I've been away from the blog for too long. Work and such kept me away, but now I'm back and ready to get started Dukes blogging again. My new buddy Brad Miller, who I met at Dukes Fan Fair in Nashville along with his lovely wife Lynn, stepped up and agreed to take the reigns for a post. I really appreciate Brad writing this for me. Here is Brad's post: Still a Kid at Heart.
I am like most of you out there and grew up watching The
Dukes of Hazzard. I had all kinds of the
toys as a child and several of the Ertl 1/64 General Lees. After the show went off the air, I would
catch re-runs on Saturdays around lunch time (when the cartoons got finished
they would show an episode of Dukes followed by CHiPs). Then time moved on and so did I to other
things, but I always had my fondness for
the Dukes. I was super excited when I
heard they were going to release all the seasons on DVD and would always get
the latest one. That got my mind back on
the Dukes and I would stay up late (often way too late) after I got off work at
nights to watch some episodes. It was
like it was a new show all over again to me.
We had our first child, Jordan, in 2008 and in 2010 I put in an episode
of Dukes just to see what he thought about it and my son has been hooked ever
since. It is a brand new show to him and
he doesn’t understand that all the actors have aged or passed on in the 30+
years. He is a huge Luke Duke fan and
has his “Luke” blue jeans (as Jordan calls them), cowboy boots and blue plaid
button up shirt that he wears quite often.
We took him to the reunion in Byron, GA this past spring and he got to
meet his hero. Having Jordan be such a
fan of the Dukes has gotten me back to my childhood and into collecting Dukes
items. I don’t have a huge collection
but it continues to grow and my wife is very understanding (as long as I keep
her stocked with shoes and purses lol).
If I had to pick one item to be my favorite it would have to be the
latest Auto World 1/18 General Lee because of the detail and accuracy. Sentimental wise it would have to be the
Dixie horn that I finally had installed on my truck. It was my grandfather’s and I remember being
Jordan’s age and have him blow the horn all the time.
We took Jordan to the reunion in Byron, GA this past spring
and he got to meet his hero.
The other Good Ol’ Boy was there too.
One of the guys there had this General Lee and was nice
enough to let Jordan slide in the window.
I thought I would share some of my collection with you. I have one each of the General Lee r/c cars
the 1/10 and the 1/18. It is very
tempting to take them out and run them around the driveway but I must stay
strong.
This picture shows (left column, top) the 1/24 General Lee
and the model 1/24 General, the most recent release of Rosco’s patrol car, and
the older release of the patrol car with the wrong light bar. The other side (top) has the 1/24 Styleized
General, the 1/18 General with sound effects (Dixie horn, engine revving, and Duke boy yell), Auto World 1/18 car, and
the 1/18 General with 1/64 car.
Here are some puzzles, calculators, card games, cds, board
game, and still wrapped tv tray.
Some unused coloring books.
Some other 1/64 and 1/144 cars, unpunched stunt buster, Dukes
glasses (after Larry did his blog on those, I had to have a set haha), and a
great “01” mousepad that I found on eBay.
These are really nice items that I got at Cooter’s Place in
Nashville, TN or you can get them online at cootersplace.com. I just installed the trailer hitch cover and
the license plate frame on my truck today.
I have the signs hanging in my garage.
Thank you for letting me share some of my collection and
story with you. Thanks also to Larry for
posting this for me. His dedication to
the Dukes is unsurpassed. He puts a lot
of hard work into this blog and bringing Dukes collectors together and he
should be commended for that. Keep up
the great work Larry!
Brad Miller
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