Maggie’s 18 Year Olds Are Just Kids...

[Tucker301]

Yeah Right.
That's a photo of myself and my three brothers, circa 1963?

We were raised by parents who loved us, but who also kept us in line with hands, switches, belts, and groundings as needed.
We played outside mostly.
Sports - Games like kick the can, hide and seek, tag, football, basketball, baseball, and whatever else we could find to consume our time and energy.
We challenged each other to races and wrestling matches to determine who was the best.
We got into scuffles at school, and the adults let us settle them before taking us to the office.
A teacher would spank us just like a parent or grandparent would, and we knew it, and we respected it.
We played with fire, fireworks, chemicals, bows and arrows, BB guns, cap guns, and even an old Civil War sword and bayonet.
We pretended to shoot each other with toy guns and cap guns. We knew it was pretend.
We built forts in the woods.
We fished and explored wildernesses on our own.
We threw rocks at each other.
We got bitten and stung by everything that was available to bite and sting a kid back then, except snakes, which we killed on sight.
We climbed trees, ladders, buildings, and water towers without safety gear.
We rode bikes without helmets or pads.
We got in fights with each other and with other kids from the neighborhood.
We knew exactly who could whip who, and that order was respected, but routinely challenged.
We'd fight one day and be back playing with each other the next. No hard feelings.
We went to school and pledged allegiance to our flag.
We went to church, begrudgingly, and behaved, listened, and sat still and quiet.
We came to supper when called and we ate everything put before us, never once requesting something that wasn't there, because that would get you nothing, and something was always better than nothing.
We were poor by today's standards, but we didn't know it, so we didn't think anyone owed us anything. There were no programs. We had what our parents could provide, period.
Our parents taught us that work begets money and that study begets knowledge, and the two together can take you as far as you want to go.
We mowed grass and did other chores.
We picked up discarded bottles and turned them in for a few cents deposit.
When I was 8 I bought my own BB gun with my own money, earned from cutting grass for neighbors.
When I was 14 I worked sunup to sundown in the tobacco fields.
When I was 14 I walked through town with a shotgun or a 22 semi-automatic rifle on my shoulder, to go hunting with buddies, and no one gave it a second thought.
When I was 18 I bought myself a Marlin 336 Lever action rifle in 30-30 caliber, my first firearms purchase independent of parental assistance.
I drove to school, in my own car purchased with my own money, with guns and ammunition in my vehicle, to be used for after school hunting with my friends.
I also bought my girlfriend and diamond and asked her to marry me, which she did, one week after graduating high school.
This June will be 40 years together, and we're still crazy about each other. We had an argument once. I think it was 1980. Don't recall what it was about.
We worked together for 7 years to get to to the point that we could afford a child.
A couple of years later we added another one, because the first one needed someone to boss around and protect.
We instilled them our beliefs and morals and sent them on their way. They're more educated than we are, but not nearly as smart.

Now you go back through the above list and take out all of the things that liberals have taken away from our culture; like discipline, child labor, the ability to learn that stupid hurts, fighting, unsupervised kids playing, praying in school, pledging allegiance to a flag in order to unify us all towards one common goal; and you tell me again how guns are the problem, and why 18 year olds aren't mature enough or emotionally developed enough to handle and purchase firearms.

 

[EddieNFL]

Yeah Right.
That's a photo of myself and my three brothers, circa 1963?

We were raised by parents who loved us, but who also kept us in line with hands, switches, belts, and groundings as needed.
snip .

I think we grew up in the same neighborhood...right down to the tobacco fields. Age range looks about the same.

Gotcha beat on the snake bite, though. Fortunately, non-poisonous.

I still remember going to the Sears mail order store every August to order new bluejeans, shirts an shoes. Got you through the school year.

What happened?

 

[Geno C.]

Sounds like a very similar childhood to mine except I'm a bit younger. And only been with my wife 18 years

 

[Strykervet]

They don't care. It's about one thing: taking your rights away. They know these laws won't do shit about these shootings. And if they DO believe these laws work, god help us all because they won't stop. What do you think will be the next step when they do get their gun ban, just to find out the attacks will then be carried out with bombs? Because that's what'll happen.

