Bad juju stuff.

Around 2006 or 2007, I bought some AK mags and a surplus type 56 chest rig from ebay(back when they didn't care about gun parts). The chest rig smelled like death, and had what appeared to be blood stains on it. I wasn't really creeped out by it or anything, I just wasn't interested in trying to salvage it, so I tossed it in the garbage.

I put the garbage can out by the road the night before garbage pickup, which I've always done, and the next morning when I went out to leave for work, I found the garbage can tipped over with the sack ripped open and garbage all over the front yard. I don't know if it was coyotes or a neighbors dog that did it, but whatever it was took the chest rig with them. That was the first time anything had knocked our garbage can over in 3-4 years of living there, and it's never happened since. I try not to read too much into things like this, but it's always stuck with me.

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Originally Posted by WickedWillis

I work in the welding supply industry. Working with compressed gases, and the like. I see Nazi cylinders, typically from Linde, almost daily. When the allies captured them, they turned the swastika into what looks like a window, for example;
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/...7ec2564c54.jpg2019-03-26_02-05-10 by Willis, on Flickr

I am still amazed at how many of these are still in circulation. Can't help but think they were used for much worse than just oxy fuel cutting and so-on.

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That is interesting as hell, learn something new everyday.

I can not rationalize why the Nazi stuff gets under my skin so bad. My logical brain says it's dumb. The rest of me just can't get to the same place.

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Originally Posted by Norseman

That is interesting as hell, learn something new everyday.

I can not rationalize why the Nazi stuff gets under my skin so bad. My logical brain says it's dumb. The rest of me just can't get to the same place.

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My dad worked at White Sands Missile Range. One time I got to see some old V2 rocket frames that someone had pulled out of the desert. They still had the Nazi swastikas stamped into the frame joints.

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Originally Posted by Doc Safari

Tell us again about the army dress uniform coat with the engagement ring still in the pocket. That would have given me such heebie jeebies I think I'd have given up the hobby right then and there.

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Wasn't anything really scary.

When I was a kid growing up I interested in anything WWII because of stories my grandfather told me. Again, uniforms, decorations or field gear...it was all fascinating to me. But I always treated it like kids who collect coins or baseball cards.

My grandparents also put out the word to their circle of friends that I was always looking for such things and as a result I usually got a "box of stuff" from someone who had no heirs and thought "at least I would take care of it and appreciate it."

Now even at 12 years old I knew in the back of my mind that a lot of this stuff belonged to someone no longer with us who was either killed in the war or died after the fact and nobody was willing to throw out his uniform and medals.

But even with that basic realization nothing really hit home until years later when I was going through a pretty cool Ike jacket and found what was either an engagement or wedding ring. In either case the widow put her ring in her husbands pocket and then probably forgot it was ever there when she gave me the uniform sometime in the early 80s.

It was many years later when I was reorganizing everything and happened to check pockets and that ring dropped out and I realized just how personal some of this stuff was.

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Originally Posted by SteyrAUG

Wasn't anything really scary.

When I was a kid growing up I interested in anything WWII because of stories my grandfather told me. Again, uniforms, decorations or field gear...it was all fascinating to me. But I always treated it like kids who collect coins or baseball cards.

My grandparents also put out the word to their circle of friends that I was always looking for such things and as a result I usually got a "box of stuff" from someone who had no heirs and thought "at least I would take care of it and appreciate it."

Now even at 12 years old I knew in the back of my mind that a lot of this stuff belonged to someone no longer with us who was either killed in the war or died after the fact and nobody was willing to throw out his uniform and medals.

But even with that basic realization nothing really hit home until years later when I was going through a pretty cool Ike jacket and found what was either an engagement or wedding ring. In either case the widow put her ring in her husbands pocket and then probably forgot it was ever there when she gave me the uniform sometime in the early 80s.

It was many years later when I was reorganizing everything and happened to check pockets and that ring dropped out and I realized just how personal some of this stuff was.

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Dang. That story gives me chills.

That GI may have lied wounded in a foxhole, or some shithole hospital somewhere, and died wondering how he was going to get back to her. Or he bought it instantly from an exploding shell or something and never knew what hit him.

He more than likely never had a chance to write to her and tell her to prepare herself for his demise.

That poor woman's hopes and dreams for the rest of her life probably died with a visit from two military guys, or a letter, or telegram, or whatever. She probably cried for weeks and finally out of grief put the engagement ring in that pocket in an effort to "keep the two together." She may have remained broken-hearted and single forever, or she may have married someone whom she loved but who never quite lived up to the one she "lost in the war."



