To all the kids who survived the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

[Marshal Halloway]

The old days....

I was 12 years old, shot my first starling with my pellet rifle, thought I was a good shot and a good hunter. A good shot alright, but seeing the dead bird, this here hunter started to cry....

Found a shoe box and gave the bird a proper funeral with flowers and all....

Asked the angels for forgiveness. The day after that, I took the gun to school for show and tell and bragged about my first hunt. Didn't mention the funeral ceremony....

A year later, I took firecrackers and went down into the empty silo at the home farm. The artillery was started by yours truly. A wonderful big bang followed and after that and to my surprise..... a terrible hollow scream. I looked down and saw my dad (heck, I had no idea he was down below cleaning the silo floor). He was on all fours and his false teeth was lying in front of him. The upper set was missing  the two front teeth after a tough meeting with the silo wall. Amazing how some firecrackers in a silo can make a set of teeth be blown out of a mouth. Must have emptied his lungs completely.

Then I heard my name....

I just walked down to take the punishment. Better now than later, I thought. Took a beating for 45 seconds by an angry man with his set of teeth in place, but with a big gap in front. I tried not to laugh... Grounded for 14 days.

Another year went by....

A bunch of kids.. me included..had found some tobacco outside a church where they were having a bazaar. We had no cigarette paper, but in the dark we walked down to the outhouse. Tore off some paper from the wall, didn't want to use the newspaper. We sort of got the rollings together and had our first smoke before we went into the little church with the thumbs placed behind the belt buckle. The announcer stopped and looked at us with an open mouth and his eyes almost fell out. I guess we had the same look on our faces seeing his reaction. Dang, how could he smell tobacco 25 feet away?

40 people turned around to see what was going on. Then we looked at each other for the first time after we came in from the dark. I don't know what was in that wallpaper, but our faces were black. We looked like a bunch of coal miners returning from a 10 hour shift. We walked out... no words were exchanged... but we heard a remark from the inside. "Must have been some strong tobacco them boys had been smoking..." We didn't like the laughter that followed either... 

[Yankee John]

Belive it or not,  As late as 1973-74, I attended a 2-room schoolhouse in Almelund, Minnesota for 3rd & 4th grade  (The building dated from the early 1900's, and still stands today as a museum).  During the spring and fall,  LONG lunch breaks consisted of building forts in the woods with sticks, twine,  and burlap bags from the local feed mill.  In the winter,  There was an incredibly huge hill behind the school for snow sliding.

A little later during the mid-1970's,  I was real big into Evel Knievel.  I used to jump my bike and was considered the best in the trailer court where we lived.   And, I still have the scars to prove it! Not a single broken bone, though 

Great post- the memories are just flooding back!
John

[Outlaw Gambler]

I remember taking all day hikes to a place called "spooks grove" woods, we built forts out of the limbs and sticks and played cowboy all day, we took a lunch and came home for supper.  Put playing cards in the bycicle spokes, going to a neighbors because he had outdoor lighting in his cement driveway and we could play basketball there until 10pm and no body bothered us and our parents knew where we were and that we were ok, upsetting outhouses at halloween,  older cars that had horn rings in the steering wheel could be made to continuously honk by inserting a stick in it - no one locked their cars back then, gas at $.36 a gallon, full service gas stations where one to four guys would fill your tank for a buck, clean windows, check oil and belts, air in tires.  Listening to the Lone Ranger, Capt Midnight, Green Lantern, and Amos and Andy on radio.

[Grapeshot]

Oh yes. Wonderful memories.  Making home made rockets from spent CO2 capsules and stuffed with match-heads cut from the end of book matches.

Home-made cannons made from steel pipe and end caps.  Gun powder salvaged from roll caps to make the cannon go bang and shoot a pebble into the side of the house or into the cieling of the front porch.

Riding a bicycle to the shopping center to get an Estes rocket engine and model rocket kit.

Fishing for mackeral off the pier or the light house, (Lived in Newport, RI).

Having a deep respect for the law and police officers, especially since I had an Uncle and two cousins on the force.

Not being able to do anything wrong without my Dad finding out about it.  He seemed to know everybody in town.

Playing Combat with our friends.  Reenacting the battle of the Alamo or the Civil War. 

Watching "The Grey Ghost" series, "The Gallant Men", and Combat on a black&white TV.

Swiming in the red tide, messy, but we survived.

Yeah, kids don't know how to have fun nowadays.

[LazyK Pejay]

I grew up in a home where lying was the worst offense, your character was your badge, you called all adults "yes sir and yes mam," and you did your chores because you were a team. If you failed you got up and did it all again until you were successful.

