View Full Version : Thank God They Didn't Have Ritalin Back When I Was A Kid...
Some more "back in the day" photos from about 1979/1980.
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By this time confidence in our ability convinced us that we could probably safely spar with weapons because our control and technique was "that good." Thankfully we survived that period of personal delusion with all of our fingers intact and no massive brain trauma.
But yes that really is us playing real time "catch" with a live katana and sai as well as playing nunchaku "tag." We didn't come out completely clean, I remember a couple cuts on the thumb due to poor placement on the sai and we both caught each other on the elbows when the nunchaku were flying.
And if we didn't have weapons in our hands, we'd gladly spend a nice summer day just kicking the crap out of each other. Ahhh, good times.
More control than 99% of people when it comes to martial arts.
Doing that now and the neighbors would call the cops and you'd both being drug to jail for domestic violence or children's protective services. :(
BoringGuy45
07-07-14, 20:06
The DID have Ritalin when I was a kid; however, I was lucky enough to still be in an era when I drew pictures of ninjas, soldiers, gruesome monsters, and weapons, my teachers just said, "He's a boy, that's what they do." When I picked up sticks and wood chips and used them as guns on the playground, the only thing my parents or teachers worried about was that I would fall and poke my eye out. Every kid played with toy guns, wrestled, played football and soccer and kept score, and watched "violent" shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Looney Toons, etc.
Outlander Systems
07-07-14, 20:14
I love your old MA stuff.
I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I was practicing nunchaku kata and destroyed a light fixture.
All weapons were thence to be stored in the garage, and used outdoors only.
Then, Christmas morning, 1994, my father ND'd my brand-new BB gun into the drywall. It was a badass, Crosman AutoAir II.
I love your old MA stuff.
I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I was practicing nunchaku kata and destroyed a light fixture.
All weapons were thence to be stored in the garage, and used outdoors only.
Then, Christmas morning, 1994, my father ND'd my brand-new BB gun into the drywall. It was a badass, Crosman AutoAir II.
Yeah, I pretty much had a outdoors / garage weapon policy at my home too.
Might as well share the rest in case you haven't seen them.
I think these are the oldest pictures I have of myself practicing martial arts around 1978/79.
In the pictures, along with my roundhouse kick, are my favorite Dolan's tonfa, my first pair of sai (bought them from Merten's Martial Market), a pair of AWMA "speedchucks" (which I'm holding near the top incorrectly so I can get an action photo), Shureido red oak kama, a typical 440 stainless steel katana and a Dolan's Chinese oak bo.
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Photos of myself and my first student around 1981/82.
I began my training with local neighborhood instructors around 1977 and got my first shodan grade in 1981. Almost from the first day of training I went home and showed my best friend across the street everything I had been taught so we could practice together.
About a year after testing for my shodan I put my best friend through the same test for his shodan grade. I was also teaching his younger brother who tested as high as green belt at the time.
Both would eventually be introduced to my instructors and would test again to the same belt levels. The fact that I had been teaching long before I was officially entitled to was overlooked. At the time one had to be at least a green belt to train somebody to yellow belt, brown belt to train to green belt, black belt (shodan) to train to brown belt and second black belt (nidan) to train to first black belt (shodan). Shortly after my friend got his first black belt (shodan) from both myself and my instructor, I would get my second black belt (nidan) which would make my ranking of him a bit more official.
We also engaged in some unorthodox training that my instructors never would have permitted. This included contact sparring where black eyes, split lips, bloody noses and assorted bruises were commonplace. We thought it was great fun, our parents were terrified they'd be reported for child abuse.
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Photos from 1981/82 featuring myself and my best friends / students engaging in a little "contact" sparring. They could dish it out as well as take it. They have the pictures where they are getting the hits in.
I can still recall all of us taking turns on the ground trying to breath and being amazed that anything can hit you that hard and still be kinda funny. We weren't normal kids. Somehow no broken bones and only a few momentary knock outs with plenty of stars.
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Good times.
Rather than taking the Ritilin prescribed to you, you could have just sold it to other kids and used the money for other things . . .
I'm just joking. Seriously, don't do things like that. It's quite illegal.
Rather than taking the Ritilin prescribed to you, you could have just sold it to other kids and used the money for other things . . .
I'm just joking. Seriously, don't do things like that. It's quite illegal.
Have you never seen a 1970s martial arts film? If I started selling my Ritalin to other kids, the local karate experts would have had to hunt me down and kick my ass or kill me to save the kids and make the neighborhood safe.
