Eavesdropping on old dudes

[MMCSRET]

elvishead, I read what you said. Please explain how you are "embarrassed" by your own actions!!!!! Were you clinically insane and then regained your faculties?
If the possessions embarrass you why not rid yourself of them? People shed wives, cars and clothes for that very reason.

I'm finding myself failing to understand why anyone would buy a gun and than hide it from a spouse. Does that action fall into the same category as an illicit affair???????

 

[loadedround]

Guys, I have to fess up. I don't own a Corvette, nor have I ever owned one. That's the one thing my wife won't like me buy. Said that she doesn't want to be a widow with a bunch of guns before her time. I was just having some fun...and dreaming.

 

[AirForceShooter]

my wife tells me to buy guns.
See what 41 years together does.
She won't let me get the 'Vette.
Say's it plastic like a Glock.

AFS

 

[Uncle Mike]

Don't envy us old guys our large collections! They almost always include items like rheumatism, high blood pressure, dimming eyesight, ringing in the ears, and may also have high cholesterol, low libido, lousy digestion, badly fitted false teeth, and generally diminished energy to get up and 'go shootin'. In addition to the cost of ammo, club fees, and maintenance supplies, there's also health insurance premiums and copays on medications.
I don't think any sensible youngster would trade for the whole package.
I've never had to sneak a new gun into the house, at least. And I don't own a Corvette.

Aint that the truth....

I've never hid a gun from my wife either, but I have felt the wrath of an unapproved purchase from time to time.

I miss my left eye.....

After 30 years of marriage you learn that maybe a confession is better than a discovery.

It wasn't like that in the beginning, I thought it better to hide new acquisitions but over time have learned otherwise...

 

[jimmyraythomason]

My wife reminded me of something I had forgotten about this conversation. "Old Dude" number 1 had 30 guns but kept them at his mother's house(I can only imagine her age) because his wife "doesn't like guns."

 

[HarleyFixer]

As to the bulge in my pants, well actually that is a flashlight

But just a little one.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

^^with dead batteries.

 

[rainbowbob]

I now can say I knew someone who watched the troops march off to the Civil War and who served dinner to Jesse and Frank James on their way to Northfield, Minn.

Interesting post, Loop. To young folks today, the Civil War must seem like ancient history that took place some time just after the era of King Arthur. And yet you, in your life-time, sat and talked with someone who was alive then!

As for Frank and Jesse...they must have eaten a lot of dinners - because it seems every old-timer knows somebody who gave them dinner on their way to some place or other.

But even if that part was a yarn - or mistaken identity...it might have happened - and there is truth to be learned even from the tall tales.

All you youngsters need to go find an old person and take the time to listen to their stories - maybe even set up a video camera and record them. Not because you're doing them a favor - but because they will be doing you a favor.

I wish to heck I had recorded my trumpet-playing Grandfather talking about the vaudeville tour he took with Babe Ruth in the winter he was traded to the Yankees. I've got a photo of the band posing with a 24-year-old Babe and his new bride. My Grandfather also took his new bride on that tour for their "honeymoon" - and Grandma had to leave early when she got pregnant.

Sorry for the thread-jack...but us old-timers do drift off some times.

 

[2nd 41]

I was handling my newly acquired BHP in Silver chrome with the gold trigger....she looks at and says....That's your favorite gun isn't it?
I guess all guns look the same. I guess I have 1 gun times X.
I'm speechless.

 

[harrygunner]

Sometimes, it stresses me, the amount of information being lost over the generations. When I think of the practical things my grand parents knew, that my parents ignored, leaving me clueless. I think we should follow our elders with voice recorders to capture their wisdom.

I passed a hundred year old rifle I was given as a teen to one of my children along with some stories I was told by "great-grand" and "grand" relatives.

Also, I used to live across the street from a woman in her late eighties. Her stories were equivalent to the "Little House on the Prairie". Independent woman. Proud gun owner. One time coming out of my house, I saw her on the ground, under her car, fixing a muffler.

 

[raveneap]

Well, I'm almost 71 and will have been married 40 years this October. Never hid a gun purchase from my wife; in fact she's bought me a couple. I don't shoot too much these days but look at them in the safe and take 'em out, clean and go over them with a rag every now and again. Son's got a range in his back yard and every once in a while I'll still go out shooting with him.

 

[raveneap]

harrygunner >> ..Sometimes, it stresses me, the amount of information being lost over the generations. When I think of the practical things my grand parents knew, that my parents ignored, leaving me clueless. I think we should follow our elders with voice recorders to capture their wisdom. .. <<

My grandfather was in his 90s when he died back in the 60's. I remember him telling me tales of no air planes, no cars, no TV, etc. etc. How often I've wished I did just that, sit down with him and a tape recorder and recorded some of the history that he'd lived.