Every drug store, grocery store and hardware store in America is a munitions factory if you have the know how.

I wrote ANOTHER letter, knowing while I did it I was probably wasting time... You know, seeing as it's the hundredth letter and all...

That said, I have gotten emails and even one card from state legislators saying they're sentiments are along the same as mine (ours).

 

[EddieNFL]

That said, I have gotten emails and even one card from state legislators saying they're sentiments are along the same as mine (ours).

But when their backs are against the wall, most will go for votes, not what's constitutionally right.

 

[jrassy]

I turned 18 in the Marine Corps, if you called me a kid I’d bust you in the chops.

 

[lash]

Ya know Tucker, I hate to get all sentimental, maudlin and old about this, but reading your post was like reading a script from my own broken record.

I'll add that when we got a little bit crazy and went over the line, it was likely that Johnny law would give us a stern warning and send us on our way or tell our parents and we would get a whooping. Now, when teenage hormones get a bit out of line, little Johnny gets a ride in a patrol car and a record. I'm not blaming LEO, as this is a symptom of a society that cannot/will not take care of themselves.

I and my brothers would shoot our .22s every day after school as long as we had earned enough while working to by our own ammo. During high school, my younger brother and I would go squirrel hunting after school before our parents got home. We had to account for all shells expended, as a shell needed to equal a squirrel. Explanations were required for missed shots.

If we whined or cried after getting hurt, unless it was truly serious, we were made fun of. Buck up, buttercup.

Met my wife when I was 19 and she was 16. We are still married today after 38 years and probably happier now than ever.

Times, they are a-changing.

I fear that we sound like every other generation of adults when comparing times, but fear more the reality of our current political situation.

 

[buffalowinter]

Here is what I was doing when I was 18

Here is what I was doing when I was 25

 

[Foul Mike]

Which boy are you Tucker?
I am older than you but did about the same things. When I was 8 my Grandpa gave me a new single shot 22. I still shoot it when I borrow it from my Grandson as it is his now..
I too worked fields at 14 but they were wheat fields and I already had a few years of experience,started at 10, and was driving a tractor.
We had our bullies too but could change their minds with a carefully staged ambush in the alleys with slingshots, not wrist rockets as we couldn't afford those and needed that money for 22 ammo, the ones made in Gramp's shop with old inner tubes shooting old rivets from sickle heads from the combines.
One rivet would get their attention, 2 would make them run like a scalded cat, 3 to 6 would put them on their ass with huge welts and a marked change in behavior. 6 was the most I ever saw shot and that asshole deserved every one. I think there were at least 2 follow up shots that found their mark but there was 6 in the air as he rounded the corner out of that alley before he fell down. FM
PS Rivets were not cruel or harsh, after all they were made of soft steel.

 

[lash]

Yes, I was working the fields for pay at 14 too, but worked for free on my uncles farms before that. It's what you did then.

 

[shipereyes445]

The government alone can’t be responsible for such failures, go around ask all the parents/couple most will tell you that they want their kids to have the life they didn’t but that doesn’t mean spoiling them and not raising them to know what’s right and plane my wrong. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t believe in the ideals and respect the methods of their fathers. I had the opportunity to visit the colleges and to my surprise, kids driving $100,000 cars. Expensive cloths and all the shiny things. These kids don’t know what the real life is. They didn’t work to buy their own care of pay rent like most of us here did. All they understand is
Fashion
Cars
Social media
New cool techs
Sex
Drugs
Once up on a time we were leads in invention of cutting edge technology but not anymore. Ready and discovery is boring.
This country was well respected and even feared.
But it has all gone down the drain. I miss the good ol days.

 

[Foul Mike]

Rick, I was drafted at 19 in 1968 so what do you think I was doing?
It is nothing I want to remember.

 

[Tucker301]

Which boy are you Tucker?

The good looking one!
Suspenders. hands in pockets. #3 in the order.

