when the world made sense

[Phaseolus]

My Buddy and I would sling our .22 rifles on our backs and ride our bikes a couple of miles to a prairie dog town we had permission to shoot on. A Deputy Sheriff passed us really slow looking at us and then pulled over a hundred yards ahead. He wanted to know where we were going shooting and if maybe he could shoot prairies dogs there too. Different era in Front Range Colorado.

 

[5MilesBack]

Yep, back in middle school I'd bring my shotgun on the bus to school and leave it in the principal's office until after school. In high school, a lot of trucks had rifles and shotguns sitting in the gun rack in the back window. And pocket knives......that was a given. And better yet.......none of those vehicles were ever broken into. Yep, dirtbags were much fewer and further between. Morons as well.

 

[FLAK]

We all had gun rack in the back window of our pickups. There was something wrong with you if you didn't.
You could look out in the school parking lot and see who hunted.
Nobody ever said a word about it.
Even the Principal had a window rack.
Back before the Loonies took over.

 

[Brooks]

What do you mean lock your rifle in the truck ? When I was in school we all had rifle racks in the back window and never thought about locking the truck while in class. First day of deer season there wasn’t a boy in class everyone was out hunting. When the World Series was on we would watch it at school. Glad I have those memories....Never heard the term....shelter in place.

 

[Werty]

I grew up on forty acres of farmland and a swamp. My brother and I carried bb guns everywhere. Told mom we are going out back. Great childhood.

 

[FLAK]

Rode many a mile on a bicycle with a pellet rifle across the handlebars.

 

[bigmoose]

I grew up in Northern California. A lot of times during hunting I would hunt before school and just leave my rifle in my Jeep in the school parking lot. If I got something I would just skip school and take care of it. No big deal, and, of course, I always had a pocket knife on me. Different times. We never locked our doors and usually left the keys in our vehicles. The good old days....

 

[Salmon River Solutions]

I always had a shotgun and shells strewn all over my car during bird season. The shotgun I had to kinda tuck away when I went to school but if you looked hard you could see the gun case. The shells were obvious though. No one ever batted an eyelash. This was roughly 12 years ago.

Now my nephew on the other hand, about 4 years ago (he was 10) got a shiny new buck knife that his grandpa who works at the Buck factory have him.

He forgot it in his pocket and went to school. Found it at his locker and panicked and pulled it out to put it in his locker and someone saw and reported it. He was always a straight A student and the teachers always liked him. He was immediately suspended for a week with no recourse. Then was told he would be expelled Pending a board hearing and have to repeat the grade. All of that told to a 10 year old without a parent or relative there.

After all that he had to see a psychiatrist to verify he wasn’t “a threat” and THEN go in front of the school board and apologize to them (10 year old bawling his eyes out trying to say he’s sorry) just to get let back into the school.

This is where you would expect me to say this is some Democrat state like California... nope, right here in North Idaho.

 

[kda082]

Just raised 2 kids. I hate the internet, phones, and video games. Hard to compete with that shit. I’ve raised my boy to shoot and hunt and we’ve spent a lot of time in the field together, but kids get pulled in a lot of directions. I played Pitfall or Space Invaders for a bit on my Atari and got bored and went outside. My son can hook up a headset and play with his local buddies and people everywhere. Times are different. Be careful bringing that shit in your house. I long for the good old days.

 

[FLAK]

I don't do technology. They made me get email on my phone for work..
WTH? Why do I need email on my puter and my phone?SMH

 

[pck5038]

I was listening to the JRE podcast with Aron Snyder, and it struck me when Aron mentioned locking his rifle in his principal's office during deer season when he was a kid in high school.

I had the same experience as a pup (i think i'm only about five years older than A.S.). The first day of whitetail season was an NMA (non mandatory attendance) day at my high school. I bet that on any given day in the fall that there were 50-80 firearms locked in vehicles outside in the parking lot and another 10-15 secured in the principal's walk in closet that had been converted to a lock up.

