Heck, they still are.

When I met Ellerbe at NCSU's McKimmon Center this month, the dude was decked out in cowboy hat, jeans and boots. The only thing missing was a six-shooter. And a horse, of course.

"I sometimes feel like I'm living in the wrong time," Ellerbe, 72, told me.

If that's true, at least once a month he realizes that he is not alone, that he is not the only cowboy pining for the days when all a man needed was a loving woman and a fast horse -- or, in some cases, a fast woman and a loving horse.

On the third Thursday of each month -- except July, August and December -- a hundred or so fans of B-western movies get together to watch movies, hear singing and talk about such screen heroes as Tom Mix, William S. Hart, Roy Rogers and Herbert Jeffries, the Bronze Buckaroo.

"I try to add to the atmosphere" with the cowboy chic look, Ellerbe said. "It's a chance for a grown man to make a fool of himself," he said.

Ellerbe and other B-western fans have been doing that for the past 28 years, which is how long it's been since Miles Holt began teaching a Saturday course on B-westerns at N.C. State University.

The movies are part of N.C. State's Encore Center for Lifelong Enrichment program. Tricia Inlow-Hatcher, director of the Encore Center, said the B-western program is just one of several that "provides noncredit courses and study travel for people over 50. The stereotype we'd like to dispel is that we're 'that organization for retirees.' "

They're not all retirees, she said, nor, judging by Ellerbe and the other fans I met, are they the retiring sort.

"Surprisingly, we have a lot of young people, in their 40s and 50s," he said. "Most of us are in our 60s and 70s and some 80s."

Ellerbe and fellow B-western fan John Cudd became almost giddy when they talked about their favorite sagebrush soap operas -- we spent 10 minutes arguing whether "Lonesome Dove" was better as a book or television miniseries -- and before long Ellerbe, Cudd and I were comparing old westerns to newer ones.

To Ellerbe, there is no comparison. "I think they're too violent now," he said. "Too many special effects, too much sex. B-westerns told the story of good overcoming evil. There are too many gray areas now and you might end up pulling for the bad guy 'cause you can't tell the difference."

What, I asked Ellerbe, is the difference between a western movie and a B-western movie?

"Budget," he quickly answered. "That's what the 'B' stood for. Most of the B-movies were cheap to make, about $6,000. They usually had just one 'take.' "

Tonight's B movie, Ellerbe said, will be "Rancho Grande" starring Gene Autry, followed by a performance by the Rocky River Cowboys, a group that Holt accompanies on harmonica. It starts at 7 p.m., and there is no admission charge.

"He's 82 now and makes it to all of our meetings," Ellerbe said of Holt. "He's a real character."

Why was I not surprised when Ellerbe informed me that, no, he didn't have a telephone number for Holt, the man who got this western movie tradition started?

"He doesn't have a phone. Just a P.O. box," he said.

Just like a cowboy. Come to think of it, just like a hero.

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