We made it

[kusai]

 

[Orbie]

Effing Amazin!!!

 

[MrBigIron]

Love it.


Fred B.

 

[Coop45]

And developed a healthy sense of what was dumb and how much it hurt.

 

[IXLR8]

They forgot "Jarts", or lawn darts if you are too young to remember, suitable for piercing the skull of your playmates. Also Tonka toys with sharp sheetmetal edges. Childhood used to be like Survivor (with food).

 

[Major Kong]

Awesome.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[Byrd666]

Brought back some awesome childhood memories. Thanks for posting.

 

[V-Tach]

Estes rockets,real cherry bombs, M80's and blasting caps.....

Made gun stocks in shop and our teacher helped us fit the actions....and no one went without their pocket knife at school

and yes, thanks for posting the vid...great memories..

 

[jrbfishn]

Great memories, lots of fun, and the scars and xrays to prove it. And I earned every damn one.


from a non-recovering coffeeholic

 

[MrBigIron]

Warning: Long story to follow...

My best friend in high school came out to our place for the weekend one time (actually several times). We lived in eastern Oregon at the time, way out in the country. I grew up with guns, learned gun safety with a Red Ryder, and had shot thousands of rounds from all sorts of guns by the time I was 16. From .22-250 to .348 Winchester, .22CB to .44 Magnum. Old Faithful was my single-shot 12-gauge (I believe it was a Sears & Roebuck, made by Stevens). I carried it all over the ranch. One hundred acres surrounded by BLM land that I could also hunt on. Pheasant, quail, duck, rabbit, coyotes, bobcats, deer, elk, rock chucks and more ground squirrels than you could shoot in a lifetime.

But my buddy's gun training and expertise consisted of some plinking with a Crossman BB pistol that he bought at the hardware store. The only gun his folks owned was an old .303 British rifle that probably hadn't been shot since WWI, and his dad wasn't the type to teach his son about guns (they came from California, originally, and his folks were of the hippie era). Great guy, my buddy, just not educated in firearms.

So we had this Willys cabover Jeep with a flatbed that we'd drive down to the other, larger ranch that we leased and worked. Top speed was about 45 mph, but the thing was like a mountain goat. Anyway... my mom was driving, my buddy was sitting on the doghouse, and I was in the passenger seat as we drove down the two lane blacktop one sunny day. When we got to the ranch mom got out to open a gate while my buddy and I sat in the Jeep. About this time he picks up an old POS, .22 revolver that my step-father owned. I hadn't even realized it was in the Jeep, but as soon as I saw it I began to speak... you see, *I* knew that my step-father always kept his guns loaded. And *I* knew that this particular pistol, that didn't even have grips, had a hair trigger. You just LOOK at that gun wrong and it would go off! He should have thrown the damn thing away if he wasn't willing to repair it. But still, I knew my step-father didn't carry or transport it "cocked." So as I began to warn my friend I figured I had time to spit it out real quick. But I was wrong...

His shot went into the passenger side floorboard a few inches from my foot. And there he sat, with a look of bewilderment on his face. I think he was in shock. I carefully took the pistol from him as my mom came racing back to the Jeep to see what had happened. Boy was she shook up! I knew it was a freak accident and that my friend just wasn't aware of gun safety, but mom was freaking out! She started yelling at him to the point that I felt bad. I mean, he was already shook up. And WE were partly to blame for not being aware of the situation. But mom eventually calmed down and I took it upon myself to teach my buddy all that I could about guns and gun safety. We went hunting a few times after that and a few years later he joined the Air Force and learned to field strip the M-16 ;-)

The .22 slug went through the thin rubber floor mat and put a nice dent in the floorboard, but it didn't go through. Those old Jeeps were tough!


Fred B.