I remember one of my grade 11 teachers bringing his shiny brand new M77 RSI in .308 into class at the end of the day to show all of us little shitkickers how pretty a rifle could be. A bunch of us sat in that classroom for an hour talking rifles and cycling that bolt.

Going even further back, the first day of grade 1 our teacher walked in and said: "Now, which of you boys have pocket knives on you? I need a hand opening all of these boxes of books." Yeah. That's right. Little boys in school with pocket knives. I think there were eight or nine hands that went up that morning.

It was a badge of honor to carry a pocket knife, and a big badge of shame if you had it taken away by an adult for being careless. You were a "baby who couldn't handle a knife safely", and that was reinforced by not only other kids, but by adults. It wasn't bullying or being mean, it was teaching responsibility and accountability.

I know those times are long gone, but i mourn for all of the kids who have missed out on great opportunities to grow into adulthood by being given trust and guidance.

Who else here grew up being trusted and cared for by community?

Good story.

 

[brsnow]

Life is always changing, progression and growth. Some embrace the challenges and adventures, some cling to the past. Has been the case since the start of time.

 

[FLAK]

Life is always changing, progression and growth. Some embrace the challenges and adventures, some cling to the past. Has been the case since the start of time.

And, in many cases, regression.

 

[Ucsdryder]

When I was 14 or so, I took my moms car down to the bottom field to shoot some quail. Left my shotgun and vest in the backseat, and like most 14 year olds never thought about it again. She got a call from the principal that someone saw the gun in her car in the teachers parking lot, she was a teacher. She threw it in the trunk and I grabbed it when I got home. I can only imagine if that happened now!

 

[brsnow]

And, in many cases, regression.

I am sure it can feel that way.

 

[rob86jeep]

It always makes me laugh when I see people say they hate technology, phones, the internet, etc, on an online forum...

 

[5MilesBack]

I am sure it can feel that way.

Regardless how it feels, in this case the feelings match the logical reality. It feels that way because it IS that way. Sure........progress even to demise could be considered progress, but I would never confuse that with "positive" progress. That's pretty much where we're at these days, the "progressives" seem to think that their progress IS a positive thing. The rest of us already know better than that.

 

[Kevin_t]

My son had a principal that was ok with taking off for hunting season that was only 6-7 years ago .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rob5589]

People change, generations change, what is considered "safe" changes, it doesn't mean it always gets worse...

I'm sure people in your generation also had "nuclear bomb drills" where you hid under your desks, rapes went unreported because women weren't listened too, minorities were treated even worse then they are right now, etc, etc. Picking out a single statistic from your childhood (that could have been bad but turned out ok) doesn't reflect on what we should be striving for as a nation.

I'll ask one question, how much benefit was it to have your gun/pocket knife on school grounds...? You maybe saved an extra 30 minutes of hunting time having your gun (insignificant) or nothing having your pocket knife (other than cool guy points).

I remember nuke drills. They still have fire drills, as well as mass shooter drills in some schools. So, we traded nuke drills (which never happened) for mass shooter drills, which do happen. Not progress.

Not sure what rapes and minority abuse have to do with bringing your guns or pocket knives ( we used to even in California ) for some after school hunts with your pals. 1990 there were around 102000 rapes in America; 101000+ in 2018. Sadly, no progress there, either.

Having a pocket knife at school wasn't about being "cool" any more than having one in your pocket right now is.

Has nothing to do with progress. At some point, someone decided they just didn't like it.

 

[Elk97]

I got a job at 15 at the local Chevron station. No paperwork, nothing just told me when to show up for work. I was filling cars up (and washing all the windows, checking the oil and battery, and tire pressure), doing oil changes and delivering cars back to the owners all over town. I'd ride my motorcycle on the back roads and trails to get to work. The day I turned 16 and got my drivers license I was pretty excited and went into the station and announced that I got my license. One of the owners heard me and started to say something but then got a funny look on his face and just turned around and walked away. Never did say anything about it. Simpler times.