When I was 12 years old, I went to see a traveling medicine show. My family was staying at a tourist court in Crosbyton.

Daddy was trying to sell enough Bibles to get us money to go back to Louisiana. It was summer, and I was bored, spending most of my time playing with horned toads.

Then it came.

Only two blocks from where we were staying a traveling medicine show set up their tent in a vacant lot.

And man, it was entertaining — humor, music, acting. They had it all. Why I was so grateful at the end, I would have bought several bottles of the elixir, which they had assured us would cure everything — even if you hadn't caught it yet.

The only reasons I didn't make several purchases were that I didn't have any money and didn't have any ailments. But I never forgot that high entertainment on that hot, windy night in West Texas.

Well, lo and behold, Grady Lee brought a medicine show to the Blue Frog in Marshall. Through the last six years Grady has brought a lot of good entertainment to Marshall.

Dr. Obadiah Bluefield's Time Travel Elixir Show presented a superb performance. The folks, headed up by Steve Hartz of Nacogdoches, had talent and had done their homework—complete with costumes and appropriate instruments.

It was the first time I had ever seen a man play the jaw bones of a mule. And these folks knew their history. Many of their songs date back to early times in Texas, and they even sang about the sinking of the Mittie Stevens on Caddo Lake.

It is my understanding that Mr. Hartz has a music store in downtown Nacogdoches. I didn't get a taste of his medicine, but I could tell from watching the lady playing the bass fiddle that there was great joy in what she was sipping from that bottle.

These shows were part of entertainment history for rural Texans long before teevees and DVDS.

When I was in law school I worked for Land Commissioner Jerry Sadler from Grapeland. His right hand man, Webster Glass, from Jacksonville, once told me that the Sadler name was poplar in Texas because there had been a popular Sadler medicine show that traveled extensively in rural Texas.

Mr. Glass was talking about Harley Sadler, who was once declared "the first man to make a million dollars from a tent show."

Sadler's shows toured many of the counties in Texas in the early part of the 1900's.

Sadler became a popular man and served in the House of Representatives from Sweetwater, and later from Abilene as state representative and the state senator.

Who says show business and politics don't mix?

It was also said that Sadler had a simple sincerity that brought him a large following.

Sadler had grown up in Samford, joined the carnival early in life, and also had done some acting. Later on, when oil became serious business, he made some money as a wildcatter.