Remembering an old friend

One of my favorite writers passed away 19 years ago this week.

Charles "Skeeter" Skelton

I remember scraping together nickles and dimes so I could walk to the grocery store and buy a copy of the magazine he was writing for. He had a easy going style and some great stories from his childhood during the Great Depression, his time in the Border patrol, and as a County Sheriff.

When reading Skelton's articles, whether they were a story about fighting bandits on the Mexican border, or testing a new handgun, he made you feel like he was talking directly to you as an old friend chatting next to the campfire.

I found it easy to relate to Skelton's writing, he was honest, hard working, sensible and patriotic. He had a great sense of humor and at times you couldn't tell if you were reading his fiction, his facts or a combination of both.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the majority of his work through exhaustive means. He is the kind of writer I can read over and over.

The only set of his works currently in print is link>>>> : " I Remember Skeeter" a compilation of some of his best stories put together by his widow. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a good story written in the style of a classic American humorist.

Here is some more on Skelton: Hat tip and special thanks to Darkcanyon.net

There isn't much of his stuff online but here are a couple of good ones:

http://www.darkcanyon.net/tom_threepersons.htm

http://www.darkcanyon.net/gunmen_of_el_paso.htm

http://www.darkcanyon.net/Hipshots_aug_1987.htm

Charles A. “Skeeter” Skelton was born May 1, 1928, in Hereford, Deaf Smith County, Texas, the heart of the High Plains and the old Comanche and buffalo country. The son of a merchant, rancher, farmer, and hunter, he developed an early interest in firearms, especially handguns, doing his first pistol shooting with his father’s Colt Woodsman .22 when he was five.

Skeeter began acquiring and studying handguns during his adolescence, and developed a strong attachment to large-caliber single-action revolvers. Perhaps partly owing to his interest in the use of firearms, he spent only a brief time in college after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and elected to follow law enforcement as a career. He served as a city patrolman in Amarillo, Texas, as a U.S. Border Patrolman on the last patrol in Arizona maintained by that agency, as deputy sheriff and then sheriff of his home Deaf Smith County, as a narcotics agent for U.S. Customs, and finally as Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, from which position he retired in 1974. After his retirement, his interest in the firearms field remained lively, and he acted as a consultant to various firearms manufacturers and occasionally demonstrated their products.

In 1966, Skeeter started writing for Shooting Times and was the magazine’s Handgun Editor for 21 years. His first piece was a “Handguns” column which appeared in the July 1966 issue. He authored more than 400 articles for Shooting Times and had two books, Skeeter Skelton On Handguns and Skeeter Skelton’s Handgun Tales, to his credit.

In 1978, he was named the sixth recipient of the Outstanding American Handgunner Award.

Blessed with a loyal following of readers, Skeeter promised to keep writing gun-related material “until my typewriter freezes over,” and as always, he kept his word. He passed away on Sunday, January 17, 1988, at Sun Towers Hospital in El Paso, Texas.