The 3:13 Arrives at Noon
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29 October 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim motors into a small town, and is hit on his bike by the man who owns the whole town including the sheriff. The bus at 3:13 PM the next day is bringing in a person from the town's past, everyone is worried. Years ago a young guy named Clay got into trouble and was turned in to the police by one of his best friends. His girl then marries another guy. Over the next two decades prison tamed Clay and the rage he may have felt towards the guy who turned him in to the cops has faded. The rub here is that the town's people do not know that Clay is a changed man. Everyone thinks when the bus arrives that Clay will start to reek revenge on everyone from the past. Of course they get a big surprise, and Jim has helped several of them understand the concept that time heals, and this is the medicine Jim is looking for in his own life on his ride down the long lonesome highway. This episode touched on the many tongues of the town. As we grow up we can be a victim of hate, deceit, and love. All are in this episode, and with all the fears that go with it. But faith in people and trust in judgment can overcome, as it did here at about 3:20 that afternoon in Olathe Colorado. The 3rd Annual reunion of Bronson's Garage was held in the Olathe/Montrose area of Colorado in 2011.
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Old Tigers Never Die, They Just Run Away
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5 November 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim picks up a beautiful blonde hitchhiker named Valerie, little does he know that her husband is watching and then follows them. Jim befriends a retired newspaper lin-o-type operator named Oliver, who loves to talk to people rather than to read the words backwards on a machine. The Indians in the area are upset that the valley they once lived in is now a lake. Valerie is married to a very jealous shoe salesman, who is suffering from a post traumatic stress situation after the Vietnam War. Jim gives a cute girl a ride on his bike and discovers she is a simpleton in her regard for others, he realizes the plight of the American Indian. Jim discovers how his involvement with Valerie has somehow made her realize her own self worth and not to play the game her husband keeps leading her into. The long lonesome highway calls Jim from the troughs of a triangle. Filmed in the Montrose, Colorado area.
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Your Love Is Like a Demolition Derby in My Heart
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19 November 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim gets hooked up with a junkyard guy named Bear, and naturally meets another beautiful blonde named Leona who everyone calls "Leon" and helps her in preparing her car for the demolition derby. Jim gives her his friendship to help her in working through the growing pains of a big brother and a small town. When Leona tries to enter the derby she is told by her brother she cannot, so Jim enters her car and drives it for her. He is doing pretty well and then, Billy leaves in the middle of the derby and drives out to the junkyard. Leona is there and steals his car and drives it back to the derby and starts wrecking cars. Everyone thinks it is Billy, and Leona wins the cash prize. Jim drinks a congratulatory beer with her and then makes his way west on the desert highways into Arizona.
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Two Percent of Nothing
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26 November 1969
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48 Min.
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In the heat of the summer, Jim rolls into a desert town in Arizona with no money, and ends up taking a job on and oil rig with four would-be oil men with broken down equipment and one lonely wife. Filmed along the Apache trail outside Phoenix the sun was hot and the wind blew a warm breeze to spark the blood of the young bucks looking at the lonely wife. Jim helps her by taking a reduced salary in order for the group to be able to maintain the rig. However this eventually comes to a point and a oil lease investor shows up to pick up options and become a partner. Jim sees the futility of this operation and sells his share to a roughneck. And the setting sun on that ribbon of highway now is a much more welcome sight after the back breaking work as a roughneck on and oil derrick. The dreams people have, the all consuming dream is the point here, to the point of no return and the disregard that others may not share your dream or aspirations, love and patience here must abide.
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All the World and God
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3 December 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim finds a lost puppy and meets a beautiful blonde, a lady nurse, who is filling in for the doctor who has recently died. As he spends the next several weeks with her he meets many of her patients who live in the mountain community. A touching story of how just one persons life touches so many others. In all the miles and all the girls on the long lonesome highway, Barbara kick starts a deep feeling and a lasting impression on Jim. See Jim's Biography.
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A Long Trip to Yesterday
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10 December 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim stops on the highway to help another motorcyclist. Jim tows him and his bike to the nearest gas station and helps pay for the repairs. The guy cannot repay Jim, so he borrows more money from Jim to gamble at pool, only to be hustled. This dude sure has and attitude! The episode is very much like today when traveling on the highway, you must take care of your vehicle. There are many people out there who would, and will skin you for every dollar you have to fix a problem in the event that you break down on the long lonesome highway. This episode touched on the coming of age in the struggle for equal rights.
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The Spitball Kid
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17 December 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim gets a job on a baseball AAA farm club and be-friends a young man who wants to become a big league baseball pitcher. Jim is hired as a batter and proceeds to hit every pitch the boy throws. Jim becomes his catcher and helps him get ready for the L.A. Dodgers talent scouts which are due to arrive soon to look him over. I think many of us, boy or girl, who grew up watching baseball on TV or at school, dreamed if not for just a moment of being a big league ball player. Jim did, having grown up in the 1950's watching Mickey Mantle or Willy Mays while Dizzy Dean called the game. In this episode we see that nurturing another has it own rewards to our self. We need not be successful, we can find success in others which we have taken and helped along their way to goals in which are shared. Goals often have a price and choices must be made as Willy P. finds out. Jim needed this relationship to help him see that he is still alive and is a vital part of every life he touches, and brings that life to the highway to sometimes make it not so lonesome.
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Against a Blank Cold Wall
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24 December 1969
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48 Min.
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Jim looks up and old Indian buddy, who is trying to find himself by going back to the old Indian ways of fasting, he believes this will enable him to see the future and re-establish his Indian way of life within himself.
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Sybil
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31 December 1969
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48 Min.
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Stars: Renne Jarrett plays Sibyl. And special guest star Crowley The Cat.
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Note:Ralph Senensky directed this episode, he has put together a memoir of all the TV shows he directed over the decades, read here what he remembered about Episode 15.
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A-Pickin' An' A-Singin'
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14 January 1970
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48 Min.
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Jim gets a job in a honky-tonk bar and sings with the band, and then problems develop over songwriting credit. This is a great episode to see Michael Parks sing several of the songs he recorded on his "Long Lonesome Highway" LP album. In one scene James Hendricks (writer of LLH) plays guitar while Jim sings.
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