Something a little different or Gun-a-holic Part II

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

Howdy Major,

That must be the gun I had. It had "cartridges" just like the picture. I don't remember the gold cylinder, Maybe I had the economy model. Like you that probably spawned my enjoyment of conversions.

Rev. Chase

[Major 2]

Rev ...some did, and some did not have the gold wash cylinder.

just for an FYI the guns NIB as shown un-played with, command some big $$$ recently $350 and up has been bid and paid.
A run of the mill gun, played with will get $100 +

A Mattel Shoot'n' six (circa 1958  just after the Fanner 50's of 1957) will bring the same kinda $$$.

nostalgia from our childhood is pricy   

[Russ T Chambers]

Major
That  Colt .45 is exactly like the one I had.  Like I said it weighed a ton and I think it had about a five pound trigger  pull.  But then it miiiight beee my undeveloped little muscles.

The comments about forts being on the ground vs in the trees (we called them "Tree forts") reminded me of one of our forts that was under ground!  It's a long story so I need to work on condensing it.

[River City John]

For those interested, here's an offering for the 1959 Mattel Derringer belt buckle on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1272365380/1959-mattel-toy-remington-1867-derringer?click_key=6e111c0d65ef3692c278a09fb80ece4e70d54ce0%3A1272365380&click_sum=41e8dec8&ref=shop_home_active_47&pro=1&frs=1

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

Howdy Russ T.,

We called those caves, even if we had to dig them ourselves. The most unusual one we ever found wasn't technically a cave. It was in the hayloft of an old barn. It was full of hay bales. We discovered a hidden opening and crawl space that opened in to a room with wooden beams holding the bales above and hay bale seats around the walls. It was impressive. We never found out who made it and never went back because we figured it was built by the "big kids" for some secret rituals.

Rev Chase

[Russ T Chambers]

The dugout fort
Our underground fort was a major work project.  The block we lived on was twice as long as it was wide with the only houses on the two short sides.  The whole central area was wasteland.  One side was quite a bit lower and became a swamp when the snow melted, and the spring rains fell.  This created a great area for playing army.
The high ground on the other side is where we dug out fort.  The sucker was about 6' deep and 4' x 8' in area.  It had a tunnel entrance.  After placing some 2x6 cross beams and a layer of ¾ inch plywood (which were liberated from the scrap pile of the first house to be built at the far end of the wasteland) we backfilled about a foot of dirt on top of everything.  After a few rain storms you couldn't tell it was there and could even walk over it and not notice it.
We cut a couple niches in the walls for two kerosene lanterns we "found" hanging from some road blockades. 
Here we planned and executed various raids on the swamp and the surrounding neighborhood.
As with all good things this too had to come to an end.  We had plenty of warning as the caterpillar dozer worked its way closer to our creation.  Having emptied everything out of the fort (including the lanterns which we put back where we "found" them) we then took up a daily watch on the dozers progress, even taking bets on when it would reach the fort.  Finally on a reverse run for another pass one track crunched through the roof.  The dozer listed over just enough to get the other track slightly in the air.  Try a much as he could the driver could get enough traction to get out.  They had to bring in a large dump truck to help pull him out.
I wonder what the crew thought of the row of giggling kids sitting on the lawn watching them.
I still don't remember who won the bet, just that it wasn't me!

[Major 2]

Tree forts another treasured memory  I built several.
One I recall, in an old tall Banyon tree about 50 or so feet from Biscayne Bay (Miami) just north of the Rickenbacker Causeway I swear it was 30' up, It had 3 levels of decks.
We could see way out across the bay and in to Seaquarium no other trees anywhere near that height.
Developers cut and bulldozed it in 1960 to build the Brickel building. There was also a Limestone rock cave nearby we played pirates in, they also razed.
In October of 2016 a portion of the building under re-model collapsed.

We also use Tree fort sometimes interchangeably with tree house, some were just tree platforms and others were more elaborate with walls and tiers (2 or 3 platforms stacked)

In the case of the cave, it was a natural formation in the north area of the Silver Bluffs.
The cave was a hollow about 15' deep, 8' wide and 8' high, with huge slab of rock leaning against and covering about 1/2 the entrance. (top photo on the left)

I found these old photos on the Silver Bluff website; I am tickled to see it again 

the second photo does not show our cave but does show more of the bluff.