View Full Version : A different world
(East Texas, early thru mid 80's) How times have changed. When I was in my mid to late teens or so, me and my best friend would often go into town for a break from hunting or fishing. Most often we were on bicycles and we usually had a rifle or shotgun and more often than not a .22 revolver. (purchased by our parents because we proved we were mature enough to have them)
There was an old fashioned country store we would go to and buy chips and drinks from. When we entered, we would take our long guns and place them behind the counter by the old lady who worked there. Our sidearms were still holstered, on our bodies.
We would make our purchase, hang out a bit and then get back to the woods or water. We were never hassled, didn't hassle anybody, and NEVER had any trouble.
I remember me and friends would bring guns to school to show each other after Christmas or some holiday. We never left the parking lot with them. NEVER thought about going into the school with them, let alone shooting kids we didn't like.
My how times have changed. I wish things were still like this.
dog
I think about this sometimes beyond the guns aspect of it. I remember when kids where allowed to play in their neighborhoods until dark without fear and the parents didn't have to worry. Everyone seems scared and angry anymore.
When I was in High School (graduated in 1981) I bought a barreled action........Interarms Mauser 98 in 30-06, and in woodshop made a stock for it.
There were many who bought Ruger No# 1 actions and made stocks for them.....yep, times have changed.
Wasn't unusual to see hunting rifles and classmates cleaning them at lunch, or in metal or woodshop..........
zippygaloo
12-01-08, 00:20
You can blame technology and the media. We now have the ability to push any story around the world in seconds. If a horrible crime is committed 2000 miles away from you, the news will make certain that you feel like it is in your backyard, thus instigating fear. You pull your kids inside, lock the door, etc. because "if it can happen there..."
I can remember walking down to the store to get BBs and pellets when I was grade school. No body would even give you a second look. Now kids get the police called on them just for having there BB gun in their own yard.
Quoth the raven
12-01-08, 07:45
My high school actually had an indoor range in the ROTC department. Every student in ROTC had to qualify with .22 rifles in class (standing, kneeling, and prone) in order to earn your rifle medal (marksman, sharpshooter, or expert.)
We even had a rifle team that competed at the varsity level and traveled to other schools in the county for competitions.
Man, how times have changed. I graduated in 1988 so it really isn't that long ago.
You could buy ammo, at least bb's, .22's and shotgun shells at alot of stores. Convenience stores, some grocery stores, TG&Y etc...
I remember when you could get into a fist fight with your buddies and you weren't charged with a felony at the age of 8. :rolleyes: The decline of our society is more than sad... it's tragic.
I was born in 1950 and grew up in a small town in southern Mississippi. When I was 12 or 13 I ordered a .22 Marlin from a company that sold hardware and it was sent to me through the US Mail. My "background check" was when the lady at the post office asked me if my Dad knew about the rifle-she called to make sure that he did. I walked home with my new rifle.
In the late 1960's we lost four things in this country.
1. We took God out of our lives and our schools. Today you can't
teach that it's wrong to lie, murder and steal because of the origins
of those concepts.
2. No personal responsibility. It's always someone elses fault.
We no longer punish people for their sins. We have a drug/crime
problem because we allow it to happen.
3. No respect for ourselves and others. Human life is a cheap throw
away commodity. Look at our TV shows and Video games. People
actually argue for the killing of unborn babies?
4. We replaced the distinct dividing line between right and wrong with
a gray area where each person is allowed to determine their own concept of
right and wrong.
I remember my Grandfather telling me, "Well, there goes the country."
He was right.
You can blame technology and the media. We now have the ability to push any story around the world in seconds. If a horrible crime is committed 2000 miles away from you, the news will make certain that you feel like it is in your backyard, thus instigating fear. You pull your kids inside, lock the door, etc. because "if it can happen there..."
More than that, we live now in a highly mobile, more anonymous, and more "diverse" society.
It wasn't more than 2 or 3 generations ago when the majority of Americans lived their entire lives in one place, a place that was often home to several generations of one's family. One knew his neighbors, and more often than not, his neighbor's extended family. When someone new moved into the area, it was expected for them to stay at least a little while, so that if they did not take part in the activities of the community, it would have raised eyebrows.
Now, one can have a sex predator living next door, and it is only the efficiency and diligence of local government which might inform one of that fact.
CarlosDJackal
12-01-08, 15:12
When I first moved to the US in mid-1983, I remember going to the local Woolworth's to look at the M-1 Carbines that were in rotating wooden racks in the middle of the Sporting Goods section!! If I remember it right, they were selling these for about $150. I wish I had the cash back then!!
Late '50s - early '60s in NEW JERSEY (!!!) there was a 50' rifle range in the basement of the local Jr High. We shot under the supervision of an NRA instructor on Thursdays after school and Saturday mornings.