 

[168BTHPM]

Pretty much mirrors my childhood, I grew up in a logging and mining town in NW Montana. One big exception though, we didn't run around a play with toy guns, we chased each other through the woods with BB guns and it really sucked to get caught in the open. Epic rock, dirt clod, apple and horse chestnut fights too. Just about anything that made a good projectile we threw at each other, including fresh road apples. You know, the kind of activities life long friendships are formed around. I started working (bucking bales, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, digging ditches, cleaning horse stalls) when I was 12, owned my first car (69 Road Runner) by 14 and it was only 4 years old when I bought it, by the time I was a junior in high school I had 2 cars, a pickup and 3 motorcycles, all paid for with money I earned.

 

[The King]

Grew up in a trailer park. Worked my first job at 12. Bought my own car and college education on the back of hard work and street smarts.

 

[RNWRKNP]

Grew up in the sticks too and damn glad of it. 3000 head of cattle and you never made the mistake of telling the old man you were bored. Still call everybody I don’t know mam and sir regardless of status. Respect my elders and my boys do as well. My boys grew up in the city and were taught the same respects as well. They thought I was hard because their friends didn’t receive the same discipline but now that they are young men that understand and appreciate it the same as me. They were allowed to have anything within reason.......as long as they paid for it. Took one of my boys 5 minutes to pay for his new laptop at Costco from money he earned pulling weeds and mowing yards. Basics were covered but luxury items were not. Hunting and firearms safety as soon as they were old eneough.....ok the guns were gifts.?

 

[D. Hargrove]

After reading every post in this thread what I see in common is men that were raised to be men by someone. No where did I read any form of emasculation by the left, by liberal education or by society in general. Todays boys have a different environment once they leave the house than any of us had. No ability to form a pecking order on the playground through physical dominance and so on. I appreciate the thread Tucker as it says what most of the men I know feel...

David

 

[The King]

Hell. The pecking order was very good to me.

I was sort of a geek. I got picked on bad. But here is the difference - in our older world it ended when it ended.

Today’s harassment is endless - 24/7/365. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter.

Something happened when I was 13 and I ended up being a 6ft tall 200lbs of solid muscle 13 year old. And when I beat the hell out of some of the bullies at school my Texas schoolteachers gave me a thumbs up and ignored it.

And my parents just asked about my bruised up hands and face - did you do the right thing? And when I answered yes that was that.

It taught me that kids don’t turn out evil without something bad going down, and they can be corrected into a better place. Some of the bullies I beat senseless became good friends and good men because of what happened when karma showed up and busted out some teeth.

I taught this lesson to my son, and he happened upon someone beating one of his friends almost to death. Blood everywhere, and the kid choking on his teeth. My son stepped in because the school teachers were on perpetual break, and beat that other kid unconscious.

The liberal administration was pushing for his expulsion after that, so he got to choose between an Xbox and a Bike for Christmas and he got the gift of Home schooling.

He also got to hear his dad go on an epic rant AT the school administration about how they were the very embodiment of the self destruction of our nation, the actual machine churning out our future third world country one pansy at a time. In person. Loudly.

 

[Strykervet]

After reading every post in this thread what I see in common is men that were raised to be men by someone. No where did I read any form of emasculation by the left, by liberal education or by society in general. Todays boys have a different environment once they leave the house than any of us had. No ability to form a pecking order on the playground through physical dominance and so on. I appreciate the thread Tucker as it says what most of the men I know feel...

David

Yeah I agree with that. For me it was my grandmother for the most part. I was raised with "old values" and had a traditional childhood. If we agree it was our upbringing that prepared us to be responsible owners, then what does that say about today, and the lack of those values, lack of that upbringing? Without those values, ARE 18yo's responsible on a whole today?

Maybe due to the shitty condition of society, perhaps taking a test to see if you are fit to own firearms isn't a stretch. For first time buyers only without military or police experience. Kind of like how some states have pistol classes. You can't drive a car until you prove you can handle it. And take a test. Why not do this with firearms in the absence of traditional upbringings? Who knows, maybe this would be a useful way to approach things. If we're gonna have laws, why not ones that make some sense?

I don't know, just thinking aloud.