She lived an entire life after that incident, and that expensive ring that some GI scrimped and saved for, or finagled from someone he knew just became a forgotten gesture.

Bad juju for sure.

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Originally Posted by Norseman

That is interesting as hell, learn something new everyday.

I can not rationalize why the Nazi stuff gets under my skin so bad. My logical brain says it's dumb. The rest of me just can't get to the same place.

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We should probably keep in mind that for almost 10 years everything in Germany was nazi and the postal inspector probably had a swastika on his uniform somewhere. I understand what that stuff represents, but not everyone worked in a death camp and not every firearm killed somebody.

Then there are trophies, what if your uncle or some other relative fought in the war and captured a Luger. Would that still bother you? I knew a guy who was jewish and had flags his grandfathered captured in his firearms room.

Along those lines, when European jews in Palestine fought to create Israel, one of the primary rifles used were German K-98s complete with waffenampts. This is why I can't assign a presence to objects, is that rifle evil for helping the Germans fight their war of oppression or is the rifle good because it helped those who were being oppressed fight for their independence?

To me it's just a rifle with lots of history.

I understand association, for example I wouldn't want to own anything used by a serial killer, but here I don't think the object has any "juju" I just don't want anything to do with that stuff. I wouldn't want to own artwork by Manson for example.

Another story.

My dad was 74, a healthy old geezer and in pretty good shape, but was getting old enough that he didn't have the hand strength to cycle the action on a semi auto pistol anymore. I suggested one of my .357 magnum Ruger Security Six revolvers because he could shoot it single action and he did have the hand strength for that.

I basically gave it to him since he had given me a Glock he didn't like.

We took it out and shot a couple of cylinder fulls through it. He was overjoyed. He immediately went home, set up his reloading bench, and started cranking out .357 and .38 shells for the next range trip.

Twenty-four hours later he took to his death bed with cancer and he was gone two months later.

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Originally Posted by SteyrAUG

Along those lines, when European jews in Palestine fought to create Israel, one of the primary rifles used were German K-98s complete with waffenampts. This is why I can't assign a presence to objects, is that rifle evil for helping the Germans fight their war of oppression or is the rifle good because it helped those who were being oppressed fight for their independence?.

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Years ago someone who claimed to have been in the IDF showed me some photos of old beat up German Panzer IV's the Arabs had been using. Most were destroyed but he claimed they captured some. I don't remember which war it was but I found it ironic that the modern enemies of Israel were still trying to kill them with Nazi equipment.

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Originally Posted by Doc Safari

Dang. That story gives me chills.

That GI may have lied wounded in a foxhole, or some shithole hospital somewhere, and died wondering how he was going to get back to her. Or he bought it instantly from an exploding shell or something and never knew what hit him.

He more than likely never had a chance to write to her and tell her to prepare herself for his demise.

That poor woman's hopes and dreams for the rest of her life probably died with a visit from two military guys, or a letter, or telegram, or whatever. She probably cried for weeks and finally out of grief put the engagement ring in that pocket in an effort to "keep the two together." She may have remained broken-hearted and single forever, or she may have married someone whom she loved but who never quite lived up to the one she "lost in the war."



She lived an entire life after that incident, and that expensive ring that some GI scrimped and saved for, or finagled from someone he knew just became a forgotten gesture.

Bad juju for sure.

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Might have went like that, but unlikely as his uniform was perfect.

He either died before he could get back to her and she simply kept the ring with his other effects or when he died after the war she put the ring in the box with his uniform and medals.

The ring was rather simple so hard to say if it was an engagement or wedding ring.

When I found the ring many years later I wondered if I should try and return it to her but I didn't know if it would provide comfort in her later years or simply open old wounds that she had put behind her.

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Originally Posted by SteyrAUG

When I found the ring many years later I wondered if I should try and return it to her but I didn't know if it would provide comfort in her later years or simply open old wounds that she had put behind her.

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Honestly I think you did the right thing. My mom had to go to assisted living due to dementia, and I learned she was probably happier not "remembering" too much about her old life. I began to cut my visits short, because if I stayed too long the memories that she was someplace other than her home would come drifting back and she would become depressed. I stayed away for almost a full week and next time I visited her she was under the impression that she had been in the assisted living facility for several years instead of just a few weeks. She didn't ask when she's going home or become depressed. She had forgotten most of it or assumed it was long in the past. I had to admit my presence was causing her to be unhappy because it made her realize her plight, so I started only visiting once a week or so and not staying too long. She seemed a lot happier that way.