My Nines Lives Plus One: Horses, Alaska Adventures & The Duke

This blog is about my brother, Eddie Elmo Riddle, born on December 1, 1947. As a little boy growing up Eddie loved John Wayne, horses and guns. Our Dad taught his boys to hunt and fish and to love and appreciate the outdoors--he taught them not to kill for sport, but for food as needed.

Here is a picture of my siblings showing Eddie with a little plastic pinto horse, and probably dreaming of a day when he would have his own filly to raise, which he did. I am sure he never really imagined that one day he would have a real horse of his very own.

Eddie was a responsible son, an obedient son, the quiet one. He still doesn't have a lot to say, but when he does, it is always funny, especially if he is teasing his wife, Sharon. He married Sharon Felkins in June 1967, a few months before our Dad died in November 1967. Sharon was 17 when they married and they will be celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary this year. They've had some great adventures especially when they moved to Anchorage, Alaska in the spring of 1970. Eddie and his business partners decided to take their business to Alaska. Eddie was a sheet-rock finisher and with their first child, Eddie, Jr. (Lil' Ed), Eddie and Sharon moved to Anchorage to work, bought a log cabin, and rode snowmobiles and hunted bear, caribou, moose, and whatever else there was out there to hunt. Sharon said they had a lovely view of Mt. McKinley from their dining room window. Eddie said he loved the Alaskan country and participated in a 100-mile snowmobile race from Anchorage to Talketena. He didn't win, but finished the race and received a "patch". He was around 26 or 27 at the time. They welcomed another baby into their family while living in Alaska--second son John was born on February 22, 1975.

An interesting sidenote about the hunting adventures is how they would be flown to a remote site to hunt for a week to ten days and then picked up at a designated time and place. It's a good thing my brothers shot what they aimed at since there were no cell phones in those days! Our youngest brother, Ricky John, went to Alaska and stayed with Sharon and Ed for about four years. He loves to hunt too!

Above is a picture of Ed's business partner, Roger, in 1973, after he shot a 400 pound, 7-1/2 ft. black bear. I cannot imagine keeping your head about you when aiming at something that huge. It's best to have a good head about you or you might not have one!

Sharon and Ed returned to Oklahoma around 1976 and currently reside at St. Louis, Oklahoma near their sons, John and Lil' Ed, and wife Christy and granddaughters, Emilee and Allison. Now, I simply cannot leave out the part about The Duke. You see, Eddie is a huge John Wayne fan, and you will know that the minute you step into their home--a large painting of "The Duke" adorns the living room wall, painted by an artist from Kansas. Additionally, there is an entire guest room full of cowboy paraphernalia. It's quite an adventure just to visit Eddie and Sharon and spend the night in the room I refer to as the John Wayne Room. Although I haven't had the privilege of sleeping in it yet, because the last time we visited, my sister, Kathy and husband Ron got there first and stayed in it. One reason I refer to it as the John Wayne Room is because of all the pictures and the life-size poster of The Duke that adorns the inside door of the bedroom. I remarked the next morning how lucky she was to go to bed looking at John Wayne, but her comeback was, "Yes, I went to bed with The Duke but unfortunately woke up next to Gabby Hayes". Sorry, Ron, you don't look anything like Gabby Hayes--not yet anyway. Now if you don't know who Gabby Hayes was kids, he was a bearded, toothless character played by George Francis who appeared as a sidekick in numerous cowboy movies along with Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy and others.

Thank you, Sharon and Eddie, for providing such interesting "fodder" and pictures of your Alaska adventure for my stories.