View Full Version : Simpler Times...
http://i67.tinypic.com/fequk7.jpg
I think I was about 12 in this picture. My first rabbit and pheasant. Was taken in my grandfathers garage in Marshalltown, Iowa and also pictured is one of the Britney Spaniels we had at the time.
Yes I needed a haircut, but hey Luke Skywalker. Had my favorite army jacket with a nice comfortable red hoodie (back when hooded sweatshirts had zero connotations). Used to love Iowa in November, crisp fall air and everything was just a little more relaxed. Every year my father would pull us out of school for two weeks for hunting season.
My grandparents house was one of the neatest places on Earth. If you searched hard enough you could find interesting things from three generations of my family. My grandmother typically made four different kinds of fudge, three different pies and some kind of cake which were all jammed in an old fashioned latch handle refrigerator along with two dozen 8 ounce bottles of Coke.
Really hated getting up at crack of "are you kidding me" dawn to get ready, but somehow the Quaker Instant Oatmeal package envelopes were entertaining enough to wake me up. Maple & Brown Sugar being my personal preference.
The kids were sent out ahead of the adults so that they could get "first opportunity" but mostly we existed to flush birds. But this time my "swing and miss" actually connected and I finally "downed a few zekes."
As we were walking back to the car a rabbit sprinted away from us, I looked at my Dad and he said "Shoot it" so I did.
It's all gone now of course. Both grandparents, my father, the two Britney's and somebody else owns my grandparents house. But it was all wonderful while it lasted, wouldn't trade it for anything.
You had me at Brittany. I have two myself. I sure do love me some bird hunting with pointy dogs....nothing like watching a dog slam on point. Honestly my year kinda revolves around it lol.
Im not real crazy about pheasants because they run like Kenyans, but if they happen to hold, they're ok.
You had me at Maple and Brown Sugar. I lived on that, and Apples & Cinnamon, for 12 years every morning before school.
simpler times indeed.
My grandparents were ranchers and so the early morning stuff applied to milking cows and feeding horses and etc. My grandfather supplied horses to movie makers that would come to the area and legend has it that one of my aunts taught Natalie Wood how to ride horses for her early movies (she may have been 8 or 9). My mother was the oldest of 10. The women there were tough. How tough? My oldest brother was born when our mother was on a cattle drive. Think about being 9 months pregnant and riding horseback all day! Another aunt (that just passed a couple of weeks ago) used to ride bulls in the rodeo. Even in her old age no one dared mess with her.
I recall my Gma cooking bacon and eggs on a wood fired stove for breakfast. She used to make a mean rhubarb pie (not my favorite thing though). That rhubarb patch still exists to this day and is about 100 years old.
Related, I was having this discussion just the other day, about reminiscing. I was talking with someone about growing up on Camp Lejeune, remembering a couple eateries in Jacksonville that have LONG since gone, a couple stores that were around. When I close my eyes I can just about recall the AC of the window units in my dad's office on base, and the clacking of the old typewriters.
There were some aspects of my youth I would soon as forget, but some memories I would trade nothing for.
Averageman
04-07-16, 14:43
My Dad's Dad, Grandpa John could work through three or four Lucky Strikes while he ate a half pound of bacon, toast, four eggs and had two cups of black coffee. It's kind of funny, but I remember breakfast with him the most.
The guy was a great sportsman and hunter. I have one of his shotguns against the fireplace at the house.
Aye. Maybe it was just being a kid or times better or both.
In summer there was a swimming hole.
You could have fun with just dirt and gi joes.
Grown ups were damn grown ups.
Now it's BS all the time. If a kid from 2016 got Marty Mcflyed back to the mid 80s, he'd get his butt whipped for looking like a fag and talking too disrespectfully.
Heck, I remember an old black teacher in elementary school would smoke unfiltered cigarettes while she watched us at recess.
I don't even think kids have recess now.
Sounds nice. Coming from a Communist land, I am unable to personally relate to a lot of your childhood, but I have seen it in movies and read about it in books. I am jealous.
What you've depicted here is totally foreign to me. My childhood was quite the opposite.
