"Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ol' days"

"those "good ol' days?" "

I guess he forgot this was a gun board and that you were talking about guns. I remember hearing about the good old days from my grandparents - they were all born in the early 1890's - and from my parents who were born in the early '20s.

One thing I learned was that a bunch of the old guns and swords were turned in during WWI and WWII scrap metal drives. I had family involved in the Revolutionary War, Civil War and other smaller conflicts, so there's no telling precisely what was turned in.

I highly recommend G. Gordon Liddy's book "When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country". My dad use to fly from Seattle to San Francisco with a carry-on shotgun to go duck hunting with his uncle. They asked him to unload it and that was it.

I used to fly carrying a gun concealed.
Got caught a few times
nobody cared.

AFS

When you could carry concealed and you didn't have to take a test and pay money to do so.

Click to expand...

Where was this, exactly?

Cosmoline said:

Where was this, exactly?

Click to expand...

Grandpa days.

When you could carry concealed and you didn't have to take a test and pay money to do so.

Click to expand...

Where was this, exactly?

Click to expand...

Grandpa days.

Click to expand...

More like great, great, great, great, great ... grandpa days. Concealed weapons have been unlawful in many places in the US for more than a century.

It is easier, by far, to carry concealed now than at any other time in the 20th century.

Many Grandpas hardly set foot off the farm.

In the drug store in my small home town. All the farmers in their bibb overalls had some kind of small pistol in their bibbs pocket. The counter had $.15 "chicklet" packs of .22s.

I remember mom and dad lighting matches with a .22 to see who did the dishes. Dad washed dishes several nights.

Shotguns and .22 rifles were everywhere. I started hunting when I was nine years old with a Stevens bolt action 20 ga. With a poly-choke. Real high teck.

Bought my first .22 rifle when I was 13, still have it. For $9 a box of shells came with it.

For my 15th birthday , mom bought me a sporterized .303 Enfield from Sears. First center-fire rifle I ever shot. Later that year I bought a Savage .222 from a pawn broker in another state. Won the first turkey shoot I entered with that rifle. After the match I sold it for a lot more than I had paid. Bought another the next day at a Western Auto store. With the profit I bought a reloading set up.

Got with a buddy in high school who I let shoot the .303 and he said his uncle had a surplus store in the next town. So that summer we would drive to the surplus store, buy a rifle a peace, go home and shoot them. Then next weekend go trade them in on something else and ammo and repeat. I owned or shot about everything you can think of. I kept the last one of the summer, a US 1917. Wish I'd kept all of them including a Johnson Semi-auto.:banghead:

Maybe we only remember the good times, but what good times they were.

I lived through and survived the good ole days. 1911's were $65 new. S&W & Colt .38 revos were the same. An Iver Johnson or H&R .22 could be had for $30 new. BUT, we were earning $25-$40 a week so those prices weren't all that low back then.

i heard stories from my mom who heard them from her great uncles about the evils of the english in ireland, and stories from her maternal (great?)grandfather about the railroads and fighting natives and the civil war, i know he was near 100 when he died, my grandmother is in her 70's and my mom is 60 i cant remember if it was her grandfather or great grandfather that fought in the civil war, but back to topic i wasn't around for it but ive heard lots of stories about the "good old days" my says he had an m-16 when he was 15 but you never know if he's lying or not, it fits the time frame though.

Wow. I had no idea. I heard about the Good Ol' Days and what I always heard was buying an SKS for $70 or Mausers for way cheap.

original quote by 'goon' ....

In terms of general civil liberties and equality, unless you were a white male, the past left a lot to be desired.

Click to expand...

..... ????

Hunting before and after school was common and students were allowed to keep their guns locked in their vehicles in the student parking lot.

In terms of gun ownership, maybe there were times when it was better.
In terms of general civil liberties and equality, unless you were a white male, the past left a lot to be desired.
Spoken like a true Liberal.

Click to expand...

Whoa whoa whoa.
I don't understand how that's truly liberal. Maybe it's just me but I tend to agree with the original statement.

Anywho, I didn't live through those times but I've got lots of family that have.

My Dad remembers going to high school and those kids who wanted to go hunting after school or were coming to school from a trip were told to either drop it off at the front office or to leave it in their lockers.

Other family members were telling me about buying surplus Garands at the hardware store for $15, which was all the money they had earned from a hard worked paper route.

