Silverado Sam Recruits a Posse of Young’uns in the Showdown Against Drugs

Every October, Silverado Sam walks around in black cowboy boots, black pants, Western shirt, a leather vest with a seven-point sheriff’s badge pinned on it, a white Stetson and a pair of six-shooters on his sides.

He would be imposing enough without the guns and the outfit, standing 6-6 and weighing 290. “Would you believe it,” he said in an astonished voice, “but the only time I ever got into a fight with anyone I arrested was this little bitty woman on drugs. She threw me all over the place.”

That’s Jack E. Miller talking. Currently he’s a Buena Park police dispatcher and reserve officer, but years back he was a patrol officer for the department before opting to work in private security.

Although he’s been strutting around for eight years during annual Buena Park Silverado Days celebrations, he’s plainly visible during the rest of the year carrying a message against drugs.

“My message is to tell kids to stay off drugs, live as clean and normal life as possible, don’t violate the law and try to be a good citizen,” he said.

For many, he said, that’s hard to understand “since mommy and daddy are using (drugs) at home. Those are the people we didn’t get to early enough.”

That’s why he gears his talks to kids in preschool through fourth grade and hands out coloring books called Officer Sam that tell children to say no to drugs.

“If we can keep just a few of these little guys off drugs,” he said, “it’ll be worth it.”

He also designed an Officer Pat book for times when Buena Park reserve officer Pat Carmona accompanies him. “The kids are impressed to see a male and female cop together.”

Miller said Silverado Sam serves a real purpose. “I’ve developed an image,” he said, “to the point where kids will stop me on the street and stay hello even when I’m not in my cowboy get-up. It shows I have gotten my message across.”

Kids and adults alike will have to wait until the next Silverado Days to get a look at a different Silverado Sam.

A wood sculptor from Montana was brought to last year’s Silverado Days to carve an 11-foot image of Sam from a pine tree, but Miller said there’s no safe place to put it.

“It would get carved up and ruined by graffiti,” he said. “Probably from drug users.”

They’ll pick a king and queen of the prom, have a band for dancing in a decorated ballroom, take pictures and provide breakfast--all for $5. And if some women don’t have dancing partners, said spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer Mudrick, they’ll be provided by the local Sunrise Rotary Club.

This will be the third year the Fullerton Senior Citizens Center will hold its senior prom for seniors; and it’s growing in popularity. Last year 300 attended.

It’s set for May 6 at the Fullerton Holiday Inn.

The theme, quite properly, is “Reflections: a Senior’s Senior Prom.”

The South Coast Chapter of the National Organization for Women is planning a program at 8 p.m. Wednesday at El Toro Library to hear Marta Samano speak on the pesticides used on table grapes and the danger they represent.

She cleverly titled her talk “The Wrath of Grapes.”

Well, one of the stars of the July 7-17 Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa is pregnant, but she’ll carry on, so to speak.

She’s one of the celebrities, but only about five years old and should deliver sometime in June, according to fair spokesman Jim Bailey.

She’s Agnes the Angus.

Acknowledgments--Nick DeLeone, of Dana Point, was named Franny (franchisee) of the Year by Mail Boxes Etc., a postal, business and communication service with 600 locations nationwide. His franchise is in Dana Point.