Buffalo Gal

In what is often referred to as the "mind’s eye",  I have images embedded of several cartoons that I am unable to forget.  This is so much so, that when I think of those cartoons—even without seeing them again…I can burst into laughter remembering them.   The oldest image comes from a "local-boy-makes-good cartoonist", who, after graduation from MSUM, went to Sacramento and began working as a professional cartoonist for one of the large Sacramento newspapers…the "SAC-Bee".  His name is Paul Duginski and he was a Moorhead product; in the summer of 1978, when I was working as a Childrens’ Librarian at the Moorhead Public library, I invited Paul to do a program for the Kids’ Summer Reading Program and come in and talk about his cartooning and demonstrate his skills to them.  It was the best program we had that summer and the kids absolutely loved it —and him.  Later in  the 1985 or 1986 college football season, the NDSU Bison played Cal-Davis in the Division 2 playoffs–at Cal-Davis.  Prior to this game, there had been quite a bit of talk and quite a bit of Press about the superiority of the Cal Davis "Aggies" and how they would take care of the Bison from ND in short order….the coach at the time joined in with this chorus also…not a smart thing to do.  After the Bison absolutely shellacked Cal-Davis in the playoff game at  Davis, CA, Duginski did a cartoon in the Sac-Bee about the game.  It pictured a maddened, stampeding Bison tearing through a farmer’s place….tearing up crops, ripping down buildings and fences, with the panicked farm family fleeing as fast as they could from the rampaging beast.  The farm, of course, was labeled "Cal-Davis" and the Bison was self-evident.  It was hilarious and highly satisfying to the Bison fans who saw it; it was reprinted in the local newspaper (FORUM) to the delight of the fans here in ND and MN.  Number 1 unforgettable cartoon!  The next one was in a Gary Larson collection (The Far Side).  It showed an aged Lone Ranger, toothless , with a caved-in mouth, still wearing his mask and white hat, reading a "Dictionary Of Indian Languages".    "Kimosabe"…. read the old retired Lone Ranger,silently…"a Ute word meaning ‘horse’s patoot’  "   ….  "What the Hey?" says the Lone Ranger as it dawns on him what his faithful companion, Tonto, had been calling him all those years. Number 2 unforgettable cartoon.     The next one was published at Christmas time in a magazine of unknown origin…the cartoon was copied and sent to me by a friend and showed a most disgruntled husband, slouched crabbily in an easy chair, wearing an Archie-Bunker type undershirt  with a scowl on his face.  His wife is standing next to the chair—-half of a Christmas tree is protruding from the  backside bottom hem of her skirt and she says to her huband, "I suppose this means you don’t want to hang a wreath on the door either??"    Number 3 unforgettable cartoon.       My most recent one involves reading and computers.  A young boy is seated in front of an empty computer screen frame, with a book propped up behind it.  The boy is reading the book and the caption says "The Ultimate Solution"    Oh how I love that one!    It is posted prominently on my refrigerator door’s collection of "good stuff" right in there with business cards from my sons and drawings form my grandchildren.   A very yellowed newspaper cartoon used to be posted on this computer….it showed a man splitting his computer with a woodsman’s  large axe and I understood perfectly the feelings generated by the frustration of a computer user new to the skill.  I have lost that one but it remains in my "mind’s eye" along with the others that are unforgettable.