LazyK Pejay

[Fighting Bob Evans]

Radios had tubes and a portable radio weighed 5-10 pounds (depending on the battery size). Radio programming was Tom Mix, Jack Armstrong, Tennessee Jed in the afternoon and Jack Benny, Fred Allen (remember Allen's Alley?), Henry Aldrich and Our Miss Brooks in the evening.

We couldn't go downtown because of Polio. Cars had only stick shifts, chokes and clutches and the racier drivers had "necker's knobs".

[Lorelei Longshot]

I remember
going to the Handy Andy store every year when school started to get a real cigar box for free to keep your pencils in.

collecting glass bottles along the side of the road and turning them in for a penny deposit each.  (Earned enough to buy my first Barbie when she first came out.)

gas wars and prices as low at $0.19 per gallon.  You could drive around in the 1950 Chevy for three days on $0.50 worth of gas (1960s). 

you were rich if you bought $1.00 worth of gas at a time

everyone left their doors unlocked and most of the time open with only the screen door closed

attic fan in the hall ceiling that sucked in cool night air during the summer (that's before we got spoiled to air conditioning and anything cooler than 95 degrees was considered "cool").

being dropped off at the swimming pool in El Campo and when you were ready to come home, calling using the pay phone that cost $0.05, but you didn't really need a nickel because the call went through and only after the person answered would you have to put in the nickel.  Course Gramps knew who it was and would get in the car and come get you.

Gramps left the keys in the truck parked outside.  If anyone needed to borrow it, they would (even if Gramps wasn't home) and they always returned it

Those were the days

[Howdy Doody]

TV and the movies were fit to watch. Saturday afternoon matinees had cowboy heros riding across the screen. Lash LaRue and Red Ryder were favorites of mine. My brother an I had cap guns, first was the ones that took a roll and later we got the new style that took the disk of 6. We imitated all the cowboys in every way, except we left the gittin' the girl part out. What did we know then?
Then there was TV. Shows we liked were Rama of the Jungle, Howdy Doody (fancy that), Red Sox baseball, The Buster Brown show ( plunk your magic twanger froggy. Never could figure what a twanger was). The 3 Stooges, Soupy Sales. Getting to stay up late and watch Milton Berle and see Farful the dog and the men of Texaco.
Getting good grades and getting a Roadmaster for a reward. With whitewalls on it too. Listening to 78 records that told a story. My favorite was Hoppy, Lucky and Windy.
Playing for hours with a Lionel train set was a lot of fun. Then there was Cub Scouts and later Boy Scouts. Summer camp on beautiful lake Ione in Conway NH was great for the few years we went and we learned archery, wood shop, riding and yes the junior NRA. Shot our way into medals and bars my brother and I. One shot at a time in those old converted bolt action rifles in .22 shorts.
Then there was the late 50's and we would listen to the radio on an antenna we stretched out to a tree, so we could hear the station from NY that had Elvis on it ( He was banned in Mass and NH) I think it was the Alan Ginsberg show we listened to. About that time we got into horror movies. The Blob was a favorite. I remember going to the shoe store and having my feet x rayed for fit inside the shoes. Cool.
Then the 60's and there was still lot's of cowboy shows on TV, Ed Sullivan was a must on Sunday Nights. He had a group from England with funny haircuts called the Beatles on. Muscle cars for those that could afford them at $2k a piece. 3 two barreled carbs and four on the floor was the rage. So was Smitty mufflers, lakes pipes, fender skirts and such too.
Then it was the Navy for me and we were required to wear our uniforms in and out of the gate and then in the late 60's we were told not to wear our uniforms off base. Then there was the Zumwalt years and no one knew who anyone was, because they took our crackerjacks ( bell bottomed uniforms) away and made us wear blazer type stuff and ties. No more scarfs or dixie cup hats. You couldn't tell enlisted from officers.
70's were where I saw the most changes that I didn't care for. Manners went away, total respect took a vacation. The economy was pretty good until the first so called gas shortage and you had to line up for gas only to find out you could only get 10 gallons. Lot's of folks got suspicious of big business after that.
So, about that age I finally woke up to a lot of reality and a heap of responsibility and it is CAS that takes me back to those younger years. I love getting out to a match and being dressed in cowboy clothes and mixing with folks that want to leave the rest of the world behind for a few hours of some great fun with others that feel the same way
So far I have survived.

[Wolfcamp Hill]

how bout the pickup trucks with the gas tank behind the seat?  i guess that's why there were no seat belts though...

wolfcamp