/sigh

Now if only those prices were to come back today.

I don't understand how that's truly liberal. Maybe it's just me but I tend to agree with the original statement.

Click to expand...

I think he meant a TRUE liberal, as in a Libertarian or "Jeffersonian Liberal."

Meaning one who wants the greatest freedoms for the greatest numbers of people.

The "good old days" were kind of lousy in some ways, for a lot of folks, in a lot of places even here in the US.

But gun prices were very low ... except.

Except that:

a) when Coke was a nickle a $15 gun would cost the equivalent of $225, and that's not far out of line with prices we see now (or in the last few years anyway) for common military surplus rifles. I bought a Yugo Mauser a few years back for $139, and a Swiss K-31 for $125. That would be the equivalent of $9.27 and $8.33 back in the nickle Coke days. (Heck, in 1950 my grandfather built a brand new 3-bedroom house for not much over $6,000.)

b) Even when guns were pretty cheap, most folks didn't have a lot of disposable income. $15 would have been the kind of money you'd have to save up for a while to spend on a discretionary purchase, during many decades of last century.

I was just talking about the guns stuff, not all the political crap in the "good old days"

Click to expand...

Unfortunately they're inseparable.
There was a time when it was no big deal to see a young boy walking along the side of the road carrying his 22 rifle to shoot rats at the dump, so long as he was white. At least now the soccer moms would call out the SWAT teams no matter what color the boy was.

There was a time when it was illegal to carry a concealed handgun most anywhere, but police usually looked the other way, so long as you were white. Now in 41 states the police have to issue a permit to carry unless there is a legal reason you can't have one.

There was a time when you needed permission from your local sheriff to buy a handgun (still true in many places), and even white people could have trouble getting that if the sheriff didn't know them or didn't like them.


No sense getting all misty-eyed over the past. Prices were lower, but so were wages. Amost anybody who owned a gun used it exclusively for hunting. Hardly anyone shot just for pleasure, and most looked down on people who did. Hardly anyone wore hearing or eye protection when they shot.

I don't mean to harp on race so much, but I believe it's frequently forgotten exactly what was and wasn't strictly legal at the time, and how those laws were applied unequally in many cases.

The only thing I morn is the loss of gun tradition but time marches on and manufacturing has to also. If the buyer desires plastic guns then that’s what he’ll get.

Those of us who don’t will continue to cling to the old things and old ways, it’ll cost us more but I believe that's more about a weak dollar and easy credit than anything.

The good old days are always good because it's the past, and that's always a safer place to live.

"Amost anybody who owned a gun used it exclusively for hunting. Hardly anyone shot just for pleasure, and most looked down on people who did."

I don't know where or when you grew up, but what you've said isn't true from what I've seen. I'm over 60 and my great uncle Ed carried an 1884 S&W break-top .38, one grandfather carried a IJ .32, an aunt in Baltimore carried an H&R, and so forth. I have the guns, so it's not just a story I heard secondhand, I knew these people. Sure, the men had hunting guns too. So did some of the women and children.

My father was a state trooper after he returned from WWII and his first cousin was a county sheriff for a quarter century. Yes, they carried guns and owned hunting guns, too. The dividing line on enforcement wasn't so much racial as it was about whether or not the cop knew you and your people. In other words, strangers passing through - and known local screw ups of all races - caught the brunt of the attention.

John

The older generation didn't like those space-aged guns with plastic and aluminum and were more than happy to jump on the ban wagon because they don't like them. Some of them didn't learn and are STILL saying we don't "need" them. The Anti-gunners used that tactic to divide us before. They are trying it again,

Click to expand...

You nailed it! My father-in-law, who was born during the great depression, was a life-long hunter, rancher, ex-military and as country as they come said he could not understand why people would need a "clip" that could hold 19 bullets and they need to banned. He only viewed guns through the lens of hunting or war. Shooting for fun or needing a gun for self-defense was a foreign concept to him. All I can figure is he viewed a firearm as a tool used to make war or bring meat home but not as something to be used for recreation. He never locked his doors on his truck or home so needing a gun for self-defense never entered his mind.

I've heard lots of storied about those days, and remember some of'em.

One of my grandfathers was born 3 months before Custer made his ill-fated decision to leave the Gatlings behind. He told me of vaguely remembering the Gunfight at the OK Corral from overheard conversations. The other one was born 12 years later. The older one never lived in a house with indoor plumbing...and all cooking was done on a woodstove until his death at age 93. Both were coal miners.

