{"id":2502,"date":"2025-12-28T21:06:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T21:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/?p=2502"},"modified":"2026-04-20T23:14:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:14:54","slug":"rt-2026-q1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/rt-2026-q1\/","title":{"rendered":"Readers Theater: 2026 Q1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">By Residents, For Residents<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/readers-theater\/\"><span style=\"font-family: arial black, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">USE THIS LINK TO RETURN TO THE READERS THEATER INDEX PAGE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Last Ride:\u00a0 Lone Ranger &amp; Tonto\n<ul>\n<li><input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='69ea3df6079384006714815' value='69ea3df6079384006714815'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-69ea3df6079384006714815' value='SCRIPT'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-69ea3df6079384006714815' value='Show Less'><button id='bg-showmore-action-69ea3df6079384006714815' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-orange-button  '   style=\" color:#4a4949;\">SCRIPT<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-69ea3df6079384006714815' >THE LAST RIDEA Radio Theater Script by Robert Andrews\n<ul>\n<li>CHARACTERS:\n<ul>\n<li>NARRATOR<\/li>\n<li>THE LONE RANGER &#8211; 86 years old, still wearing his mask<\/li>\n<li>TONTO &#8211; 88 years old, still wearing his buckskin vest<\/li>\n<li>WAITRESS &#8211; young, cheerful<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NARRATOR: The year is 2026. A small diner on the outskirts of Gila Bend, Arizona. The lunch rush has ended, leaving only a handful of customers. At a corner booth sits an elderly man in a buckskin vest, nursing a cup of coffee. The door chime rings.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Door chime, footsteps with cane]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (looking up, squinting) Kemosabe? That you?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (voice aged but strong) Tonto, old friend. It&#8217;s been too long.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Chairs scraping, men settling into booth]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Thirty-three years, two months. Not that I&#8217;m counting.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (chuckling) You always did have a better memory than me.<\/p>\n<p>WAITRESS: (approaching) Can I get you gentlemen anything?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: Just coffee, black. Thank you, miss.<\/p>\n<p>WAITRESS: (pause) Um, sir? We have a no-mask policy since COVID ended&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: This isn&#8217;t a COVID mask, young lady. It&#8217;s&#8230; a medical condition. Sensitive skin.<\/p>\n<p>WAITRESS: (uncertain) Oh. Okay then. I&#8217;ll get that coffee.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Footsteps walking away]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (amused) Medical condition? Kemosabe still telling white lies after all these years?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (defensive) It&#8217;s not a lie. At my age, everything&#8217;s a medical condition.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: You know, I always wondered. Forty years of friendship, countless gunfights, saved each other&#8217;s lives more times than I can count&#8230; and I never saw your face.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: The mask is who I am, Tonto. Without it, I&#8217;m just John Reid, a tired old man with arthritis and a hearing aid.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (gently) And I am just old Indian with bad knees and worse eyesight. But you know what? That&#8217;s okay.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Coffee pouring]<\/p>\n<p>WAITRESS: Here you go, sir. You gentlemen look like you have history.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (laughing) You could say that. We used to ride together.<\/p>\n<p>WAITRESS: Oh! Like, motorcycles?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (smiling) Something like that.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Waitress walking away]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (after a pause) I still wear vest. You still wear mask. Maybe we&#8217;re both holding onto something.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: Do you remember the last time we rode out? That train robbery outside Silver City?<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: I remember my horse threw me. I remember you pulled me out of the way before those bandits trampled me. I remember thinking, &#8220;We&#8217;re getting too old for this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: We were fifty-three.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Exactly. Too old.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (quietly) I&#8217;m sorry I didn&#8217;t stay in touch, old friend. After we retired, I thought&#8230; I thought maybe you&#8217;d want to forget all that. Move on. Live a normal life.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (softly) Kemosabe, you my normal life. For forty years, you were my brother. Then one day, you just&#8230; rode off into sunset. Literally.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: I was scared, Tonto. Scared of getting old. Scared of slowing down. Scared you&#8217;d see me without the legend.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (chuckling) I saw you piss yourself once when Silver threw you into a creek. Legend wasn&#8217;t so shiny that day.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (laughing) I forgot about that! You never let me live it down.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: And you shot my hat off my head trying to hit a rattlesnake. Twice.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (defensive) My eyesight was already going!<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Both men laughing]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (after laughter fades) So tell me, why now? Why call me after all these years?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (serious) Because I&#8217;m tired of hiding, Tonto. Tired of the mask. Tired of pretending I don&#8217;t need anyone. I&#8217;m eighty-six years old, and I realized&#8230; the only real thing I ever had was our friendship.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (emotional) That&#8217;s the truest thing you&#8217;ve said in thirty-three years.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: You know what&#8217;s funny? I kept the mask all this time because I thought it made me special. Made me the Lone Ranger. But the truth is&#8230; the mask made me alone.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: You were never alone, Kemosabe. I was always there. Even when we weren&#8217;t together.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (voice breaking) I know that&#8230; now. (pause) I&#8217;m sorry, old friend.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (warmly) Apology accepted. Though I have one question that&#8217;s bothered me for forty years.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: What&#8217;s that?<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Why you always get silver bullets? I had to make do with regular ones.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (laughing) Because I was the star! You were the sidekick!<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (mock indignant) Sidekick?! Kemosabe, I saved your masked behind more times than\u2014<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (interrupting, laughing) Okay, okay! Partner. You were my partner.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (satisfied) Better. Now, about this buckskin vest. My granddaughter says it&#8217;s &#8220;vintage&#8221; and &#8220;cool.&#8221; Kids today.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: Your granddaughter has good taste. Though I&#8217;ve got to ask&#8230; does it still fit, or are you just stubborn?<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Little bit of both. You?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (touching his mask) Same.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Coffee cups clinking]<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: So, what now? We ride off into the sunset together?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (chuckling) My riding days are over. My doctor says I can&#8217;t even drive anymore.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Then maybe we just sit here. Drink bad diner coffee. Tell lies about old days.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: I&#8217;d like that. And Tonto?<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: Yes, Kemosabe?<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: Next week, maybe I&#8217;ll leave the mask at home.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (warmly) And maybe I&#8217;ll leave vest at home.<\/p>\n<p>LONE RANGER: (pause) No. Keep the vest. It looks good on you.<\/p>\n<p>TONTO: (laughing) You too, masked man. You too.<\/p>\n<p>NARRATOR: And so, two old friends sat in a diner in Gila Bend, drinking coffee and remembering the days when they were legends. Sometimes the greatest adventures aren&#8217;t the ones we ride into, but the ones we ride back from\u2014together.<\/p>\n<p>[SOUND: Diner ambiance continues, fading]<\/p>\n<p>NARRATOR: (warmly and softly) Hi-ho, Silver&#8230; and away. One last time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; END &#8212;<\/p>\n<p>(Word count: 982)<\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Residents, For Residents USE THIS LINK TO RETURN TO THE READERS THEATER INDEX PAGE The Last Ride:\u00a0 Lone Ranger &amp; Tonto &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2502"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertandrews.org\/LIFE\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}