 

[silentnswift]

View attachment 6878681

The government alone can’t be responsible for such failures, go around ask all the parents/couple most will tell you that they want their kids to have the life they didn’t but that doesn’t mean spoiling them and not raising them to know what’s right and plane my wrong. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t believe in the ideals and respect the methods of their fathers. I had the opportunity to visit the colleges and to my surprise, kids driving $100,000 cars. Expensive cloths and all the shiny things. These kids don’t know what the real life is. They didn’t work to buy their own care of pay rent like most of us here did. All they understand is
Fashion
Cars
Social media
New cool techs
Sex
Drugs
Once up on a time we were leads in invention of cutting edge technology but not anymore. Ready and discovery is boring.
This country was well respected and even feared.
But it has all gone down the drain. I miss the good ol days.[/QUOT

The parents these days are a huge problem. I understand wanting better for your children than you had but my kids have plenty and still understand they are expected to work and do what is ask of them in order to receive the things they want. People want to complain about everyone's sense of entitlement but then but the lastest greatest phone or shoes or video or clothes for their snotty nosed little punk kid. Because I never had that when I was a kid.... I've noticed a whole generation of people with this mentality raising children but don't understand why the world is going to shit.

 

[silentnswift]

As much as it pains me to say, I wouldn't trust most 16/17 year olds I have met lately to drive my lawnmower unsupervised. At 12 years old I was mowing hay and various other jobs on tractors and equipment. I was going into the woods with the 410 I bought with the money I had earned by chopping out tobacco, without supervision. As far as kids establishing a pecking order... my daughter has a kid in her class that sets in the cornor and eats his bugers because no one can pick on him for it therefore it's deemed ok for him to do.

 

[RNWRKNP]

The parents these days are a huge problem. I understand wanting better for your children than you had but my kids have plenty and still understand they are expected to work and do what is ask of them in order to receive the things they want. People want to complain about everyone's sense of entitlement but then but the lastest greatest phone or shoes or video or clothes for their snotty nosed little punk kid. Because I never had that when I was a kid.... I've noticed a whole generation of people with this mentality raising children but don't understand why the world is going to shit.

The reason you are seeing this is that they themselves were never taught. They were given things without earning them and never taught responsibility for themselves. My dad used to say “If I do it for you, or give it to you I am stealing from you the opportunity to learn how to do it or obtain it yourself.” I haven’t always had what I wanted......but I have always had what I needed thanks to my parents taking the time to teach me how to take care of myself and be responsible.

 

[RNWRKNP]

As much as it pains me to say, I wouldn't trust most 16/17 year olds I have met lately to drive my lawnmower unsupervised. At 12 years old I was mowing hay and various other jobs on tractors and equipment. I was going into the woods with the 410 I bought with the money I had earned by chopping out tobacco, without supervision. As far as kids establishing a pecking order... my daughter has a kid in her class that sets in the cornor and eats his bugers because no one can pick on him for it therefore it's deemed ok for him to do.

As soon as my legs were long eneough to push in a clutch on a tractor I ran a wheel rake in the summer. Before that my job was to pick up sticks in the field that got there from flood irrigation and put them in a pile. Broke my own horse at 15. Sadly because of labor laws these opportunity’s are closed to kids now. I was a framer when my boys were young and would take them out on side jobs with me law be damned. Made sure they were safe but they were given tasks that they could do and paid for their work. There are still opportunities (legal ones?)to teach kids what we grew up with but unfortunately overlooked or ignored. Although the Boy Scouts are pissing me off?

 

[WeiserBucks]

I'm 35 , grew up about as poor as can be . My mom worked three jobs to support me , my shithawk father and his misc. girlfriends. My father wasn't around 29 days of the month , so little me had to take up the slack.

My mom would run the chainsaw and I'd load the wood . Once we got home she'd cook the squirrels we shot and I'd stack the wood in the shed . Everybody in our family was better off than us and they all hunted , they would bring us 8-10 deer and a bear or 2 every fall . I was a semi pro butcher at 10 years old and developed a taste and respect for game that still rings true today.

My son is on a similar road , but it's a little less bumpy due to the fact that he has me and his mother to light the way .

I haven't seen my father in 18 years, and it won't bother me at all if I never see him again. If I do , I'll politely break his jaw .

