The Passing of ‘Bushwhacked’

Creed Kidd, Library Director

Red Feather Lakes Community Library carries a lot of materials in formats that range from print to sound through visual. Using items in these formats is a user personal preference based on interest, equipment, and time.

Within library materials there’s a great variance of interest level, genre, intent, and point of view which is as it should be. One size does not fit all. ‘You makes your choice’ as the saying goes.

Many library items are physical – from snowshoes to computers to books through DVDs. And, like all tangible items have a specific lifespan. Over time, things (and people) wear out.

Which leads us to today’s discussion, that of the passing of ‘Bushwhacked.’ ‘Bushwacked’ is a 1995 comedy starring Daniel Stern as an obviously unqualified adult leader of a troop of mischievous boys on an outdoor camping trip. The ‘Tomatometer’ at https://rottentomatoes.com rates by critical as well as audience approval of a film; respectively that is 11% and 37% positive.

My kids loved it and could quote verbatim passages from the film which they tended to do. I confess as to not having seen the film in full nor have the intentions of doing so. However, that possibility is now moot as the library’s copy has gone the way of all flesh: scratched, dinged, and unplayable, loved to death by any number of library borrowers.

Normally, for high-use items we immediately replace. We pause, however when the DVD is evidently out of print and used copies are running $50 and up. Such is the fate of ‘Bushwacked.’

There are substitutes of course: the ‘Home Alone’ series, ‘Mighty Ducks’, ‘Kicking and Screaming,’ ‘The Muppets’, and many more but few of these have that taste of authentic ‘Bushwhacked’ flavor. So, we at the library are reduced to watching for an affordable copy to pop up through the usual purchase channels.

We understand that ‘Bushwhacked’ is not everyone’s cup of tea. We cater to individual preference Perhaps the Brit detective show ‘Vera’ is your ‘cuppa, Love.’ Or ‘Grapes of Wrath.’ Or ‘Ikuru’.

Within any size library, there should be allowances for personal taste, interest, and preference. Red Feather Lakes Community Library is a small library serving a small community. However, that translates as a concerted big effort made at the library to meet your interest and taste.  In the last week or two that’s included a Swedish memoir, older titles by popular author David Baldacci, and a new surprisingly hard to get new title by Faye Kellerman.

In March the next Joe Pickett series title by C. J. Box comes out. We’ll have multiple copies to lend to multiple Pickett fans. But we’ll also purchase requested copies of ‘The Queen’s Gambit,’ ‘Coup 53,’ ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘Zappa,’ if or when available.

From ‘Bushwhacked’ to ‘Ulysses’ it’s your library folks. Let us know what you want.

For more information regarding Red Feather Lakes Community Library, visit: https://redfeather.colibraries.org