombstone and its surroundings.

One reason why the singer would want to go back to Tombstone Territory is the dates. Tombstone terriory was broadcast from 1957 to 1960. The lead actors were Pat Conroy born January 9, 1931, who thus turned 26 in 1957, and Richard Eastham, born June 22, 1916, who thus turned 41 in 1957.

At least some episodes have fictional dates in 1881, thus makiing Sheriff Clay Hollister born in about 1855 and so about 102 if still alive in 1957, a very rare age then - and making Harris Claibourne born in about 1840 and so about 117 in 1957, which would be just about totally impossible.

So the theme song would presumably express the emotions of the centenarian Clay Hollister thinkng about how old and feeble he is in 1957, and how young and strong he was back in 1881, and how much happier he was then. Or maybe the audience is supposed to imagine that Harris Claibourne was narrating the stories in 1927, when he was only 87 years old, and nostaligic for the days of his comparative youth in 1881.

A very old man's nostalgia for the days when he was young and strong and healthy and relatively happy seems to be the logical explanation for wishing to be back in a time and place where crime ran rampant in a terrifying dog eat dog society and someone's future was merely as good as their draw.

And many people in the real world remember how happy they were in their youth, as young adults, or teenagers, or children, and think that life was good for everyone when it was good for them. They they their nostalgia for when they personally were happier cloud their judgement into imagining that past era was a better era, good for everyone, and seek recrate that era,e ven though that will not actually make them younger and happier, nor will it be btter for everyone else - Any chnge they want to make owill probably probably be good for some people, but not for all people.