HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

nunn

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have.

As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda, but we were never over weight; we were always outside playing.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem solvers.

We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

~author unknown~




SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net

muley

Being born on Mothers Day in 1940, I remember a little of the '40s, all of the 50's, half of the '60s, some of the '70s and the rest of the years to date are a blur. Maybe it's old age or selective memory but I can truthfully say this...I remember everything on the list and more. How did we survive? We were survivors. Unlike today, no one was there to tell us what we were doing was bad for us or was wrong.

muley

****I love the smell of Hoppes #9 in the morning****

wipala

Don't forget we could buy what amounted to 1/4 sticks of dynamite every summer without even parental notification let alone government interferance.

Remember here at DeeDee"s If we can't kill it, it's immortal
D.D.Snavely

Lowrider

Just read a great book about growing up in those times. "The Life And Times Of The Last Kid Picked". It reminded me on every page of the great times I had as a kid growing up in the fifties and early sixties.

Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.

charlie15

If my opinion counts or is worth anything, personally i feel that along the time period of 1964-1965 is when all that changed and this country starting going into the toilet!! THX.

IF A GOVERMENT'S OPPRESSIVE, THEN REPRESS IT!!

Palantirion

AMEN nunn!

I was born a bit after most of you guys ('73) but luckily caught the tail end of childhood freedom - just enough to remember to pass on those lessons to my kids whenever I have them.

Damn the Libs, what's right is right.

www.ebsart.com
"Live by the three 'R's: Respect, Responsibility and Residuals."

punchie

True, true, how very true. Now I can't remember why I felt so much safer then than now, but I was.

AN ARMED SOCIETY IS A POLITE SOCIETY

joeaf1911a1

Being one who survived the "depression days of the 30's) and WW 2
as a Infantryman, I can sure see the changes for the worse. Time was
when a kid could bring a gun on a school bus to school, leave it in the principals office for selling or trading and no one batted a eye.
However, that was the one rule. Must be in the principals office for
selling or trading. Can you imagine today, a 14 year old kid bringing
a rifle or shotgun on a school bus and into the school principals
office? Of course this was a farming, fishing and clamming township.
I sure am glad my kids at least had a taste of the freedom we had
until the 1960's. High schools taught useful things like Agriculture,
wood shop and metal shop instead of diversity etc. Guess it is just
called "progress" to get to where we are now.

He Dog

I guess I have a little different take on this. When I saw the subject line I immediately thought of something I have thought many times over the years. It seems to me that it is a miracle that any of us survive to adulthood. I look back at the things I did in my youth, either out of neivety or because I knew I was immortal, and conclude my parents would not have survived the heart attacks either had they known. And to think the same things have been going on with kids since time immemorial.

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand

96harley

Nunn, Mom or dad could send you to the corner store for cigarettes.
You didn't even think of smoking one. Not because it was against the law but because you knew the penalty was a good waxing with a belt or anything else mom managed to pick up. You were also one of the last ones served a meal at the church social cause you were young and it showed respect for adults to let them and guest go first. Never starved at one of those deals. How did we survive?

William81

Another big change since I was a kid is carrying a pocket knife. My Grandfather game me my first one when I was ten. He taught me how to sharpen it and use it properly. I carried a knife everyday from that point forward. Many of us had them while attending school and nothing was ever said about it.

Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Liberals....

wipala

btt

"When I take action I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt."--

President of the United States,

George W. Bush.

nord

Funny -

I graduated high school in 1966. I took a Mauser to school, along with a friend who took a Japanese rifle for a WW2 display. Though I checked many times to make sure the guns were safe, I doubt anyone else gave a second thought. We all somehow knew the difference between Hollywood and the real world. These were items that had been used to kill other humans and that's exactly what our display was about.

I once was in a situation where a friend and I were woodchuck hunting on one side of a small river. A bunch of the local bullies were fishing on the other side and began to toss rocks in our direction. I'll admit that it occured to me that I was armed and could have sent a shot across their bow. I didn't. We merely moved beyond rock range and commented that only fools would assult one carrying a firearm.

Worrying about a pocket knife in school? Every boy would have been expelled had there been a concern. There wasn't... And we had no incidents. None!

And God does protect fools and dogs. Walk a bicycle up a mile long hill so that you can follow a car downhill and try to pass it on the way. Brakes??? That old Bendix coaster break was probably good enough.
And the real wimps installed caliper brakes on the front ends for insurance. Never mind what a flat tire or a little gravel might have done. Helmets???

I still haven't leveled with my dad on some of those things. I think the statute of limitations is still running and he's now 89.

My two boys are now men. They knew the same rules I did and grew up without incident. My younger tells me that there are still things he can't share... Same reason I listed above.

I'm so proud of both of them... For all I know and all I don't care to know. I'm also proud to say that I'd trust their judgement with my life anytime.

Some things haven't changed.

Nord

Judge Dread

Darn! thats a good one ..I ask myself that too after barn-blowing ,military combat, mountain climbing,killing chupacabras shooting down UFOs working in law enforcement and being supressed for rebelion against the overlords ,hacking stargate and playing GOD
Welll....!!!!

Quite a mirracle I am still alive.... Definitely fuels meditation..
quite a subject...!!!!

I still retain my hierarchy..... and loose time posting here ...
well is a good substitute for "life".....

HARRR HARRR HARRR !

JD

400 million cows can't be wrong ( EAT GRASS !!! )

lokdok1

Hey Nunn,
I remember buying .22s for 25cents a box by myself when I was 10 yrs.old and later after shooting them up, swimming in the river(Lehigh) and jumping of the high rocks into the deep end, just get home by dark.

If you don't know your rights, you dont't have any!

interstatepawnllc

W.T.F. Happened? I long for my spent youth. I long for the times of reason and ration. When my Dad passed in 99' I could tell he was ready, he had been ready for sometime. Perhaps since about the late seventies? One of the last things he had to witness was the whole Klinton-Lewinsky circus, he died shortly after Klintons denials, rationalizations and refusal to resign. Geez, I would say his timing to check out was just about perfect. Our country is going to hell faster than Rosie has been scarfing those big macs.

If your gonna be stupid you better be tough !!

Pearyw

I can remember when I was in junior high school a kid brought his father's reloading system in and entered it as a science project. That was 1957 and he won second prize. Can you imagine what would happen today. I also remember buying switch blade knives in the five and ten cent store for a dollar in 1950 when I was 8 years old.

alledan

Those were very good times indeed!

PATIENCE IS : THE ABILITY TO IDLE YOUR MOTOR WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE STRIPPING YOUR GEARS..

pickenup

Throwing a fishing pole over your shoulder first thing in the morning, grabbing a sack lunch of some kind, and not getting home until dark with a stringer full of fish ((that you could eat more than a pound a week)). No worries about kidnappings, and the only drive-by, was a neighbor who stopped to see how big a fish you had caught that day.Or the rifle over the shoulder, (same thing, gone all day) and the only 2 questions you were asked when you got home were, "What did you bring home for dinner?" and "Did you use more than one bullet to get it?" That was the only thing you would get in trouble for, is if you had to use more than one shot.Ahhhhh..memories.The scary thing is that our kids are going to say that "(these)---were" the good old days, for them.

The gene pool needs chlorine.