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TOMBSTONE — High noon is usually a time of gun play in the old town of Tombstone. But, on Sunday it was a time to play dress up and parade down Allen Street as people from across the country, and even Ireland, participated in the Rendezvous of Gunfighters 1880s costume competition.
Maybe for the first time, the Town Too Tough To Die got a visit from Billy The Kid’s buddy from Old Mexico, Melquiades Segura, thanks to Vince Sanchez from El Paso, Texas. Sanchez said an old jail still exists where Segura was locked up for five days. It would have been a lot longer, but Billy broke his friend out of the El Paso jail.
It was the first visit for Sanchez and his wife, Olga, to Tombstone, and they could not have been happier to be a part of the weekend’s festivities.
Sanchez made his own costume including the leatherwork, with the exception of the hat, gunbelt and six guns. He looked the part of a bandito, mustache and all.
 Vince Sanchez of El Paso, Texas, makes an appearance as the infamous bandito Melquiades Segura at the annual 1880s costume parade in Tombstone on Sunday. (Suzanne Cronn•Herald/Review) |
Olga also made her saloon girl costume, but took a step out of the past into today with her red, white and blue motif to show her support of the troops serving overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I wanted to show my appreciation in their fight for freedom, and I hope they all return home safely,” she said.
Her hair was festooned with pheasant, ostrich and peacock feathers, a design all her own.
They both fell in love with Tombstone and the shops where they have spent their free time.
“I think we have bought something from every shop in Tombstone,” said Sanchez. “We are like kids in a candy store.”
Carol Ramsey of Tucson also made her own costume, down to the pantaloons and corset. The historical re-enactor said her corset was made from her grandmother’s old pillow ticking that she saved from being thrown away. She even made a lady’s body purse that was used to carry valuables and money under the long, full skirts.
“It took about a week-and-a-half to make the outfit,” she explained. “The hardest part was the rows of ruffles. The overskirt is silk and the bustle is a roll cushion. The whole outfit is modeled on an 1887 pattern.”
Ramsey also made the clothing for her “baby,” a 1900s doll that took the stroll down Allen Street with her in a baby carriage. Even the diaper the doll wore was made to a design of the age.
The blankets were crocheted by her grandmother. In fact, she carried with her a number of things that had belonged to her grandmother — a silk handkerchief, a compact that contained her beautiful old rosary.
“I’m a retired tailor and used to make men’s suits,” she said. “So, it was not that hard for me to make my own patterns and articles of clothing.”
As the participants showed a slice of everday life from Tombstone past, colorful characters were wandering the streets.
Doc (Ethan) Robbins was trying to get tinhorns to buy some of his “Magical Medicine for Mysterious Maladies.” None were willing to take the bait of the whiskey-colored liquid with strange looking swirls of black floating around in it.
“It looks a bit odd, doesn’t it,” he said with a laugh. “The scorpion decomposed, I guess.”
Robbins based his character on the old medicine man who would come to town to flimflam the locals and beat it out of town before they caught on. In his gray frock coat, bright red vest and audacious manner, he had fun playing the part.
“This has been a great time. I came here from Yuma to cool off. People look at me strange when I say that, but it was 117 degrees when I left,” he added.
His cohorts included Robert Sanderson, aka Sandy Bob, a Tombstone cowboy cartoonist and artist, and Bad Bob Hatchett.
Sanderson looked the role of the cowboy with a patch over his right eye that mysteriously would move over to the left eye, and well-worn clothing with plenty of “cattle drive” dirt ground in.
“The chaps are 110 years old and once belonged to a guy in an Old Wild West show. The spurs are 100 years old,” he added with a smile. “I like the clothes. I just take them off and they stand by themselves.”
Sanderson is a retired school teacher from Yuma and was requested by his school to go home and put on his cowboy clothes to give a group of Japanese visitors a tour of the facility.
He said he came down to Tombstone for a Rendezvous one year and decided to stay.
Hatchett makes no bones about his lack of sewing ability and says his clothes were store bought, though he does occasionally use a seamstress.
He looked the part of a gambler in his Chesterfield coat and requisite vest (in which to hide weapons or cards).
More than 20 children, men and women dressed as townsfolk, madams, saloon girls, gamblers, gunslingers, lawmen and cowboys participated in the parade.
The Rendezvous winds up today with a number of different events that include the Territorial Troupers, as well as groups from across Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.
Herald/Review reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net.
