Saturday 9: Bonanza

Saturday 9: Bonanza (1959)
 
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
 
1) Bonanza ran on NBC for 14 seasons. Today it's rerun on Me-TV and TVLand. Were/are you a fan?

A. I watch it sometimes. I wasn't even born in 1959, so it wasn't "must see" TV during its original run as I was quite young.

2) The show centers on The Cartwrights, who lived on a massive ranch in Nevada. License plates in Nevada read, "The Silver State." What's on your license plate?

A. The Blue Ridge Mountains, with a Hollins University Alumnae thingy around the license plate.

3) Ben Cartwright made his fortune as a cattle rancher. What's the last beef dish you ate?

A. A hamburger. I'm a cattle farmer. Not big enough to be a rancher.

4) Patriarch Ben had his eldest son, Adam, with his refined, bookish first wife, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died in childbirth. Still Adam inherited her love of the written word. What's the last book you finished?

A. The last audio book I finished was Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. The last book I read was Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier. The last nonfiction book I read was In Pieces, by Sally Field.

5) Ben's second son, Hoss, was born to his second wife, Inger, who was killed as the family traveled West by wagon train. Hoss inherited her open, friendly manner and her way with animals. Are there pets in your home?

A. No. I'm allergic to animals. I do own a herd of cows.

6) Ben's youngest, Joe, arrived after Ben married a third time to the passionate Marie, who died in a riding accident when her son was only five years old. Little Joe inherited her impetuosity. Do you consider yourself more spontaneous or predictable?

A. Predictable, I suppose.

7) Samuel Clemons was a reporter in Virginia City at the time when the Cartwrights would have been there, and a fictionalized version of Mr. Clemons appeared in an episode of Bonanza. Without looking it up, do you know Samuel Clemons' famous pen name?

A. Mark Twain.

8) Hair was a big deal in the Bonanza dressing room. Three of the original four stars -- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker -- all wore hairpieces. (The fourth, Michael Landon, began dying his hair while still in his 20s because he was going prematurely gray.) Have you ever worn a wig or a hairpiece?

A. No.

9) Random question -- Tell us the story behind one of your scars.

A. I have a huge scar on my chest, right in the middle of breasts. It is longer than my fingers and has side marks on it. The scar is the result of a mole that was on my chest when I was born. The mole was shaped like a bullet and had a white spot in it. My father was a policeman when I was born and my mother considered the bullet-shaped mole to be a sign that my father would be shot if he didn't quit the police force (he did eventually).

When I was five years old, the doctors removed the mole because apparently it was precancerous. All I remember about the operation is being wheeled into surgery, my parents left behind while I screamed for my mother, and then being in a room and my aunt visiting me and throwing up and nearly passing out from the lingering odor of ether. That was what they used for surgery back then. I also remember the doctor calling the bandages "butterflies." When I was of age I was supposed to have plastic surgery to hide the scar, but I never did.

In grade school and beyond, I used the scar to get out of physical education class. I hated PE. I used to tell my gym teachers at the beginning of every year that I had a heart condition and show them my big scar (which is right over my heart) and they believed me. So if I had a day when I didn't want to do gym, I simply told the PE teachers that my heart wasn't feeling good and they would let me sit out of the exercises. I guess that makes me a sneaky little liar, doesn't it? Or very smart. Or both.

I didn't use the excuse often; after I "became a woman" it came in handy when I had bad cramps and had an unsympathetic PE teacher. (Incidentally I had a hysterectomy at 29; I had severe endometriosis.) I frequently made the A-B honor roll simply because I almost always received a B in gym. Otherwise I would have been a straight-A student (and was occasionally - I graduated 5th in my class so it didn't hurt my grades much).

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