TBT…

Pictures… 🙂

Everybody was a daredevil on the swings when we were kids… And we survived…

We ate the cake batter right off the beaters, raw eggs and all… And we survived…

And there weren’t malls’ per se… Grocery stores were pretty much stand alone, and A&P was the ‘upscale’ grocery store… The parent company was the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.

And then they came up with strip malls… And Ben Franklin five and dime stores were the Dollar Stores of the day. They were like a low end Woolworth’s department store, with a lot more ‘stuff’ for hobbies… And we built stuff out of the things we got there… And we survived…

I can’t help but wonder what some of the nanny staters would be like if they were taken back to those days. Any bets on how long it would take for their heads to explode, or them have a catatonic meltdown at what parents allowed their kids to do?

Like own and shoot real guns at age 8-10, WITHOUT ADULTS THERE??? 🙂

Bonus points if you actually know what this one is…

OR, you’re a really old fart like me…

Comments

TBT… — 30 Comments

  1. And we played outdoors for long periods of time without constant adult supervision.

  2. Savage or Stevens falling block is my best guess . . . cool old rifle that would cost a mint to reproduce today using the same human labor pool. Those old guns have a lot of soul.

    My 1st ‘real’ (i.e. powder burner) was a well used Marlin 81 bolt gun. A lot of great memories and it still shoots better than I can hold.

    • I once heard “He must be well seasoned because of all the salt and pepper in his hair”

      • There is some truth to that. I’m rapidly reaching the point of having significantly more salt than pepper! Of course, since I was in both the USCG and the USN, that’s appropriate.

  3. Not only am I an olde farte and know what that little Stevens Crackshot is, but long before I was an olde farte, as a young whippersnapper I would play with the three of them grandad had in his collection. (Along with his pile of old Colt revolvers)
    I used to wonder why a lever action rifle did not have a magazine to hold lots of bullets to kill bad guys and Indians.
    Undoing the large thumbscrew at the bottom of the receiver allowed the barrel assembly to come out for easy transporting.
    Warning, please do not allow Grandad to catch you dry firing ANY of his precious firearms. He has ways to make you regret your actions.

  4. “Be back by dark” was never a problem, in those days. The neighbors would watch out for us, in case of trouble. Of course, “trouble” means if we got hurt somehow (like falling out of a tree or riding our bikes into a ditch). But we were raised to respect others’ property.

    These days, the only ‘ditch’ is the one society seems to have fallen into.

    • Yep. Every adult in our neighborhood knew who our parents were and if one told our parents we were misbehaving, we got it, but good.

  5. A&P It was suppose to be my first full time job. I worked for three nights stocking shelves until someone read my application and figured out I wasn’t 18. Paid my wages and told me to come back next year.

  6. Hey Old NFO;

    I remember the “Green Stamps” my mom collected and put into a book. I remember if you came home before dark, you were in trouble…if you came home after the street lights came on you were in REAL trouble. I remember riding in the back of my Dads pick up truck as he was going down the interstate. They called it “Free range parenting now”. I keep thinking of the stuff my son misses out on now because society has changed. And I would never say you are old…I have too much respect for my elders…especially those that were with Dewey in Manila…

  7. Cap guns were everywhere, but no one ever touched Dad’s rifle without Dad’s permission. Everyone had a simple clasp knife in their pocket by the time they went to grade school. A bow and arrow set (with sucker tips, but quickly upgrading to the ‘real’ thing if you really wanted) was almost as ubiquitous. Pellet guns soon followed, and becoming a Boy Scout meant that you at least had a single shot .22 in your closet.

  8. My first real gun was a Remington Nylon 66. I don’t remember when I bought it, but wish I still had it. Very accurate little rifle.

  9. In the summer, barely after the sun rose, we’d hurry our breakfast, scamper out the door, and spend most of the day outside, drinking water from the garden hose when necessary, and wandering the streets of the small town where I was raised.

    We’d come in at lunch, and supper, but even after supper, we’d return outside to wait for the fireflies, or night critters to appear. The air was cooler, and cicadas were almost deafening in the fading light.

    Only after darkness, usually after we were called, we’d begrudgingly return home; “skeeter bit”, with sweat beads around our necks, and thinking about the next day.

    I don’t know what children do today, but I doubt it’s as interesting, character building, or healthy as the summers of my past.

  10. We had cap guns, we played sandlot softball, touch football, stayed out until dark (or until we got hungry enough to go home, unless some nice neighbor lady would feed us), and being that WWII was a fresh memory we killed Japs and Krauts by the zillions. Hitler died two or three times every afternoon, but the emperor of Japan escaped because no one knew who he was.

    We were so severely damaged that I, for one, am completely useless today unless you have a bottle of bourbon you need tested for quality. And I have a few testimonials that swear I’m useful in, *ahem*, other ways.

  11. Riding my bike without a helmet, under the age of 16.
    Going swimming in the creek without adult supervision.

  12. All- Thanks! And yes, Stevens Crackshot. I still have it, but the sear is worn slap off… You LOOK at it, it goes bang… sigh

    And we were free to roam. I walked to elementary school by myself! Looking at the responses, ny reader base is OLD… LOL But I’d take y’all over the millennials any day!

    Posted from my iPhone.

    • Not all of your readership is old … I’m just outside of the Millennial age range.
      But even in that much shorter time, things have changed substantially!

  13. Received a J.C.Higgins single shot, bolt action .22 for my 10th birthday. Seeing as how we lived off-base at Nellis, meant we had about 500,000 sq acres of playground and safe shooting areas. Kept that rifle long enough to give to my grandson. Still shoots straight. During the summer, it was out the door after breakfast, home when hungry, drank from anyone’s garden hose, and lights out at 2200.

  14. Any shop that does a lot of tool and die work will have someone or some place that repairs/rebuilds the tools and dies.
    I had the extractor/ejector on my old Winchester 67A rebuilt by one such gentleman. You could not visually tell that it was repaired and I was assured that due to the metal used in the repair the part would outlast the rest of the rifle. The extractor is sharply angled and would have required a great deal of skill to get the profile correct.
    The sear on the Stevens might be a candidate for such a repair.

  15. I have a shotgun, beatup lefthanded ejection, Grandpa owned it,
    Dad shot it, and my kids will… I am the second person ever to fire it.

    I have a 22 that will be 100 years old this year, my son will shoot it, as will my daughters.

    Some things are tradition, and pride in your roots.