 

[MMCSRET]

My wifes aunt was 89 when her nephew found her up on the roof of her house shoveling the snow off. North central Nebraska, you know!!!! Just a couple of years ago. I remember haying with my grandfather and his crew, all done with horses, he had 21 teams at the time, early 50s, a team was worked only a half day and changed at lunch. Always a 22 rifle somewhere around the stackyard.

 

[Elvishead]

MMCSRET

elvishead, I read what you said. Please explain how you are "embarrassed" by your own actions!!!!! Were you clinically insane and then regained your faculties?
If the possessions embarrass you why not rid yourself of them? People shed wives, cars and clothes for that very reason.

I'm finding myself failing to understand why anyone would buy a gun and than hide it from a spouse. Does that action fall into the same category as an illicit affair???????

The word obsession, I'd be ashamed of being so obsessed on having so much of one thing, that is totally obsession.

 

[loop]

rainbowbob,

I feel a bit like my grandpa. He said "I've lived in a wonderful age." He'd seen the world go from horses and railroads to cars and jet planes and from lanterns to electric lights, ovens and refrigerators.

Whether the old lady really served dinner to the James brothers or not doesn't really matter. She did live in the right place and it was custom at that time for travelers to pay farmers and ranchers for a meal.

My ancestors settled most of Northern Minnesota. There is even a book about them floating around somewhere in the house. She knew a lot of them. She also recalled the panic and fear of the Sioux uprising.

I just loved listening to old folks tell their tales. I still do, but it is harder to find someone I call "old" anymore.

Listening is a talent I was born with. I ended up spending almost all of my adult life as a reporter/editor.

Life is kind of a funny thing. The wife was telling the neighbor lady about some of the things I've done in 40 years of reporting and the neighbor was looking at me kind of funny - then we showed her pictures.

She told the neighbor I knew Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and had numerous conversations with Ronald Reagan and her eyebrows raided. Everyone in Independence, Mo., knew Harry. He ran the local men's clothing store.

Nixon, my mom's best friend worked for him. He was just a guy whose politics I did not like, but who sat down to dinner same as the rest of us. Reagan, I was a sports writer and had a story about him covering a sporting event on the radio. He seemed very happy to have a non-political conversation. We spoke a few times. The first time we spoke he didn't recall the event, but encouraged me to call back because covering sports was a part of his life he really enjoyed.

Celebrities - heck, doesn't matter. I know Donald Trump, Paul McCartney and a host of others. My personal favorite was Lee Marvin. He loved to listen. He'd goad you into talking so he could learn more about you. The man had a big heart. He always wanted you to feel better when he left.

The wife says I need to write about my own life now. Maybe she's right. If I don't write it then it will just go away, like so many other great stories. I've got a couple good ones. Charlie Sampson saved my life once by kicking a bull in the hindquarters after I'd been thrown.

I knew Lance Armstrong when he was 16. I first talked to Tiger Woods when he was about the same age and I met Keri Strugg when she was 8 (her parents are almost as annoying as her voice).

Old men have some great stories. Funny thing is that I'm still listening. There is nothing better than hearing that story from the guy who was there.

I was taught to respect my elders. The lesson wasn't lost.

 

[bikerdoc]

Loop and Rainbowbob

I Would be honored to be incuded in your circle. At 60 I have great stories to tell about greatgrandpa and grandpa. had And dad at 90 has some good stuff.
Stories of WW1, WW2, the depression, are facinating
Me, My grandkids want to know about 50' rock and roll, John Kennedy, the turmoil of the 60;s and my experiences in Viet Nam.
Ya, I will talk to anyone that will listen.
And we should write it down or it will be lost!

 

[chuckusaret]

See what 41 years together does.
She won't let me get the 'Vette.
Say's it plastic like a Glock.

We must be married to sisters, my wife of 49 years said the same thing.... I did have a 71 Vette though for 26 years, but my son looks a lot better in it, and he appreciates the sound of the side pipes.

 

[thorazine]

Sometimes I wish I could tune everyone out.

Example from about four months ago at a restaurant...


"I am thinking about getting a glock" mentions a twenty or thirty something year old female.

Middle aged man at her table responded "I wouldn't -- if you drop it -- the porcelain will break and you'll have to send it in for repair."

(sigh)

 

[Marve]

Old dudes in Alabama "get it" when it comes to guns.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

All my family old timers are gone now but I have a mind full of memories. I do church services in nursing homes and I have learned so much from them. I meet a Pearl Harbor Vet yesterday at the Water Dept.