Do you remember "The Comancheros?"

En route to my grandson's graduation last weekend in Colorado, we made a pit stop in Moab, Utah. I actually lived in Moab in 1967. I was sent there by the airline I worked for at the time, Frontier Airlines. My employer had a couple of flights a day in the quiet, sleepy town -- the gateway to Canyonlands National Park.

Boy, have things changed in Moab! It's now a resort town, a stomping ground for bikers and hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. Restaurants and hotels are all over the place. Moab and the Canyonlands area has been the backdrop, so to speak, for many Hollywood movies, including plenty of John Wayne flicks (The Comancheros, released in 1961, comes to mind). In 1967, Paramount Pictures came to town and filmed a Western called Blue and a TV-movie called Fade In. The Western starred Terrance Stamp, Sally Kirkland, Ricardo Montalban, Joanna Pettet and Karl Malden, just to name a few. The TV-movie starred Burt Reynolds. At any rate, on the weekends, our local softball team would take on the Hollywood people. I even have a picture of me standing next to Malden and Montalban...and some of the others.

It was a fun time. I was just 21 at the time. It was an exciting time in my life. I haven't seen either movie in years. My white, Chevy pickup was in the airport scene in the Reynolds'  TV movie.

I know one thing for sure, the Hollywood people were a wild bunch, kinda like I was, back then.