A question for some of you older gentlemen (and ladies)

[M2 Carbine]

This thread reminded me of going to the little corner grocery store and buying a couple shotgun shells or a partial box of 22 shells.
Only the "rich" kids could afford to buy a whole box of shells.

 

[duns]

This thread reminded me of going to the little corner grocery store and buying a couple shotgun shells or a partial box of 22 shells.
Only the "rich" kids could afford to buy a whole box of shells.

That's endearing. I grew up in England where we could not buy ammo but I would go to the corner store and ask "what can I buy for six pence?". Usually the answer would be in terms of sweets-- pieces of liquorice or small chocolate bars or gobstoppers or fruit pastilles etc (probably terminology is different in USA). Sometimes I would say it's my father's birthday and they would offer to sell me one cigarette or one cheap cigar. Rather heartwarming to think of my American cousins buying shotgun shells!

 

[bandur60]

When I was a 10th-grader two of us skipped study hall and went to a second-hand store where we regularly bought and traded paperbacks. He picked out a breaktop 38S&W and I got some kind of a 32ACP, I don't think either of us paid over $20. Stuck them in a pants pocket and made our next classes. No comments there or when we got home ('course we didn't advertise to everyone.)

 

[KodiakBeer]

Even in the 70's (when I was 16, 17, 18 or so) I can recall walking into our small town from a day of pheasant and rabbit hunting in the fields and stopping for pizza. We'd lean our shotguns against the wall inside the door and sit down for a couple of slices. Nobody asked us if the guns were unloaded or made any remark at all about the situation.

"High brass" number sixes were $2.40 a box, while "low brass" was $2.10. I still recall that price because we had endless discussions about the merits (or not) of spending that extra 30 cents for high brass.

This was in Michigan which is now a firmly anti-gun state. I don't know when that sea change happened - I left a long time ago. I suspect SWAT would be called if 3 or 4 teenagers walked into a pizzeria armed with shotguns today.

 

[AZ Desertrat]

No....in the 50's and 60's....guns were everywhere, talked about....and used all the time.....target shooting was a regular thing, there was no Political correctness....you went out and rabbit hunted in the desert on the weekends.

 

[bracer]

I grew up out in the farm and cattle country some 14 miles from a town of about 3500 population. My dad gave me a 22 slide action rifle when I was 13 years old but I was hunting with his old 22 rifle befor that time. I was in grade school when I would go into the hardware store and purchase 22 Rf ammo ,could have ben around 10 years old at that time. I was 15 or 16 years old when I purchased a 270 Win rifle and a 22 hand gun.. Im 75 years old now . Kids are not allowed to get firearms like I did or have the hunting. For a number of reasons land owners do not allow hunting on their land as they did when I was a boy.

 

[Hillbillyz]

One thing that has changed is how guns are portrayed in our society. When I was growing up all cowboys and police had guns. The people that got shot were bad guys, no innocents. Now you hear about murders and drive by shootings where innocent people are shot. Even though millions of us hunt and target shoot those sports are seldom if ever seen in the media of today. If they are the shooters are some type of macho cowboy with far more testosterone than brains.

 

[SSN Vet]

My pastor is an older gentleman and an avid sportsman who often tells stories of hunting and trapping back home in Michigan.

He loved bird hunting so much that he would bring his shotgun to school with him in the morning and keep it in his locker so he could go straight to the fields after school and maximize his time pheasant hunting before the sun went down.

The principal and teachers thought nothing of it.

 

[theotherwaldo]

By the way, the ad that started this thread came from the collection of James Lileks, by way of the FoxNews site. They ran it as a slide show called Vintage Ads: What Were We Thinking?

Weird, strange, oddly funny - in other words, typical Lileks.

 

[cleardiddion]

I'm not considered really an old timer at all (graduated HS in 07) but I suppose these kind of experiences also depend on where you grew up.

I started carrying a pocket knife at around 7th or 8th grade and nobody ever said a thing. Heck, even the teachers would ask us to use our pocket knives every once in a while. The trick was not to be irresponsible with it.

Ace carried some ammo (pest control), Kmart carried both guns and ammo,there were (and still is) always gun/hunt related exhibits at the county fair, and it wasn't such a weird thing to talk about shooting/hunting in school. Kids showed up at school with shotguns in the rack and ammo in the seats to go right after school. That is, till they started enforcing that 'zero-tolerance' policy all because of a bunch of social rejects (politicians and otherwise).

 

[fiat128]

These stories are pretty good. I'm not that old but I recall in the 80s my history teacher dressing up more or less like Daniel Boone and firing his black powder rifle in the quad during school. He did that several times and everyone knew what it was when they heard it. I remember the gun racks in trucks in high school too.

As a kid I went everywhere carrying a Daisy 840 BB gun and I lived in a subdivision. I can't imagine my kids doing that now, they'd probably get arrested and I'd be explaining my life to social services.

 

[RandyC]

Growing up in Oklahoma, I honestly don't remember a family that didn't own guns.

In the 6th grade my older brother talked to my teacher to get me out of school that day. The good reason? He was taking me hunting.

Getting a gun for Christmas was kind of a right of passage for a youngster, usually about 12 years old, usually a .22 rifle or 410 shotgun.

The world is a different place now and not for the better.