We'll make you a lifetime member of The Cactus Country Book Club and send you a free copy of The Bounty Man and Doe if you can    name the five movies starring John Wayne from the pictures above. Send your answers to TheCactusCountry@aol.com and make sure to include your contact information.                                        A Trip to See The Duke      When I was about ten, I wrote to John Wayne. I loved his movies, and Saturday was John Wayne day at the  theater in the little river town of Havana, Illinois where I grew up. John Wayne all day long for a quarter. I packed a lunch and stayed from 10:00 when they opened, until 5:00 when my grandpa drug me out. I memorized every word of Mr. Wayne's dialogue in every movie they showed. And I yelled it out along with The Duke in every scene. It got so bad that those sitting behind me would throw things to try and keep me quiet. Grandma couldn't figure out why I had a big blob of gum in my hair after every Saturday night. "Sure wish they had them a balcony so's you could sit up there. Maybe that way you wouldn't come home with gum and wads of cotton candy tangled up in this mop you have."        But about me writing to the famous movie star. He answered back. I got a letter thanking me for going to his movies, and an 8 X 10 glossy photograph with the Duke's signature at the bottom.       "He has a secretary write those," Grandma promptly told me.         "Nope," Grandpa said, "that's illegal. I suspect he wrote it himself."      After that I  wrote to the poor man weekly, more often if I could do an extra chore to earn the money for a stamp. Soon everyone in town knew I wrote to John Wayne and that he wrote back. I carried my collection of letters and postcards in the basket of my bicycle and rode up and down Main Street showing them to anyone who would stop and look. Then one day I got the greatest thing of all. An invitation to a move premier for Hatari. That was 1962 and I was twelve years old. They were having a premier in both Chicago and Atlanta and I could choose which one I wanted to attend. And the postcard he included in the letter had a smudged finer print at the end of his name where he signed it. An actual fingerprint of The Duke himself.      I just knew that we'd pack up the Studebaker and make the trip to Chicago or Atlanta to see the John Wayne film and probably meet The Duke because I was his invited guest. It said so on the postcard, an invitation from The Duke, with his fingerprint right there for everyone to see.      "I don't know how we could do that," Grandma said. "We just don't have the money for the trip."      Grandpa just sat there with his usual flat-lipped smile. The one he used for poker playin'. The one where you really couldn't tell if he was happy or sad. This went on for days. I begged, Grandma said we didn't have the money, and Grandpa sat there like he was contemplating whether to draw for that fourth Ace.      I had finally decided that the trip was out of the question and I'd not be meeting my favorite movie star. Then the Sunday before the premier, a neighbor knocked on the door while we were eating breakfast. She came in all smiles. I figured her and Grandma were heading out for church together.     "Sybil," she said to Grandma while she skirted around Grandpa with the leeriness of a fox. "I have something for you and Louella." She laid an envelope on the table and pressed it with her fingers like it held a proclamation from the president or something. "We want you to take the girl to Chicago for the John Wayne movie thing. There's a roundtrip bus ticket in here for both of you, and money for your stay and food. You might have to eat light because there isn't much. But I think it'll get you through." She turned to Grandpa. "Sorry William, we couldn't raise enough for you to go."      Grandma sat down and opened the envelope. Her hands shook, and the little blue bird perched on the top of the hat she'd already put on in preparation for church wiggled around about to take flight. "Oh, my," she said. "What a nice thing for you all to do. But I don't know how I could accept it."      But she did. And we went to Chicago to see the premier of Hatari starring John Wayne. We didn't get to see the Duke, except up on the screen. And it was the biggest movie screen I'd ever seen. We sat in the balcony, but we coulda sat down front because I didn't know the words to that one yet, so we were safe from flying gum and cotton candy. When we got home I made the rounds through town and told everyone all about the trip. And Grandpa let me stand behind him that Friday night when he played poker so I could tell all his friends. And that Mona Lisa smile he usually wore was bigger than usual. Except when he was about to decide whether to draw for that fourth Ace.    Here is an original movie trailer for Hatari. Check it out.  http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3528458265/