I remember mail-order pistols and rifles and my father taking delivery on several nice ones through the DCM program. I still have a few of'em.

I remember attending gun shows with my father and him trading guns often with the Forsyth County Sheriff...Ernie Shore...who held the office longer than any sheriff before or since.

I remember grabbing a .22 rifle or a shotgun after school and heading off into the wilderness to fill the stewpot with squirrel and rabbit...and people who saw me walking down the road with the guns threw up their hands and waved instead of calling for a SWAT team. The occasional cop or sheriff's deputy would slow down and remind us to be careful...and wish us good hunting...and be on their way.

I remember misbehaving at a neighbor's house, and their mothers would tear us up along with her own kids...with my mother's full blessing. "If he gets out of hand, you know what to do." One in particular...Lucy Gray...was especially wicked with a switch. I loved her until the day she died.

I remember when every boy over the age of 9 or 10 had a Barlow knife in his pocket at school...and the teacher sometimes asked to borrow it. I remember drawing "War Pictures" in school...and the teacher would put the better ones on display instead of wringing her hands and squeaking about mental health evaluations.

I remember school yard fights that the teacher would break up and make us hug each other instead of sending us to anger management classes...and if we had to go to the principal...that was big deal because if he corrected us with the "Board of Education...we were sure to have another such correction when our fathers got home.

"Oh, God, Mr. Bridges! I'll do anything! Just don't call my daddy!"

This lasted through high school, where the principal's nickname was "Bear" and it was for good reason. He sported a pugilist's broken nose, and was an imposing figure. When he died several years ago, the funeral home had to open early to give the mourners time to file past him. The line stretched around the block...and most of'em were former students, many of which had gotten their butts burned up at the wrong end of his paddle...and every one that he had told "Bend over and grab your ankles" was hugged afterward and told to go and sin no more.

I remember my "allowance" being earned with actual work instead of being handed over just because I wanted a dollar to go to the Saturday matinee...and all the shows were suitable for kids 12 and under.

I miss America. I do.

I remember seeing rifles in racks at Woolworths, and my wife buying a revolver for me for Christmas at Montgomery Ward's.

I remember going into the Marshall Field's Store for Men in Chicago; standing there drooling over the Colt automatics in the display case.

But, all is not lost...there are still some good places left.

Not too long ago, in one of the small towns in Washington State I lived in at the time, I was standing outside one of my favorite stores, talking with a couple of other guys. Up drives a pick up, with an elk in the back--season had just opened. We started talking about how he got the elk; the hunters with him didn't have any luck that day. We started talking about rifles, and everyone pulled theirs out, and we stood there in broad daylight, talking about the merits of the rifles themselves.

A patrol officer was driving by, pulled in and stopped. He came up, took one look at the elk, and started complimenting the hunter. he showed curiosity about one of the rifles; the hunter handed it over, and they discussed the merits of the rifle and scope. We all talked for about 40 minutes--the officer went back on patrol, the hunters went home, and so did I.

Less than four months ago, I met a friend in another small town near an area where we were going to bust some clays with hand throwers. He mentioned that the forend was loose on his Remington; he got it out, I got out my tools and tightened it for him on the spot. Two Sheriff's deputies and a State Trooper drove by while I did it--not a word.

Yeah, it's still out there in spots.

Last year St. Patrick's day fell on one of our regular pistol practice nights, so we had a holiday late night poker party at the club house. On the way home my local township PD (both officers!) were out looking for drunks (none so far that night) and one of them pulled me over to let me know I had a headlight out.

After an astute guess that I was carrying, we got to talking about guns and local gun shops and where to shoot. 15 minutes later the officer finally bid me good night and headed back off to look for "bob and weave." As I turned into my own driveway I realized that, while I now had HIS card in my wallet, he'd never even asked to see mine!

Our School Bus driver carried a SXS 12 gauge behind his seat.....stopped and hung it out the window of the bus to kill a pheasant. All the kids raced out to retrieve the bird. We frequently carried guns to school on the bus for either show & tell or to use after school hunting with classmates.

We'd have the bus driver stop at the local country store and wait while we ran inside to purchase a box of .22's for after school plinking.....as I recall a box of .22 LR ran about fifty cents.