Thank you for sharing and letting me live vicariously for a moment, and seeing how things should have been.
What you've depicted here is totally foreign to me. My childhood was quite the opposite.
Thank you for sharing and letting me live vicariously for a moment, and seeing how things should have been.
I understand EXACTLY how you feel every time I look at a picture of my father and uncle from when they were about the same age back in the early 1950s, walking down the sidewalk with a slung Springfield '03 and 1917 Enfield and a back pack full of 30.06 on the way to the local shooting gallery on the edge of town. There was another one of them on their bicycles and by dad had a 1911 in a flap holster.
Nobody said anything, nobody called the cops. Usually there were one or two fathers out there giving pointers and making sure kids were being safe. Once in awhile a cop would swing by just to make sure everyone knew what they were doing because most of the shooters were teens and pre teens.
There was a sign telling you what direction to shoot, some basic safety rules and every kid not only read the sign but could explain what each part meant. If you tried that today it would probably be chaos and end up on the news.
Nobody said anything, nobody called the cops. Usually there were one or two fathers out there giving pointers and making sure kids were being safe. Once in awhile a cop would swing by just to make sure everyone knew what they were doing because most of the shooters were teens and pre teens.
There was a sign telling you what direction to shoot, some basic safety rules and every kid not only read the sign but could explain what each part meant. If you tried that today it would probably be chaos and end up on the news.
Yes, simpler times, and not so many whiners, and bed wetters. I remember walking through the neighborhood to go to the woods to shoot. Only once a neighbor called my Dad to say, "you know that rifle is real", I guess I was 9 or 10. My Dad's reply was, "yeah, that's the point. "
I hunted birds with a German Shorthaired Pointer when I was older. Great picture! The Brittany still wants that bird!
Here's one from about the same time frame.
http://i66.tinypic.com/t7ixdj.jpg
I'm shooting the second firearm I ever owned, a Ruger Security Six .357 Magnum bicentennial edition that I got for Christmas a few years earlier.
Yes, my finger should be off the trigger, but I had a tough time hanging on to it if I didn't and I couldn't quite wrap around the trigger guard yet.
And yes, I should be wearing eye protection, but the range didn't have AC and it would always fog up on me and I couldn't see anything.
Just the same, I should have gotten some shooting glasses that were less prone to fog than the range rental wrap around crap. If I'd have known better I could have talked my Dad into buying me a pair of aviators.
Another great picture. When I was about that age, my Dad gave me a Walther PP in .32 ACP, he brought back from Germany after WWII. About the same time, my grandfather gave me his two S&W service revolvers. He was a retired cop. Can you imagine that today!
Moose-Knuckle
04-08-16, 02:12
Here's one from about the same time frame.
http://i66.tinypic.com/t7ixdj.jpg
I'm shooting the second firearm I ever owned, a Ruger Security Six .357 Magnum bicentennial edition that I got for Christmas a few years earlier.
Yes, my finger should be off the trigger, but I had a tough time hanging on to it if I didn't and I couldn't quite wrap around the trigger guard yet.
And yes, I should be wearing eye protection, but the range didn't have AC and it would always fog up on me and I couldn't see anything.
Just the same, I should have gotten some shooting glasses that were less prone to fog than the range rental wrap around crap. If I'd have known better I could have talked my Dad into buying me a pair of aviators.
Finger discipline! Someone should post this kid on the Four Simple Rules Facebook page . . .
:jester:
Finger discipline! Someone should post this kid on the Four Simple Rules Facebook page . . .
:jester:
Yeah, I know. But I think if it happened in the 1970s it doesn't count.
Yeah, I know. But I think if it happened in the 1970s it doesn't count.
We have come a long way. I would stuff cotton in my ears when I was a kid, but no eye protection. I also didn't wear a bike helmet, nobody did, and I sure there are lots of other things. Fireworks, blowing up stuff, tackle football with no pads, etc.
Averageman
04-08-16, 12:51
You know looking at this thread makes me want to build a Schwinn "Stingray" something like I was riding circa 1974.
I'm sure I would look like an idiot and I'm not totally sure I wouldn't next begin working on a replica of the jumps we used to build.
