All gone.......

[Arcey]

As some of ya know, the Pungo Posse lost its range a few weeks ago.

I recieved a forwarded e-mail from the former match director.  The e-mail reads:

Good Evening *****,

    The Cowboy conex will be moved to **** for safe keeping Thursday.  The old white box is now empty of VBRPC property and is available for the ******* ****** **********.  I suggest that you remove it quickly as the cleanup crew will demolish it if you don't.  I would also suggest you avoid going to the old range site if possible.  The berm and firing line have been demolished.  It is very sad.

Life goes on.................

..

[Tensleep]

 

[Wymore Wrangler]

Very sad indeed...

[Lucky Irish Tom]

Not a sight I would want to see Cuzzin Arcey! 

[Badlands Walker]

This is truly a sad day!

[Big John Denny]

One of our local clubs, the Keg Creek Regulators, are out of business too. I hope we're not seeing a trend here.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Dang, that was quick. But that's not the way I'll remember it. I'll be remembering Whylde Chylde standing there, yelling, screaming as he shoots both barrels from his shotgun at the same time, from the hip. I'll remember the breeze blowing over the farmers' fields. I'll remember standing in line to shoot and getting a deep breath of Arcey and LCR's smoke. I'll remember standing at the firing line in my cloak because it was so cold, and Wildcat Will asking if I'm all adjusted. I'll remember blue, green, orange, and yellow smoke. I'll remember that last clean stage I shot there. I'll remember the laughter and the wonderful people.

I'll remember the place as it was, and the people as they are: full of spirit and joy.

Aye, I'll remember.

AnnieLee

[Camille Eonich]

 


There has been an offer made by developers for the property that the Iredell Regulators shoot on too.  It's the FOP range and the rumour is that they will rebuild but it will ba an indoor range.   

[Missouri Marshal]

I was over in the area Tuesday at the Wal Mart.  I started to drive by the old place, glad I didn't.  It's not so much as the place but being able to meet up with my pards every week for a few hours of shootin the bull and shootin steel.  I really miss our Tuesday Cowboy Practice sessions.  Very sad indeed   Really makes me  the way the developers are ruinin everything, not jus the range but the woodlands, farm fields and everything they can just to build houses that normal people can't afford ($400,000 and up) and to put in more golf courses, now there is a waste of property.

[Tricky Trina]

Whut MM said - I really miss those Tuesdays when I could show up 
Trina

[Book Miser]

Really makes me  the way the developers are ruinin everything, not jus the range but the woodlands, farm fields and everything they can just to build houses that normal people can't afford ($400,000 and up) and to put in more golf courses, now there is a waste of property.

Yuh. I've lived in this same place for thirty years. Never saw the necessity to move until recently. Now a trip to the local shopping center is like a trip to the Third World, without the necessity for passports and air travel. I don't like feelin' like a furriner in the place I've lived over half my life, but I do. Trouble is, it looks like we can't afford to move anywhere that wouldn't mean throwin' away all the friends and social associations of a lifetime. I was over to Damascus today to schmooze with the TVD shooters. Seems like I don't feel at home, except shootin' or playin' music, and there's doggone too few opportunities for either. 

[Arcey]

Heh, heh.........  At least I got me a jab in.  Since I'm waitin' fer a pot ah lead ta melt, lemme tell ya.

Run inta a couple from Binghampton, NY l'il while ago 'n they was lost. 

"The exit from the interstate says 'Princess Anne Rd.', we came out on Independence and now it says Holland.  We want to get to General Booth Blvd."

"OK, lemme help ya."

"To Princess Anne?"

"Eventually, yeah."

"We were here three years ago.  I doesn't look the same."

"Three years ago we would be standing in the middle of a field.  That office building accross the street was a stand of woods.  Forget all of that.

" That is Holland Rd.  You were on Independence when you got off the interstate and you went straight.  Independence only stays Independence if you turned right at the stop light.  Since you stayed straight, you're on Holland now.

"Turn outtah this parking lot, right, onto Holland.  Follow it until it dead ends, or 'T's' with Princess Anne.  That will be the Princess Anne Road you're looking for.  Turn left there.

"Go straight.  You'll come to a stoplight.  A 7-11 will be on the right and a dental/medical building on the left.  Go straight thru the light and you'll be on General Booth.  Don't turn right because if you do, you'll be on Princess Anne Rd. again instead of where ya wanna be."

"About how many lights down?"

"Five or six hundred.  One at every intersection.  They have cameras on some that mail you a traffic summons if you cut a light by a tenth of a second. And, old folks driving Buicks along with air heads with cell phones driving mini-vans that might get to 25 mph before then next light stops them."

"You've been here awhile, huh?  Know you're way around."

"Oh yeah.  That office building across the street I said was a stand of trees the last time you were here?  That's my back yard.

"When ya get to the 7-11 where Princess Anne turns into General Booth.  That was a regular stop of mine for coffee.  No more.

"Ya see, a couple years ago, they destroyed the woods for that ugly thing.  A couple weeks ago, they destroyed my club, whistling distance from General Booth Blvd. 7-11.  I have no reason to be there anymore.

"Y'all follow the direction I gave ya, yer gonna be fine.  Enjoy yer visit. 'n welcome to 'Duh Beach'

..

[Toccoa Kate]

I will always regret never taking Arcey and Wild Man up on the offer to come there and shoot.  Now I'll never know the PONGO POSSEE as a whole.  (  My hat goes off to you all.  By the way Arcey, it was nice seeing ya again (even if ya didn't wear my favorite hat with the arrow goin' through it)!

[Book Miser]

Know what 'cha mean, Arcey.

We've been here 30 years, come the first of next month. A mile away, there used to be a dairy farm. Now it's another damn office building. Things here have reached the point where every property with a teensy bit of extra land is gettin' an "infill" house or subdivision on it. Worst thing is what they build looks like a house-o'-cards. Roof trusses held together by little metal plates; that kind of thing. Prices through the roof. And it don't look like we can sell out for enough to buy what we'd want, which'd be a decent place to live out the next 30 years without all the aggravation.

Seems like, if you're willin' to move off the coast, there's still someplace to be had, affordable. Like that 5 acre rancho in TX bein' offered in the classifieds here. But if you're pushin' 60, and been in the same town your entire life, who wants to chuck everything and everyone you know, and move 2,000 miles?

There ain't no easy answers...

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

No easy answers, but there are worse ones, such as the United States Supreme Court saying it is all well and good and perfectly acceptable for the govt (all the way from the feds to local) to take your land away from you so someone who can generate more revenue and taxes can build there.

A week ago, as long as you paid your taxes, land was the one thing that was permanent and untouchable. Not any more. We don't own the land anymore. We pay for it and use it and live on it, but we are there by the benevolent graces of government.

Yeah, I'm a mite upset by this. So is my son, Will. He sees what's coming.

AnnieLee, with nearly 15.5 acres that could one day be a site for a yuppy farm or a WalMart.

[Book Miser]

A week ago, as long as you paid your taxes, land was the one thing that was permanent and untouchable. Not any more. We don't own the land anymore. We pay for it and use it and live on it, but we are there by the benevolent graces of government.

We have not "owned" real estate since the governments started taxing it. The recent Supreme Court decision merely puts things more into the open, which in time may prove beneficial. I don't think the affected property owners in New London are ready to surrender, and this could be another shot-heard-'round-the-world.

...If The Rugged were still up we'd be dissecting this, but here we have to respect the "no politics, please" sensitivities of the majority.