Reaching Back To Older Hero's

 Had a long week. Returned to my hometown of Schodack N.Y. to attend a funeral. My cousins husband. A simple funeral , at his request he was buried with a pack of cigarettes {that's hard core} and little talk of God at the funeral , also at his request. If he was one thing he was consistent. But he left me something. He knew of my interest in history and archaeology. He left me an odd piece from the past. A plague from the late forties or early 50's. On it was something called The Lone Ranger Creed. A cereal box prize. I guess he wanted to leave me something of how he actually thought. I will not bore you with it's substance , if you want you can Google it. But this must have meant something to him. The Lone Ranger was a hero of old time radio and for the most part the black & white TV era. He was a good 20 yrs older than me so I suspect this was from the radio days. So , later as I drove back home to 11509 a bit weary  I thought about this keep sake he left me to ponder. He knew I like playing detective with objects and artifacts I find along the way. Well......as of late we have detoured a bit in society towards some of the older style of hero's. The revival of Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey and Jude Law. Johnny Depp is currently filming a remake of the Lone Ranger for Disney. After that Depp is scheduled to play the detective hero of the 30's and 40's The Thin Man. Yes Nick and Nora Charles will be back on screen in a couple of short yrs. The latest 007 flick is being filmed  as I write this. A friend of my daughter told her of seeing some of the filming in London. Bond started out in the early 50's.  Of course a personal favorite The Saint is in the process of being revived for a new TV series and or movie. Personal favorite because the author Leslie Charteris knew my aunt socially in Ocala Florida. The Saint goes back to 1928 the rest  , the 1930's or for Holmes 1890's. So , some hero's are hard to kill , there was even a Green Hornet movie last year though not well received. The Hornet goes back to the 30's.  So does this piece of cereal box history mean something other than an e-bay item for the collector. Well.....?  Well considering that old geezers are not the demographic movie makers are going for maybe it says that these characters are the cultural template from which we all have sprung. Some may feel at home or easy with this template. It may also simply say a good story is still a good story no matter how distant the cultural references may be. But what ever this trend may or may not mean.......I will be taking my older Grand kids to see the Lone Ranger , will attend for over the 20th time a James Bond opening night this November. Drag the long suffering wife to see the The Thin Man because she is all to well aware of my enjoyment for that genre of detective flick and await the return of a man known for a halo over his not all ways honest head. The gift is now in my file cabinet among some of my other collections of  various artifacts. It will be there for some time to come.