You shouldn't have these thoughts and a 55 year old body, I just don't recover like I used to.
Holy shnikes.
Steyr is Tom Petty!
brickboy240
04-08-16, 15:11
Funny because my mother has a photo of me at about age 12, in a very similar scene as your first photo. Out in Dad's garage, old Belgian Browning A-5 leaning against the wall and standing in a mess of ducks we were about to clean and put in the freezer. The photo is still in their house in a small frame and on a living room table along with other family photos.
My photo was also taken in the 70s...probably 77 or 78.
Good times? Oh yeah...you bet.
(still have the 20 gauge Browning A-5, too and my 16 year old daughter uses it as her dove gun)
ramairthree
04-09-16, 01:19
We have come a long way. I would stuff cotton in my ears when I was a kid, but no eye protection. I also didn't wear a bike helmet, nobody did, and I sure there are lots of other things. Fireworks, blowing up stuff, tackle football with no pads, etc.
Hell, in 1999 in the Army guys were not wearing eye pro. Let alone like 15 years before that when I first went in. I had To convince my Bn CDR
Former RI, SF LTC, and Operator it was time to Buy eye pro for everyone.
People were wearing ear plugs.
But no eye pro.
When I first went in people blew off ear plugs all the time.
His issue was fogging up, falling off in the way, etc. and interfering with shooting guys trying to kill you.
I said only wear them for training to start and not when actually shooting people and see how it goes.
This is in an SF Bn. Not a broke unit that avoided new kit.
In the same week an incident with a SAW bolt took a chunk of cheek out of a guy's face an inch below his eye.
And he got some spall in his eye himself that had to be dug out but no permanent damage.
Oakleys were out of budget but same/better rated Protective Optics could be done for less than half the price. (I think they became Wiley X, looked just like Oakley Blades)
Eye pro caught on like gang busters.
I only started a seat belt because when I went in the army they said you could get a ticket now on post for not using them.
When I first saw a kid in early 90s on his bike with training wheels,
And a helmet I said to my wife,
"I did not realize that kid was retarded."
She said I think kids are started to wear helmets now when they ride bikes.
It still blows my mind seeing all the people skiing with helmets.
When I first saw a kid in early 90s on his bike with training wheels,
And a helmet I said to my wife,
"I did not realize that kid was retarded."
She said I think kids are started to wear helmets now when they ride bikes.
Verbatim, my first thoughts when I first saw that. Right up there with kids on a extendo leash abound the same time.
Moose-Knuckle
04-09-16, 04:15
It still blows my mind seeing all the people skiing with helmets.
The last time I snowboarded a dude died on the same mountain from a head injury sustained after hitting a tree. Senator Sonny Bono and actor Liam Nessom's wife both died from head injuries sustained in skiing accidents.
The last time I snowboarded a dude died on the same mountain from a head injury sustained after hitting a tree. Senator Sonny Bono and actor Liam Nessom's wife both died from head injuries sustained in skiing accidents.
Yeah, and how many millions of people ski and snow board safely with no helmet for years, and years. We are obsessed with total safety now. Well man up, and learn how to fall and not ski into trees.
Yeah, and how many millions of people ski and snow board safely with no helmet for years, and years. We are obsessed with total safety now. Well man up, and learn how to fall and not ski into trees.
Only an idiot wouldn't wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, bicycle, roller blading, skiing, etc. Why wouldn't you? Too cool? Ok, well, have fun with your cracked skull.
That would be like saying "well hell people didn't use hearing protection for thousands of years while shooting firearms, so why would you?" Or "seatbelts are for wimps, they didn't have back in Henry Ford's day..." Well have fun in the roll over crash while your car smushes into oblivion.
Only an idiot wouldn't wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, bicycle, roller blading, skiing, etc. Why wouldn't you? Too cool? Ok, well, have fun with your cracked skull.
That would be like saying "well hell people didn't use hearing protection for thousands of years while shooting firearms, so why would you?" Or "seatbelts are for wimps, they didn't have back in Henry Ford's day..." Well have fun in the roll over crash while your car smushes into oblivion.