Every Thursday, I walked to school carrying my Mossberg target rifle in its case, locked it in my locker and went to class. Nobody screamed or called the cops. It was routine. And we were only 18 miles from NYC.
I'm pretty sure that range isn't there any more. :mad:
DocMinster
12-01-08, 16:27
(I come in swinging wildly)
I blame it on video games...and Hilliary's fat ankles. :rolleyes: lol
Late '50s - early '60s in NEW JERSEY (!!!) there was a 50' rifle range in the basement of the local Jr High. We shot under the supervision of an NRA instructor on Thursdays after school and Saturday mornings.
Every Thursday, I walked to school carrying my Mossberg target rifle in its case, locked it in my locker and went to class. Nobody screamed or called the cops. It was routine. And we were only 18 miles from NYC.
Never took guns to school, but remember riding my dirt bike on the road as a teen in the early 80's (also here in N.J.) while going from our farm (now long developed) to the neighbors farm (also long gone). Sometimes I would stop and take a shot at something (crow, woodchuck, squirrel, whatever...) in a field as cars passed by next to me. Thought nothing of it, but I also knew what I was doing and was safe.
Go down that same road today with even an airsoft rifle and you are arrested in minutes. Even in the still very rural areas one is advised to use extreme caution. Any fool can go by and make a mobile call based on a paranoid glance from a passing car.
Sad what the inner city mindset has spread amongst us all.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081201214432.rjut4n2u&show_article=1
SFW link
American teens lie, steal, cheat at 'alarming' rates: study
Hmmm the wooden bowl syndrome as my family calls it. Based off a story about an elderly gentleman and his family.
Actually just having a real firearm in my hands when I was young would mature me by ten or twelve years. I took the responsibility seriously and still do.
Noone is allowed to shoot guns on my property if they aren't trusted or if they act or do anything in an unsafe way. No matter who they are.
SAFETY!!
dog
I don't even have a title suitable for this... What the flying F is this about.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1202081minn1.html
I don't even have a title suitable for this... What the flying F is this about.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1202081minn1.html
Some guys pay good money for "activities" like that!:D
I don't even have a title suitable for this... What the flying F is this about.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1202081minn1.html
It is about a complete and total lack of respect, brought on by bad upbringing as well as bad societal influences.
It is about a complete and total lack of respect, brought on by bad upbringing as well as bad societal influences.
Did you read the police report? These girls deserve "federal pound me in the ass prison".
Name that movie btw.
Receiving corporal punishment by the vice principal for fist fighting... memories <sigh>
No, No, No.
You guys are missing something here.
Take another look at the two girls in that picture,
and this is what they did?
spanked, improperly touched, and "put her bare butt" in the face of a Good Samaritan Society resident .
"inserted her finger into a resident's rectum," spit water on another "vulnerable adult,"
... and would deliberately bathe a resident in a rough manner so the elderly man would get an erection.
I'm an elderly man, send me to that old folks home right now!
Sign me up!
We get the joke. It's not however funny to me.. Someone who has had a loved one abused in a nursing home. Therefore, I'm not laughing or joining in you lighthearted comments regarding elder abuse. Don't take it personal.
You don't need to be sensitive for my sakes cause I'm rarely for others and plus I simply don't care. Just don't expect everyone to make such socially awkward statements in unison with you.
We get the joke. It's not however funny to me.. Someone who has had a loved one abused in a nursing home. Therefore, I'm not laughing or joining in you lighthearted comments regarding elder abuse. Don't take it personal.
You don't need to be sensitive for my sakes cause I'm rarely for others and plus I simply don't care. Just don't expect everyone to make such socially awkward statements in unison with you.
You're right, I'm sorry.
I never thought about it that way.
I deleted my comments.
Again my apologies.
You're right, I'm sorry.
I never thought about it that way.
I deleted my comments.
Again my apologies.
no worries brother.
Pines first-grader accused of using knife to rob classmate
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/pembroke_pines/sfl-1202pinesrobbery,0,377632.story
I swear to God I'm not searching these out. These are all showing up on Drudge since this thread originated. I know people can go out and collect headlines to fit a cause but I want to make clear that is not what I'm doing. These just keep showing up on a site I frequent.
Fellows, I don't want to offend anyone either. We GET how things are today. We ALL see it everyday. It's sad. I only wanted to reflect upon good memories from the past. Thanks for the modern day comparisons, but I was hoping for more "Mayberry" type recollections. Honestly, no offense. And the modern things posted did provide a sounding board, so to speak.
Now, any GOOD memories fellows..?
Way to be a stand up guy, JBnTX. I would see only flaming on TOS!!