 

[RNWRKNP]

Hell. The pecking order was very good to me.

I was sort of a geek. I got picked on bad. But here is the difference - in our older world it ended when it ended.

Today’s harassment is endless - 24/7/365. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter.

Something happened when I was 13 and I ended up being a 6ft tall 200lbs of solid muscle 13 year old. And when I beat the hell out of some of the bullies at school my Texas schoolteachers gave me a thumbs up and ignored it.

And my parents just asked about my bruised up hands and face - did you do the right thing? And when I answered yes that was that.

It taught me that kids don’t turn out evil without something bad going down, and they can be corrected into a better place. Some of the bullies I beat senseless became good friends and good men because of what happened when karma showed up and busted out some teeth.

I taught this lesson to my son, and he happened upon someone beating one of his friends almost to death. Blood everywhere, and the kid choking on his teeth. My son stepped in because the school teachers were on perpetual break, and beat that other kid unconscious.

The liberal administration was pushing for his expulsion after that, so he got to choose between an Xbox and a Bike for Christmas and he got the gift of Home schooling.

He also got to hear his dad go on an epic rant AT the school administration about how they were the very embodiment of the self destruction of our nation, the actual machine churning out our future third world country one pansy at a time. In person. Loudly.

Dude that is awesome ?

 

[RNWRKNP]

I'm 35 , grew up about as poor as can be . My mom worked three jobs to support me , my shithawk father and his misc. girlfriends. My father wasn't around 29 days of the month , so little me had to take up the slack.

My mom would run the chainsaw and I'd load the wood . Once we got home she'd cook the squirrels we shot and I'd stack the wood in the shed . Everybody in our family was better off than us and they all hunted , they would bring us 8-10 deer and a bear or 2 every fall . I was a semi pro butcher at 10 years old and developed a taste and respect for game that still rings true today.

My son is on a similar road , but it's a little less bumpy due to the fact that he has me and his mother to light the way .

I haven't seen my father in 18 years, and it won't bother me at all if I never see him again. If I do , I'll politely break his jaw .

Sounds like your mom was pretty awesome and good on you for digging in.

 

[Maser]

The good looking one!
Suspenders. hands in pockets. #3 in the order.

Suspenders AND a belt?

 

[deerhunter70]

Tucker-sounds exactly like my upbringing except I bucked hay instead of working tobacco fields. My dad always said you’ve never worked hard until you bucked hay. He wasn’t lying.
One of my fondest and wtf memories was when I cut my first lawn at the age of 11 for $5. I was so happy and proud. My dad sat me down and told me that now that I know how to earn a buck I was cut off. He would feed me, put clothes on my back, house me and take care of me on my birthday and Christmas but if I wanted anything I had to buy it myself. The man even charged me to use his lawnmower and snow shovel until I bought my own. I bought countless dirt bikes and 3 wheelers ( when they still made them), my own car at 16, and paid for college all by myself. I thank him for this life lesson all the time.
My brother and I also got smacked ever morning on the back of the head. Dad would always say, “that’s for whatever you do today that I don’t see.” We hoped that he smacked us with his left hand because his right hand had his class ring and sometimes the ring would rotate and the stone setting would get ya. We hated this but when we got older we decided we deserved ever smack we ever received and probably should have gotten way more.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

My up bringing was about the same except I was raised on a farm. 5 days a week up at 0430 do the chores, back to the house at 0600 for breakfast, change rags catch the bus at 0645. Home at 1530 do chores, eat supper at 1800 do home work, take a bath in bed by 2000. On Saturday up at 0430 chores an other farm work to noon. Free time hunting, fishing, trapping, tanning hides until 1600 then chores, supper an free again until 2200. Sunday up at 0430 chores, then free to 0830 bath, church, home at 1230 eat an free to 1630 chores, supper, bath, family time, bed at 2100 an start the week over.
Bought powder an caps at 12yo all the time for blowing stumps an such, hardware guy always ask if we were having fun. Never understood that until we used a stick one Saturday afternoon on some wood chucks. Now w/o gov permission I'd go to jail for having powder, I'm the same person. Who changed what? Not me.