This is supposed to be a fun thread, which is welcoming for a change. I think we can do without your preaching.
I didn't wear a helmet biking for years (not motorcycles; bicycles). Then I started working as a paramedic. I started wearing a helmet. But, hey, to each his own and all.....
I do miss the summers of my youth....outside until it got dark, mom kept the door unlocked so I could get in when I got home. No fear of crime in my small town. Homemade ramps for bikes. A group of buddies would roam the neighborhood in the summer evenings, just hanging out, playing. Some neighbors would put out snacks for us. Almost all would let us drink from their garden hoses if we got thirsty. Most all of these, I would not let my kids do today.
Only an idiot wouldn't wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, bicycle, roller blading, skiing, etc. Why wouldn't you? Too cool? Ok, well, have fun with your cracked skull.
That would be like saying "well hell people didn't use hearing protection for thousands of years while shooting firearms, so why would you?" Or "seatbelts are for wimps, they didn't have back in Henry Ford's day..." Well have fun in the roll over crash while your car smushes into oblivion.
I do wear a helmet for road race biking, and mountain biking, and when I had motorcycles I always wore a helmet, but I refuse to wear a helmet for skiing. I am a pretty good skier as I lived in Colorado for many years, and can't remember the last time I fell.
Averageman
04-09-16, 09:03
Verbatim, my first thoughts when I first saw that. Right up there with kids on a extendo leash abound the same time.
My Mom had a leash for me.
Mind you this was 1965 or 1966, so I'm sure it was more embarrassing for her than it was for me. Apparently I could out run, out climb and out hide almost all adult supervision when my Dad wasn't around.
Amazingly I was able to behave a lot better when my Dad was home, but then, he spanked a lot harder.
Shot my first 1911 at age 16. (Missed that damn dinosaur!) One handed out there in the breeze, other in my pocket, no ear protection. After a pistol match my ears would ring for three days...
Good times, good times.
Moose-Knuckle
04-10-16, 01:35
Yeah, and how many millions of people ski and snow board safely with no helmet for years, and years. We are obsessed with total safety now. Well man up, and learn how to fall and not ski into trees.
How many millions of people ride in automobiles for years and years and are never killed? Yet anyone with a modicum of common sense wears a seat belt.
Their called accidents for a reason and they happen to the best of us when we least expect it.
If you don't want to wear a helmet/seatbelt/eye pro/etc. cool, that is your luxury but it's childish to make fun of those who do.
All safety devices are a crutch bro
Ha
Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
militarymoron
04-10-16, 23:22
Times were definitely 'simpler' back then. Even in the 80's, when my high school buddies and I would go hiking in the local mountains armed to the teeth with 'assault rifles', passing hikers would smile and greet us with a 'gonna have some fun shooting?'. Nowadays, I'm sure the same sight would prompt a call to the local authorities. Since we're sharing old pics, here's one of me in the 70's holding an XM177 at an armed forces show. I was probably around 8 years old. See? Proof I've been into ARs for a long time!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/militarymoron/CAR.jpg
http://youtu.be/6vQpW9XRiyM
eightmillimeter
04-12-16, 10:48
Here's one from about the same time frame.
http://i66.tinypic.com/t7ixdj.jpg
I'm shooting the second firearm I ever owned, a Ruger Security Six .357 Magnum bicentennial edition that I got for Christmas a few years earlier.
Yes, my finger should be off the trigger, but I had a tough time hanging on to it if I didn't and I couldn't quite wrap around the trigger guard yet.
And yes, I should be wearing eye protection, but the range didn't have AC and it would always fog up on me and I couldn't see anything.
Just the same, I should have gotten some shooting glasses that were less prone to fog than the range rental wrap around crap. If I'd have known better I could have talked my Dad into buying me a pair of aviators.
It's currently a felony in Iowa to let a kid under 14 touch a handgun, doesn't even matter if the parents are there and/or say ok. A law we've been fighting to change for over 3 years now.
ETA: Steyr, my dad grew up in Neveda (close to Marshalltown) in the 70's and knows exactly what you're talking about.
Holy shnikes.
Steyr is Tom Petty!
And doesnt look at all like Ron Livingston!
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