Again, I am glad to be here.
dog
Fellows, I don't want to offend anyone either. We GET how things are today. We ALL see it everyday. It's sad. I only wanted to reflect upon good memories from the past. Thanks for the modern day comparisons, but I was hoping for more "Mayberry" type recollections. Honestly, no offense. And the modern things posted did provide a sounding board, so to speak.
Now, any GOOD memories fellows..?
Way to be a stand up guy, JBnTX. I would see only flaming on TOS!!
Again, I am glad to be here.
dog
My apologies. Honestly misinterpreted the point of the thread. Negativity got the best of me.
I remember fishing a lot as kid. My first redfish, first tarpon, first shark.. Those are the trips that stand out. Not knowing what a flounder was and throwing a huge one back only to find out later what I had done................... :o Not cutting the line on a lady fish and paying the price.... twice.... :o
Getting shot in the ass with a BB gun.
Defying death on my grandpa's 4 wheeler... no earthly idea how I'm alive.
I remember when ANY crime was a huge deal in my town. Now, it has to be a triple murder to get anyone's attention.
I remember dodge ball.... Believe it or not there is an adult league for dodge ball near my town.
I remember playing baseball way beyond dark. I can't get through 3 memories of my childhood that at least 1 didn't involve baseball.
Good times.
No apology neccessary, ZDL. Ahhhh, baseball. Grew up watching, then... My first MLB game, in person, Texas Rangers. Watched them on TV since they came to Tx. (Washington Senators!) The OLD Arlington stadium. Minor league parks are bigger and better, but that was the place to be!!!
Then going home to clean my guns....:cool:
We're cool, friend!
dog
Nathan_Bell
12-03-08, 08:57
Grew up on a farm. During the summer would do the chores first thing and then grab a pellet gun (once I was 12 a 22) and dissappear running about the place. We had a bell that would get rung for lunch and at supper times. If I was too far away to hear it, I got no food at those times.
Nearly got myself killed innumerable times doing stupid shit that would get my parents in front of a judge nowadays, but it was just a kid being a kid at the time.
this wasn't all that long ago I am only 34.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's in Illinois, in the Chicago suburbs. Du Page county to be more specific, which at least is more conservative than Cook county.
Fireworks were illegal, all you could get were smoke bombs and sparklers. Oh, and those stupid snake things just create a lot of ashes. I didn't have any firearms and I didn't know any other kids who did. Hell, I never even fired a gun until I was past the age of 30. There was one dad with some hunting rifles on the wall and a revolver in the bedroom drawer but I don't think my friends ever got to shoot them. I was smart enough not to play with them, but another friend was obsessed with them. His mom wouldn't even let him have a cap gun so go figure.
I had lots of toy guns and cap guns and we played army or whatever out in the yard. At least no one ever called the cops on us and we didn't get shot because someone thought they were real guns. Then I got a Daisy soft air pellet gun (precursor to air soft) that actually ejected fake shells. Then some dumbass media guy on TV got held up in his studio with one, and they took them off the market.
Then the nutjob Laurie Dan shot up an elementary school in a rich suburb and the handgun bans started coming down.
That's what it's like growing up in an anti dominated area. Guns just were not part of my growing up, and I was fed the standard anti-line by the liberal Chicago Tribune and I believed it. Of course, I was interested in guns from a mechanical and technical standpoint, and read about them. But they were always for someone else, never something I'd actually be involved with. As recently as 10 years ago I thought that all long guns should be legal, and all handguns should be illegal except for law enforcement. I believed the propaganda that a gun in the home is more likely to be used against you than in your defense.
When I moved to Indiana in 1996, and I heard guys at work talk about having carry permits I was taken aback. It just seemed so out of the ordinary because of where I grew up.
In 1999 I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a gun if there was any rioting during the new year. I was supposed to move to Detroit that year (but didn't) and if I had, I might have bought one. After 9/11 and the birth of my son in 2003, I realized I had no means of defending my family if anything should happen. It also helped that I started working with a bunch of gun guys and they taught me a lot of stuff, and gave me a lot of articles to read.
In 2004 I bought my first firearm and got my carry permit, I joined the NRA in 2005, and have been an enthusiast ever since, and a vocal supporter of gun rights. The funny thing is, in Indiana almost everyone I work with agrees on gun rights. Prior to owning any firearms, I must have been in the minority. This year I got my lifetime permit.
What's my point?
Tens of millions of people grow up in the same environment. They are taught from childhood that guns are bad and only bad people have them and they never really question it. It isn't even something my parents taught me, they were pretty silent on the subject, except I knew my dad grew up in upstate NY and they had guns and hunted a bit - mostly vermin that got into the garden. Guns are something "those other people" have, and they don't care about a right they don't exercise.
Now, my wife grew up in semi-rural southeastern Illinois, and kids had guns in the rack in the truck in the school parking lot and no one thought anything of it. So it's really a city/suburb vs. small town thing.
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