At 18 I was playing tag for keeps. Be careful of that you wish, you might regret it.

 

[MosesTheTank]

Great post, Tucker. And all the rest of you guys are making me overly sentimental too.

I pocketed a fishing lure at a K-Mart when I was 8. What my dad did to me then would send him to prison today. I earned the scorn of my uncles and it stung like hell because I loved and respected them. They put me to work on their shrimp and oyster boats. At age 10 I returned to that same K-Mart and bought a Marlin 22 with the money I earned laboring and baking in the sun of southeast Louisiana marshes. We rode our bikes through a lot of neighborhoods out to the swamp with rifles slung across our backs to hunt rabbits and shoot turtles.

At 12 I bought a Savage Enfield. Our usual ammo supplier (a local grocery store) having no 303 we rode BMX bikes over to Puglias Sporting Goods where they wouldn't sell us a box because we weren't 18. We sat outside until we found some guys willing to purchase it for us. They found it funny because at first they thought we were going to ask them to buy beer, which they would not have done.

When old enough to drive (15) we traveled far and wide to hunt and fish. No adults. When things broke and we were left stranded in the marsh or in bum-fuck-nowhere Mississippi we fixed things and moved on and had fun doing it. On the few occasions we really got stuck and someone had to come get us we were relentlessly made fun of for being incompetent.

From the period between getting my license through freshman year of college there were very few days I did not have either that Enfield and/or a Stevens 311A in the car. Many of my friends carried more than that.

We had fights, and like a lot of guys here it was not unusual for those fights to turn into long lasting friendships. It was a healthy way of sorting things out.

We had bottle rocket wars that escalated into the manufacture of homemade cannons that launched a variety of projectiles from tennis balls and potatoes to discarded seafood. We had IEDs and homemade armor. No one went too far and no one got seriously injured, which to this day I find incredible. On occasion we had the kid that seemed a little off and caused an uneasy feeling when they didn't seem to know when to stop. They were usually less capable, which made them more dangerous. If we couldn't sort it out we could turn to an older sibling or adult to make sure no one got killed. Other than for those engaged no ones personal property was ever damaged and no one other than willing participants were fired upon.

At one point my family had 5 generations alive and guys at every age had similar stories about guns, combat with friends, learning how to work on things mechanical, and lessons learned the hard way. Story telling between from the depression era generation through to mine (a teenager in the 80's) had many common threads that bonded us in spite of vastly differing pop-culture. Speaking to my nieces and nephews now I find almost no such commonalities. When I do find them I cherish it and do what I can to explore it.

I was competitive in sports and in the classroom. There were a few teams I played on where the only reason some kid made the team was because his dad was the coach or their family owned the business that sponsored the team. This was a lesson. I worked hard and worried myself sick to get into a competitive high school where the price of admission was purely grades and test scores. My freshman year we were hit with a lawsuit that eventually made genetic characteristics an admissions qualifier. This was a bigger lesson.

Also in my freshman year the state had mandated that kids showing aberrant behavior get a visit from a social worker. During a baseball game with a rival high school I told the opposing coach what I thought of him and his family in the most flowery language I could dig up. He kept accusing us of cheating and I'd had enough. The next week I got called to the office and had a chat with one of those social workers. I knew what I did was wrong and was the result of letting go of self-discipline. She should have dressed me down just like my coach did. Maybe she should have threatened me with being tossed from school. Instead, once she learned that my parents were going through the turmoil of a divorce she made excuses for me and said the behavior wasn't my fault.

That is exactly how you unmake a child. That is how you undo the good done by so many others. That is the offering of a license to act like a jackass because you can offload the fault onto someone else. And that is how shit came to be wrecked, on the sports field and in the classroom. I couldn't believe what she was telling me and thought she might have been searching for a way to let me off the hook for some reason I couldn't identify. When I finally realized that she was serious I was shocked. I didn't tell my dad about this incident because I knew he would have told the principle how fucked up it was.

