What a day it was yesterday. This getting ready for the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is a lot of work. I mean there was even a little fence building. I just knew those skills from Pico Canyon and Mentryville would come in handy.

I also am getting to know the folks at the county Building and Safety and Fire Prevention divisions. Great folks all, and always most helpful.

Had a good lunchm and then it was off to get information on more permits. Next thing I know, I’m sitting on the floor of the second story of the Newhall Ranch House, cutting wires that have to be stuffed through a hole in the floor, and then getting the hole covered with some flooring material.

Ended up sitting in front of the fireplace in the Ranch House, pulling out all of those wires I had cut upstairs. What happened to the title, Executive Director? I guess it means I get to hold the clean handle on the trash can.

Got to attend the meeting of the Friends of Hart Park and then headed home at about 2130 hours … 9:30 p.m. for you folks.

All this work and all of the meetings are for one thing and one thing only … the Cowboy Festival that will happen next week.

A cast of thousands – no, make that hundreds – of mostly volunteers. Great music and shows to see. Good ol’ foot-taping music and all kinds of things to buy that just might have a little bit of Western flavor.

Lawman Sterling Hayden (center) and bad guy Frank Sinatra exchange words in the living room of a house on the south side of 8th Street in Newhall, in the 1954 United Artists thriller, “Suddenly.”

How about joining us for a movie from around the time I was 4 years old? Yes, 1954, and yes, I’m that old. (Pretty young for a tree.) Next Friday night, you can buy a ticket to watch a great old flick called “Suddenly.” It was filmed on San Fernando Road in beautiful downtown Newhall and also at the Saugus Train Station and Saugus Café. The road is named Railroad today, and the street in downtown Newhall is now named Main.

Anyway, tickets are still available. Just go to www.cowboyfestival.org and look for the show, “Friday Night Flickers.” Hurry before all of the seats are taken.

But wait … we have a couple of other offers.

You’ve got to hear Marie Wise-Hawkins on Saturday evening, along with a great meal. “Dinner and a Show” tickets are available but selling fast. Don’t be left out. The stage will be our very own train station platform, and all y’all will have great food sitting under the stars as you listen to Marie.

If all that isn’t enough, we have a “tour of tours” on a chartered bus with lunch included on Sunday morning. You’ll see film locations, a ghost town and the place where gold was first found in California. This tour usually sells out, so be quick and get one of the tickets still remaining. I will be the docent in Mentryville, and I love showing off my old home place.

The grounds of Heritage Junction are almost spruced up enough, and the fence for our beer garden is ready to prevent folks from exiting with beverage in hand. No, the fence may be there to prevent folks from taking your beer. Anyway, it is up and ready.

So all of those hundreds of people who have worked to bring you the BEST Cowboy Festival ever are just waiting for you to buy all of the special-event tickets and come on the buses through the gates of Hart Park and be part of the Old West once again.

Yes, the cast will become thousands as soon as all y’all show up. So get your tickets and come along to yesteryear. We’ve got a right good bit of entertainments, foods, beverages and sights to see.

Yes, this is a place where the calvary can ride to your rescue, a great Army Band will play your favorite tunes from the ‘60s and ‘70s (1860s and 1870s, that is). The folks at the chuckwagon will be serving up that great cobbler, and you can cool off in the evening with a glass of wine, beer and a great meal, too.

It just doesn’t get better than this, anyplace in California. You have it right here in your Santa Clarita Valley.

Who would have thought it could be? Well, dreams can come true.

Join us.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].