Learning the whip - an unknown heritage

[IndyFrench]

Hey all,

I've never shared this story with anyone here, so I thought I'd post it now. Well, like everyone else here, I wanted to learn to use a bullwhip because of Indiana Jones. That Cairo street fight had sealed the deal. I must learn the bullwhip. When I was around 15 years old, 1994, I received a 12 foot swivel handle bullwhip for Christmas from my grandfather.

There was no IndyGear then, and no Internet. I had no idea where I would learn to use the bullwhip. Surprisingly, my grandfather said, "Shoot son, I was cracking whips all the time as a kid. I'll teach you." He was in his mid-70s at the time. It was then I learned that my grandfather, while growing up in the 1920s and 1930s had learned the bullwhip from his uncle, Edward.

With pictures to prove it, my grandfather told me that Edward was a crack shot with two six-shooters and he also knew the bullwhip. He was a real, old-time cowboy. Edward lived in California and worked in the motion picture business as a stunt rider and shooter in Tom Mix westerns and the like. He rode in the serials with the posse.

Later, he joined the Border Patrol and in the days before the paved roads and elaborate checkpoints, Edward patrolled the border on horseback with twin revolvers and his bullwhip.

My grandmother's brother was also a bullwhip artist. Now deceased, her brother Jimmy would bring his bullwhip to school back in the 1920s and during recess, he'd show the other kids tricks, like snuffing out matches and candles with the crack of his whip. She told me he was also continually trying to light a match with his whip, a real perfectionist.

Well, my grandfather taught me the whip. I picked up a few more skills years later from Sergei, but everything started with Charles French. To date, he's given me every whip I have ever possessed, including the 10 foot David Morgan he gave me in May of 2001. Now I hear a rumor that he's trying to acquire me a Webley MKVI as a graduate school present.

He loved shooting just as much as whipcracking as a youth, and yeah, he taught me how to shoot years ago too. I guess Indiana Jones quite literally brought me closer to my grandfather.

Mike

[Indiana Jerry]

That's a wonderful story, Mike - thanks for sharing it. Very cool heritage!

(Got any of those family pics of your great-great-uncle Edward w/ his six-shooters?)

[binkmeisterRick]

Wow, Mike! How cool is that? There's something to be said about being handed down skills like this from your elders. It sounds like you couldn't have learned any better from anyone else.

bink

[Snakewhip_Sable]

Wow! That's a great story! Just the sort of thing I love to read!

I'm gonna see if my Dad can teach me any more cracks next time he's out my way. He claims he 'can knock a fly off a horse's ear' with a bullwhip. So I gotta find a horse and a fly. ...I hope he doesn't mean with the handle, that could get a guy kicked.