I mean seriously, nothing brings the wrath of guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris quite like being involved in any form of illegal drug activity.
:sarcastic:
Besides I was doing pretty good at the time moving cinnamon paper in school. Cheap, easy to make "in demand" product and most kids had no clue how to lay your hands on cinnamon oil. On the weekend I'd have full sheets of cinnamon paper hanging on my ceiling fan, the whole house smelled like a cinnamon broom.
Moose-Knuckle
07-08-14, 03:30
For some reason when I started reading this thread the epic episode 1 of season 8 of South Park entitled Good Times With Weapons came to mind.
Enjoy!
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s08e01-good-times-with-weapons
The DID have Ritalin when I was a kid; however, I was lucky enough to still be in an era when I drew pictures of ninjas, soldiers, gruesome monsters, and weapons, my teachers just said, "He's a boy, that's what they do." When I picked up sticks and wood chips and used them as guns on the playground, the only thing my parents or teachers worried about was that I would fall and poke my eye out. Every kid played with toy guns, wrestled, played football and soccer and kept score, and watched "violent" shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Looney Toons, etc.
Yep, same here. We must be about the same age.
The most unique part of the GD forum for me is the fact that I know exactly which threads are yours from the titles because it's all the same stuff I always did or read.
The most unique part of the GD forum for me is the fact that I know exactly which threads are yours from the titles because it's all the same stuff I always did or read.
Yep, it's like many of us are part of some bizarre cloning experiment (The Boys from Brazil / Village of the Damned) that somehow involves Jivaro blowguns, switchblades and nunchaku.
I remember we used to play war with BB guns. The "one pump" rule would get violated every so often. Or dirt clod fights. Ahh good times. The things us "latchkey" kids got away with.
Now let me see my son/daughter do that shit and social services will need to be called.
Phillygunguy
07-10-14, 10:39
might be a little off topic But not only did we not have Ritalin, when I was a kid in the 70s, we were told to stick up for ourselves. If some punk ass kid or bully hit you, your parents ( at least my dad) told me to hit them back. The playground my mom took me to, was all concrete and steel. if you fell, you skinned your knees, got a little bloody and if you had any sense you knew not to do it again. None of this astro turf or rubber crap to soften your fall.
Doing that now and the neighbors would call the cops and you'd both being drug to jail for domestic violence or children's protective services. :(
And I remember cruising the open fields of the neighborhood with either my BB gun or pellet rifle - no grasshopper or dragonfly was safe! Nowadays that would certainly require a SWAT rollout, and mom & dad would likely be charged the resulting bill!!!!!! john
ramairthree
07-10-14, 11:02
Hell yeah you grew up right.
And I remember cruising the open fields of the neighborhood with either my BB gun or pellet rifle - no grasshopper or dragonfly was safe! Nowadays that would certainly require a SWAT rollout, and mom & dad would likely be charged the resulting bill!!!!!! john
Where in the hell do you people live????????
montanadave
07-10-14, 11:09
Where in the hell do you people live????????
Yeah, I think it's more a function of population density.
I saw a couple of kids ride by the front gate yesterday on a dirt bike, shorts, no helmets, and carrying a rifle. No idea where they were headed but I just waved.
BB gun fights here too in the 60s, was all fun and games til someone cryed..;) Had many days blowing stuff up with m80s and cherry bombs. I don't recall Ritalin being available back then. It may have been normal for young boys having the monkeys running recklessly through their heads.
Steyr, I ran 'The Raid 2' yesterday, it's just been released. I wondered if the stunt guys grew up like you in Indonesia. I can't see how they could make that film like the first Raid without sending dozens to the hospital. Pretty over the top.
Steyr, back then it was called being a boy/kid.
. Along with the BB gun and bottle rocket wars etc... We also carved our own staves, made nunchuks(? We beat the shit out ourselves more than each other) and wooden swords. Metal was not much of an option because Jackson, MS did not have much of a selection and our parents were not going to add to the mayhem we were already unleashing. There were a few classes to take but we were having a ball, what's a few bloody knuckles, noses and lips. We hand gloves and a steep learning curve.
It was another 8 years before I got into bjj and judo in 88/89. I missed a lot, but I was playing guitar and working as much as I could in the family business. Your posts and pics really take me back. You had great gear back in the day
Outlander Systems
07-11-14, 18:52
Steyr, back then it was called being a boy/kid.
