Monday, January 14, 2013

It's not going to be just the youngsters

VERBATIM 



- photo sent in by RJIII

Matter of fact I think the youngsters are going in the minority...... at first. It's going to be us old farts that have memories of the way it used to be 40 years ago, just as the way it was our fathers and grandfathers that remember how it used to be before us and so forth.

Going off on a tangent now:

Granted, things weren't perfect back in the 60s, 70s and early 80s - far from it - but we had a hell of a lot more freedoms then than we do now. I can remember getting a shotgun for my 16th Christmas in 1975, then later that day slinging it across my shoulder and proudly walking a few blocks to my best friend's house to show it off. The neighborhood reaction? Smiles, admiration, and congratulations.

I can remember having to do a report in 7th grade English class on something that I was interested in. My subject was ballistics. My grade was an A+ and my teacher asked if he could go skeet shooting with me and Pops the next weekend. He had a beautiful Remington 101 over and under and was a better shot than we were.

I remember when I got out of the Army in 1981 and walking into a sporting goods store and buying a 30-30 to hunt with. In and out of the store in 5 minutes with my new rifle. Matter of fact, I got an email from Mile-Hi last week telling me about a Remington 870 Wingmaster that his Dad just gave him, said it was bought in a liquor store just up the road from us in Escalon in the 1970s. Yup, bought in a liquor store.

I can remember going into Barbour's Bait and Tackle here in Ceres when I was 10 or 12 with Cousin Ronny and buying a half a box of 22LR, the old man counting them out for us, for a quarter and then going to the property across the street and shooting jackrabbits.

And it wasn't just guns - seatbelts in a car were usually found behind the seat, you could buy cigarettes for your folks with a note from them, folks could stop in the middle of a country road and visit without getting tickets for blocking traffic even though there wasn't any, parents could punish their kids without worrying about gov't interference, all the neighborhood markets would let you run a tab until payday, driving kids to school every day for their safety was unheard of, schoolyard arguments were settled with a fistfight after school with the worst injury being a bloody nose, and *a man's Word meant something. 

*I witnessed many a transaction at the Marshall Stockyard as a child when $40,000+/- cattle exchanged hands with a hand shake only.  Unfortunately this was marred once when Pete Stansberry let a Yankee from PA take a lot which was never reimbursed.  It broke him, a stalwart of the community.  Rest In Peace, Sir.

8 comments:

  1. AMartinez no not that one!January 15, 2013 at 6:29 AM

    Brings bback a lot of memories, I tell my wife who my junior of 17 years. Back in the 60s,70s you could go to the local dairy with your gallon jug and fill it up for a dollar. If you worked for some farm on top of pay they'ed give you fresh chickens or vegitables. You could put your gas on credit, just sign your ticket. And everyone was polite to each other, even if you didn't know them. And in school if you sold so many magazines you could get a gun or knife for your reward. And the list goes on.....

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  2. This describes a high trust society. We don't have that anymore. I'm not that old, I grew up in the 80s in Raleigh and Greensboro, but we never locked our doors. My friends and I wandered all over the place at 8 years old and nobody worried too much as long as we were home for supper.

    I know its racist (and I don't care), but immigration has eroded that trust. Bringing in people from 3rd world hell holes where life is cheap and short has been a major detriment. Not just because of the crime that they bring, but because of the normalization of that crime in the indigenous population. I grew up with the idea that people who robbed and killed were defective, but now it seems like they are the normal people and I'm the defective for thinking that its wrong.

    Kids growing up now are used to the idea of selling drugs and shooting people for their shoes. They're becoming desensitized to sin. The scale of what's acceptable is being reset to much lower standards.

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    1. The scale of what's acceptable is being reset to much lower standards.

      Horrendous.

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  3. That last para. sound`s familiar. There were a couple huge textile mill`s over here some year`s ago. The owner / founder had one child , a girl . This lady married one of the New England " Blue Blood`s ".Shortly after the elderly gentleman`s death , the mill product line`s and machinery were moved to Communist China. A couple hundred people put on the street , the building`s are vacant. The lotto winner has gone back to Connecticut , where he live`s a life of leisure playing golf , and counting his money.

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  4. I think the photo is of Enola Gay's husband, she calls him Sir Knight.

    Terry
    Fla.

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