Living in the COVID World ... and Beyond #42: Lucan McCain, Mark, and Me

Last week, I was sick in bed, too tired to read, and looking for light entertainment.

I got lucky!

I watched reruns of two episodes of one of my all-time favorite shows, The Rifleman.

That a western is one of my favorite TV shows might surprise you.   So let me describe the premise of the show.

Lucan McCain is the name of “the rifleman.”   He has that nickname because he has a rapid-fire rifle unlike others that people were familiar with at the time and place (New Mexico territory in the 1880’s).   He is a single dad to his son Mark; his wife having died some years ago.  

What I loved about the show years ago, and still enjoy now, is that Lucas McCain is a man of integrity.  He might be a little stubborn sometimes … but basically, time after time, he figures out to do the right thing for people and for his son.   He is a stand-up guy that can be counted on and he loves his son.   And Mark loves and respects his dad.

I’m going to relate the stories of two episodes, one that I watched last week and can describe in some detail and the other that I probably saw 60 years ago and then again, sometime later.

One Episode

Opening scene is 3 outlaws sleeping around a campfire.  Billy St John shows up, pulls a gun, and has them give him the bag of money from the bank that they robbed.

Second scene is Billy St John, now using the name Mr. Haverstraw, at the general store in North Fork where Lucas McCain and Mark are also shopping.   There is some friendly exchange amongst them.  The general store is also the post office and there is a letter for Mr. Haverstraw.   We learned that it is from his aging mother who will be arriving in North Fork the next day on the stagecoach to see her son on her way to San Francisco to be with her sister. 

We find out Haverstraw has never told his mom that he is an outlaw himself.  Instead, he has told her that he is a rancher, that he is married, that his wife died, and that he has a son.   So, Haverstraw has a dilemma with his mother coming to visit.

Haverstraw’s solution is to pull a gun on Lucas McCain, take away his rifle, and tell him that he will be using McCain’s ranch and son over the next day or two in order to fulfill the story that he has told his mother.

Skipping ahead to the next day, Haverstraw and McCain are waiting for the stagecoach to arrive.  McCain pulls Haverstraw’s gun from his holster and puts it into Haverstraw’s back as the stagecoach arrives.   Mrs. Haverstraw is delighted to see her son after many years of separation, and is clearly a kind, warm older woman.  McCain gives Haverstraw back his gun saying that he has a nice mother and that he’ll go along with the charade.

They all go back to the ranch, Mark meets his “grandmother”, there are numerous details that I’ll leave out. However, Mrs. Haverstraw collapses and Mark and Billy St John’s sidekick go into town to get the doctor.

The 3 outlaws that Billy St John robbed at the start of the episode have been tracking him, they are in North Fork, and they see the sidekick in the wagon with Mark and the Dr.   And they follow the wagon back to the McCain ranch.

As the Dr. tends to Mrs. Haverstraw and reveals to others that she has a serious condition without long to live, the 3 outlaws yell into the house for Billy St John to come out and face them.   Mrs. Haverstraw hears this and asks why they are yelling for Billy St John, the outlaw.   She has read about him in the papers back East and knows he is one of the great outlaws in the West.   Lucas McCain says that he is Billy St John to Mrs. Haverstraw and that her son was kind enough to give him the chance to start afresh but that it looks like his past is catching up with him.  

A gunfight ensues, the sidekick and Billy St John are shot dead, Lucas McCain kills the 3 outlaws, and Mrs. Haverstraw passes away of natural causes believing her son to be a good man.

Second Episode

In this episode, a federal marshal visits North Fork with a native man as prisoner.   The local townspeople want the prisoner to be hung but the federal marshal, by the law, is expected to bring him to trial elsewhere.    Lucas McCain sides with the federal marshal and helps to fend off the angry townspeople.  As the two men becomes friends, it turns out that the federal marshal is himself a native man who has been educated at Harvard.   Some rowdies in the town learn that the marshal is a native man, a confrontation ensues, and the rifleman comes to the rescue and protects the marshal.

Lucas McCain is situated in the West in the 1880’s, and within that context he does a heroic job of acting with integrity and courage, episode after episode.   He takes on the fight for those who are being taking advantage – whether women, native people, or people of color.   He risks his life many times to do what he thinks is right for his family and his community.   I have found Lucas McCain to be an inspirational figure.   No, I do not intend to start using a rifle.   But the integrity and courage that McCain exemplifies is worthy of admiration and replication.