Hitchins, ditchins, outlaws: All aboard for Boys & Girls Club’s Great Train Robbery
February 24, 2012
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
There’ll be some “hitchins” and even some “ditchins,” requests for bail money and plenty of crime you’ll want to be a victim of during the “Great Train Robbery” benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley.
This second annual rail event will be held Saturday, March 3. Boarding for this trip of a Wild West lifetime is at 5:30 p.m. at the Fillmore Train Depot (364 Main St., Fillmore). Tickets are only $55 each for this adults only “all aboard” evening of bribery, mayhem and extortion, where during your journey through the Santa Clara River Valley you can expect to be robbed - on behalf of the club of course!
Sponsored by the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Posse, Fillmore & Western Railway and others, the evening will include dinner, dancing to live music on a special open-air flat car - complete with non-Western disco lights! - and a full no-host bar.
“This is our second year in doing this,” said Santa Paula Police Department Chief Steve MacKinnon, the Club’s Board president, “and by all indications it will be an even bigger shoot ‘em up, rough ridin’ good time. Where can you get good vittles, watch a robbery, get your friend arrested, get divorced or hitched, all while riding a train through the valley?”
There will be an array of can’t find it anywhere else entertainment provided by bad men and gunslingers who will stage a shoot-out as they attempt a robbery and then have to face “Hanging Judge” Ventura County Sheriff Captain Tim Hagel. VCSD Captain/Fillmore Police Chief Monica McGrath will also be on hand to lead deputies as they overpower the outlaws and help rustle up others who land in jail.
And it might be you sharing a cell with an outlaw varmint if you’re “jailed” for various infractions that require you - or those that want you sprung - to post bail. The “Hanging Judge” is expected to also conduct “hitchins” and even “ditchins” for those seeking either entering into holy matrimony or getting the heck out of it.
MacKinnon promises the evening will be “a rip-snortin’ fun event and we want to encourage everyone to come down in your western gear if you have it to enjoy this unique evening with us.”
Last year’s inaugural Great Train Robbery was a rousing success, especially so for a first-time event. The Fillmore & Western train will carry a bevy of Saloon Girls and Diamond Lil, and maybe a snake oil salesman or two.
No matter if you show up dressed as notorious outlaws Jesse James or Belle Starr - if captured, by the end of evening someone will bail you out of the Hoosegow. And having seen the error of your ways, you’ll go on to live a happy and prosperous life of doing more good deeds, such as continued support of the “Positive Place for Kids.”
There will be a raffle or two and fun Wild West memories that will last a lifetime. Tickets for the Great Train Robbery - remember, guests must be 21 years or older - are now available at the Club for pickup, or you can reserve seating. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 805-525-7910.
