[at-l] New to the trail

[AThiker at smithville.net (Felix)]

Shelly Hale wrote:

>Felix,
>
>Alan B. Hale?  No relation that I am aware of.  Married into the Hales from
>Nashville, but do not know of any Alan in the family.
>
>Get the feelin' there's bad blood here.  Would love to know the history.
>

Hmmm...bad blood? I don't know if that fits anymore. I suppose there was 
for a time. But, Alan's death sorta worked in a cathartic way. There was 
a time, however...Well, let's just say the McGillicuddies and Hales 
didn't sit at the same picnic table at family reunions. Most folx 
probably don't know, nor want to know, for that matter...the whole 
story. Here's part of it. Or, at least a little slice of one...

A lot of folx don't realize that the famous 'Little Buddy' was really 
named 'McGilliganicuddy'. And, Alan "Skippertumilou" B. Hale was his 
boss. Together they were, of course, The Skipper and Gilligan. Well, 
over the course of time, the Skipper became somewhat abusive to 
Gilligan. Nearly everytime something bad happened, Gilligan was blamed. 
Skipper got the better Speer Hammock. Skipper obviously ate most of the 
food. There were times that Gilligan was thrown into slave labour. But, 
all of this came to a head one evening when Gilligan had a date with 
Ginger AND Mary Ann (McGilliganicuddies have always been known for they 
way with the ladies). Well, the skipper was dead set against the dates 
(there were two individual dates...not an individual dual 
date...AND...neither girl knew the other was also dating Gilligan. 
)...where was I...Oh...so, the Skipper let the Howells use the homemade 
paddle boat that was to be a crucial part of the romantic evenings that 
Gilligan had planned. Perhaps it was the coconut rum doing the 
talking...I don't know...but, something very bad happened that night in 
a grass hut involving sand, a bamboo pole and an ivory back scratcher. 
That is all I shall say.