A week or so ago on FAMILY FEUD was a family with the surname "Huckleberry." I thought that was pretty coo,l because I like the word "Huckleberry." I like the way it sounds, for one thing. I like the way they taste, too, although, I must admit to seldom having eaten them. Most importantly, I like the word for reasons nostalgic, literary, and cinematic.
First, the nostalgic. When I was in 5th grade, the Kellogg's company had a contest on their cereal boxes. On the back of the cornflakes was a picture of HUCKLEBERRY Hound looking down a hillside at his friend Yogi Bear. Yogi was running under a tree and by a lake with a bunch of bees chasing him. The challenge was, in "25 Words or Less," to create a scenario for Huckleberry to save Yogi. I did and sent it in, hoping to be one of the 1000 kids who would receive a stuffed Huck or Yogi. Of course, mega-thousands of kids entered, so I didn't think I'd win, but, lo and behold, a couple of months later, a box from the Kellogg's company arrived for me. Inside was a stuffed Yogi Bear. I'd won! I didn't get Huck as I'd hoped, but the heroics I created for the hound had made me a winner. I had received a major award!!
Second, the literary. Time passed and I became a high school English teacher, who loved the novel THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Through the years, I dragged hundreds (perhaps thousands) of students through the study of it whether they wanted to come along or not. Mark Twain is one of my literary idols, and I love his masterly character HUCKLEBERRY. Oh, "shet de frunt door," I hope a few of the hundreds got a kick out of the monstrously mora, shoelessl 12 year old.
My final reason for liking the word is the cinematic one. It required some research to find out where the expression of the title, "I'll be your Huckleberry," came from. At a website called "The Wonder of Words," I found that when someone said that in years gone by, it meant "I am the perfect man for the job." I first heard a variation of the saying in one of my favorite modern westerns TOMBSTONE. Val Kilmer, in an Oscar-nominated performance, plays Doc Holliday, the pale, sweaty, alcoholic and tubercular gunfighter friend of Wyatt Earp. Before Doc takes it upon himself to gun someone down, he (Kilmer) says in a raspy horrible voice, "I'm your Huckleberry." Then the person to whom he was speaking starts shaking because his time is near, because when it came to killin' Doc was the perfect man for the job. It is one of those great, scary movie moments, and, darn it all, isn't there a HUCKLEBERRY right in the middle of it.
Why you ask did I create this prose ode to the word "huckleberry?" Because I need to write something. I have been creatively befuddled the last week or so, and it's time I got back to blogging, anyway. That is why.
If you have never seen Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday check out this YouTube video of an "I'll Be Your Huckleberry" moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfbAFgD2mLo
