Most West Seattle High School students spend their summers hanging around town. Some lucky teens go to Europe. Many go hiking or camping. Les White, however, went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to act with the Lone Ranger and Tonto at age 15.

White, 71, who grew up at 55th and Charlestown, was a stuntman and extra on that TV classic, and hung out with Clayton Moore, the legendary man behind the black mask, and his partner, Jay Silverheels.

"Clay was afraid of the horse," recalled White, now an Enumclaw resident, referring to Mr. Moore. "In the very opening scene of the Lone Ranger show he was on (his horse) Silver on top of the hill. That was really his stunt double Wayne Burson and his stunt horse. Wayne did all the horse riding. I have some pictures of Clay on the horse where the horse is nervous with his head bobbing, and Clay looks scared to death."

Perhaps listening to the William Tell Overture play in the background gave Moore some true grit.

Burson was a stunt double for Henry Fond, Glenn Ford, and Ronald Reagan in "Cattle Queen of Montana".

"Burson owned the horses that doubled for Silver and Scout. He also trained Silver and Scout. We were on our way to Minnesota to visit relatives and stopped in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they filmed a lot of the shows. Burson and some of the others were clients of my father, a securities broker who managed investments.

"I talked the folks into letting me stay there for two weeks. I learned how to ride a horse and do some of the other stuff, and became an extra. That was in 1953, a big thriil to spend the day with the Lone Ranger without his mask.

"Clay was the Lone Ranger," White said. "He lived that part. He spoke it. And If you listen to those old cowboy shows, the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, the star spoke perfect grammar. The sidekick chewed up the English language real bad. It was an education for kids to teach them right and wrong.

"Tonto, Jay Silverheels, spoke very well too, in real life, but his lines dictated that he'd say things like, 'Hmm. Me go to town.' It was offensive to some Indian people in those years. They felt like he was exploiting them, making them look stupid. But what many don't know is that he made a lot of money and built schools and modern buildings on Indian reservations. He was a good guy and an excellent horseman."

White said that Burson's best friend, Chuck Roberson, was world champ rodeo cowboy. Roberson worked with director John Ford and was John Wayne's stunt double for 30 years, along with Washington State icon Yakima Canutt. White mentored both Burson and Roberson during, and following college.

"Chuck taught me how to drive a six-horse hitch, a stagecoach," White said. "I worked on TV and in the movies in the summers. My winter job was at Westside Ford on Fauntleroy. I would make more money in eight or nine weeks in the summer than a Boeing worker made in two years."

When White was 31 he found himself in a chiropractic office with some aching bones from his adventurous profession.

"I said to the doctor, ' I can't do this stuff anymore', and six months later I went to chiropractic school." He practiced and is now retired.

White is back in the saddle again, collecting classic Ford Thunderbirds and portraying George Washington in historic, Colonial Wiliamsburg, Virginia throughout the year. His wife, Jo, portrays Martha.

While the two past-times don't exactly overlap, he admits the wild fantasy of driving his '57 T-Bird through Williamsburg in 1774 instead of riding a horse has filled him with wonder.

"I've always been a car nut," said White, who is a docent at the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma. "When those Thunderbirds came out in 1955 I was in high school, and my parents had a friend, an airline pilot, with a '57 Thunderbird and supercharged engine. He was out of town a lot and let me drive it. My first Thunderbird was a '59. I've had a lot since. Last September Jo and I drove my '57 to Chicago, then took Route 66 to Santa Monica with Bob and Martha Callard and two other couples."

The Callards are Fauntleroy residents and Bob is the president of the Puget Sound Early Birds, a classic Thunderbird Club focusing on '55-'57 T-Birds. He and his wife have a '57 T-Bird. Bob said that the "Retro Bird", the remake Thunderbird released in 2002 "was created by a committee to please everyone, but only pleased a few." it was designed in part like the "Bullett Birds" of 1961-'63 with a rounded nose and taillights, and initially was underpowered.

"My car was fabulous. No problems," said White, also an Early Birds member. "It was a fun trip. We spent a day in Springfield, Illinois to see the Abraham Lincoln stuff. Springfield happened to have their Route 66 Extravaganza that day, and a T-Bird club there met us and escorted us into town for a car parade."

Les said he had his hobby, cars, and his wife had hers, visiting Wiiliamsburg for years, even before they got married 10 years ago. Williamsburg depicts colonial times there in 1774.

"So we went for two weeks and I was overwhelmed," he said. "She knew a lot of people there. We got colonial clothes and walked around. People assumed I was (portraying) George Washington. I guess I look like him. My hair is white like his. That was his real hair."

Les and Jo get a kick out of tourists who come up and say, "Hello Mr. President." Because Washington was not president in 1774, Les would reward the tourist with a surprised look, and reply, "President?"

Washington's teeth were animal teeth, not wooden," White clarified. "In Mount Vernon you can see his dentures, animal teeth embedded into lead, with a hinge and springs. The man was in pain all the time. You never see him smile in paintings, or his mouth open. He was a man of very few words. He didn't talk much because it hurt."