Shelley Winters

            On Sunday morning I started posting “J'suis snob" by Boris Vian and "Leur plaisir sans moi" by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog. I finished posting the Gainsbourg song.

            I moved my desk out and spent an hour washing the floor where it sits. I rubbed my elbow a bit raw from leaning on it as I scraped plaster out of the wood. I’ve finally finished cleaning the front part of my living room floor but I won’t consider that part of the project done until I've washed my desk.

            I had crackers and cheese for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did some exercises and then took a bike ride. I decided to extend the ride from Bloor and Ossington to Bloor and Bathurst. I went south on Bathurst to Queen and it was already starting to rain. It came down pretty hard until Dovercourt. If I hadn’t extended my rid I probably would have made it home before getting wet.

            I worked on my journal.

            I had two Jamaican beef patties for dinner with a beer while watching "Wagon Train".

            The story begins with a young rider named Jimmy approaching the wagon train campsite at evening while we hear the sound of a woman singing the mournful traditional folk song, “The Wayfaring Stranger". The singing woman's name is Ruth Owen and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was played by the great Shelley Winters. It was the first time I’d seen Shelley Winters on television when she was still young.

            Ruth is singing to her little girl. She’s travelling to the Pacific Northwest with her daughter and the child’s stepfather. The rider arrives at the camp and tells a man named Lank he’s looking for his sister. He says she used to work in St Jo in a big fancy place called The Satin Slipper. The man knows the place and laughs because the young rider doesn’t realize what kind of a place The Satin Slipper is. He asks the boy what his sister did there and he answers that she was a waitress. The man says, “Don’t make me laugh! Only one kind of woman works in a place like that and we ain’t got that kind. Ain't no fancy women on this train." "Are you callin my sister that?" "You're the one that said it, not me!" "You better take it back!" "I ain't takin nothin back!" Jimmy hits him and says, "You're a liar!" Lank pulls a knife and says, "Nobody calls me a liar!” Lank tells Jimmy he’s going to cut him up real good. He slightly slashes Jimmy’s arm but Jimmy draws his gun and fires, killing Lank. The only witness is Lank’s blind uncle who was sitting nearby. Jimmy runs and the uncle calls for help. The Major is out with Flint looking for water because there is a drought going on. Lank’s family go looking for the killer and find Jimmy. They decide to hang him right away. When Ruth learns that her brother is about to be lynched she goes running out into the prairie looking for the Major. She finds him and he rides back just in time to stop the execution. He promises them a trial when they get to Porter's Creek. Meanwhile Jimmy is in custody but the Major trusts him not to run and unties him. He’s certain that when Jimmy tells his story at the trial he will be found innocent and that he only killed Lank in self defence. Ruth comes to see Jimmy but when he learns that what Lank said about her was true he gives up and refuses to defend himself. He says he doesn’t care if he hangs. Ruth has kept her past a secret from her husband but on the night of the trial when Jimmy refuses to defend himself she comes forward and confesses to everyone, begging them to hang her instead of her brother. Jimmy is moved to finally defend himself and he is found innocent.

            Ruth’s daughter Sarah was played by Wendy Winkelman.

            Shelley Winters grew up poor and struggled for a long time in Hollywood before winning the best supporting actress award for The Diary of Anne Frank. She donated her Oscar to the Anne Frank Museum. She won again for “A Patch of Blue”. She had an argument with Oliver Reed on the Johnny Carson Show over his treatment of women. She stormed off the set but came back with a beverage and dumped it over Reed’s head. She said, “I did a picture in England one winter and it was so cold I almost got married”.