. Along with the BB gun and bottle rocket wars etc... We also carved our own staves, made nunchuks(? We beat the shit out ourselves more than each other) and wooden swords. Metal was not much of an option because Jackson, MS did not have much of a selection and our parents were not going to add to the mayhem we were already unleashing. There were a few classes to take but we were having a ball, what's a few bloody knuckles, noses and lips. We hand gloves and a steep learning curve.
It was another 8 years before I got into bjj and judo in 88/89. I missed a lot, but I was playing guitar and working as much as I could in the family business. Your posts and pics really take me back. You had great gear back in the day
I had homemade nunchaku coming out of my eyeballs. When I finally got a real set, with the ball bearings, I was on cloud 9.
The trick to the homemade sword was finding a steel pipe and crimping it with a hammer to flatten one end of the tube out.
My big hobby as a youth was leather working. I never had a weapon without a homemade leather holster. Nunchaku holster, staff carrying strap, sword sheath, BB Gun holster...
ETA:
Two words...
WAX LIPS!
Moose-Knuckle
07-11-14, 19:24
The trick to the homemade sword was finding a steel pipe and crimping it with a hammer to flatten one end of the tube out.
My childhood playmate and I would do this with steel pipes we found laying about. I would always customize mine by wrapping the handle in black electrical tape and cutting the two edges off of the tip of the flat end with a hacksaw thus making a stabbing point.
Outlander Systems
07-11-14, 22:12
My childhood playmate and I would do this with steel pipes we found laying about. I would always customize mine by wrapping the handle in black electrical tape and cutting the two edges off of the tip of the flat end with a hacksaw thus making a stabbing point.
Dude, I am cracking up over here. That is EXACTLY what we did. I can't remember what it was, but we used an aluminum disc we picked up at the hardware store that had a hole that the pipe could slide into. We'd brace it with more electrical tape as a handguard.
I'm starting to wonder if there was something in the water, or kids were more creative when there wasn't an internet and 6000 cable channels.
My father had a 30x40 shop for working on our equipment in the backyard and I made throwing knives and a two foot Bowie with my father. I don't post pics but I really need to let you guys see the homemade "short sword". It was awsome, but for some reason be would not let me loose to make what I wanted. I could have made some killer stuff from just his scrap bin. Access to welders, metal cutters, pipe benders, grinders everything I needed to make anything... And he said NO, you boys would kill yourselves. Made feel like he was saying I couldn't have a Red Ryder BB gun (i did have one) because ill shoot my eye out. Sometimes had to be sneaky and creative to make my "sparring" gear. And yes the throwers always needed electrical tape handles.
Awsome way to manufacture swords on the fly outlander and moose. Wish I would have thought of that, no shop needed.
Moose-Knuckle
07-12-14, 15:11
Dude, I am cracking up over here. That is EXACTLY what we did. I can't remember what it was, but we used an aluminum disc we picked up at the hardware store that had a hole that the pipe could slide into. We'd brace it with more electrical tape as a handguard.
I'm starting to wonder if there was something in the water, or kids were more creative when there wasn't an internet and 6000 cable channels.
Great minds and all that . . .
I grew up in the country and soon as I got home from school I would eat a snack and watch G.I. Joe, then it was outside until my mom yelled for me to come in for dinner. I had a toy verison of just about every firearm known to man. If I saw one in a movie or TV show I had to modify one of my own to look like it. I don't get kids this day in age sitting in front a TV/computer all day. I guess it a parenting thing.
Moose-Knuckle
07-12-14, 15:16
My father had a 30x40 shop for working on our equipment in the backyard and I made throwing knives and a two foot Bowie with my father. I don't post pics but I really need to let you guys see the homemade "short sword". It was awsome, but for some reason be would not let me loose to make what I wanted. I could have made some killer stuff from just his scrap bin. Access to welders, metal cutters, pipe benders, grinders everything I needed to make anything... And he said NO, you boys would kill yourselves. Made feel like he was saying I couldn't have a Red Ryder BB gun (i did have one) because ill shoot my eye out. Sometimes had to be sneaky and creative to make my "sparring" gear. And yes the throwers always needed electrical tape handles.
Awsome way to manufacture swords on the fly outlander and moose. Wish I would have thought of that, no shop needed.
Nice, yeah I had an uncle who had just about everything in his shop. My cousin and I would flatten pipes in his bench vise to make ours. We made "bowie knives" by cutting their shape out of scraps of plywood. We sanded them down smooth and painted them woodland. Ah I miss being a kid.
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