I don't mean to over simplify. But pandemics are diagnosed in tiny test tubes and in that tiny moment of my life I knew there was a twisted force at work in the chair across from me. It has since spread and multiplied and everything in my life that had served to teach lessons became, in the eyes of the then blossoming PC movement, diagnosed disorder. And since then it has gone from disorder to felony.

Recently I have payed more attention to kids outside of my immediate family and social circle and sought to positively influence the willing. More on this in another thread.

 

[lash]

Some great posts in this thread. I was reminded of how my father would deal with attitude and insubordination when I was a teen. He would send me out to chop wood. I chopped a lot of wood for some reason. He would always say that firewood warms you up three times; once when you cut the log, once when you split the wood and then again when you burn it. I have to say that there is a fourth time, when the memories of all of that wood splitting and the lessons learned warm my soul.

To this day, I still like to split wood, especially if I'm mad at something/someone, lol.

 

[MosesTheTank]

Some great posts in this thread. I was reminded of how my father would deal with attitude and insubordination when I was a teen. He would send me out to chop wood. I chopped a lot of wood for some reason. He would always say that firewood warms you up three times; once when you cut the log, once when you split the wood and then again when you burn it. I have to say that there is a fourth time, when the memories of all of that wood splitting and the lessons learned warm my soul.

To this day, I still like to split wood, especially if I'm mad at something/someone, lol.

That is funny. My dad had me shovel mud. In the swampy land I grew up in yards became uneven and lumpy because the soil is somewhat fluid. If you want a smooth lawn sooner or later you will need to even it out with mud. Our lawn took 4 cubic yards to smooth out. A dump truck offloads it onto the lawn and you just go at it with a shovel and wheelbarrow. My dad volunteered me for a lot of mud shoveling in response to me stepping too far outside the lines.

My wife saw a pic of me from when I was about 15 and commented that it may not have been healthy for me to hit the weights so hard at that age. For a long time I told her those were shoulders built of mud and that mud builds character. For years she thought it was just one of the many unintelligible and meaningless things I said until I explained the shoveling.

 

[shipereyes445]

Nepotism is a huge problem now adays thouhh it been existing in Rome for years.
Rich folks give they kids hand outs and if their kids are not working with them. They are working with their rich friend.

 

[Rthur]

Yeah Right.
That's a photo of myself and my three brothers, circa 1963?

We were raised by parents who loved us, but who also kept us in line with hands, switches, belts, and groundings as needed.
We played outside mostly.
Sports - Games like kick the can, hide and seek, tag, football, basketball, baseball, and whatever else we could find to consume our time and energy.
We challenged each other to races and wrestling matches to determine who was the best.
We got into scuffles at school, and the adults let us settle them before taking us to the office.
A teacher would spank us just like a parent or grandparent would, and we knew it, and we respected it.
We played with fire, fireworks, chemicals, bows and arrows, BB guns, cap guns, and even an old Civil War sword and bayonet.
We pretended to shoot each other with toy guns and cap guns. We knew it was pretend.
We built forts in the woods.
We fished and explored wildernesses on our own.
We threw rocks at each other.
We got bitten and stung by everything that was available to bite and sting a kid back then, except snakes, which we killed on sight.
We climbed trees, ladders, buildings, and water towers without safety gear.
We rode bikes without helmets or pads.
We got in fights with each other and with other kids from the neighborhood.
We knew exactly who could whip who, and that order was respected, but routinely challenged.
We'd fight one day and be back playing with each other the next. No hard feelings.
We went to school and pledged allegiance to our flag.
We went to church, begrudgingly, and behaved, listened, and sat still and quiet.
We came to supper when called and we ate everything put before us, never once requesting something that wasn't there, because that would get you nothing, and something was always better than nothing.
We were poor by today's standards, but we didn't know it, so we didn't think anyone owed us anything. There were no programs. We had what our parents could provide, period.
Our parents taught us that work begets money and that study begets knowledge, and the two together can take you as far as you want to go.
We mowed grass and did other chores.
We picked up discarded bottles and turned them in for a few cents deposit.
When I was 8 I bought my own BB gun with my own money, earned from cutting grass for neighbors.
When I was 14 I worked sunup to sundown in the tobacco fields.
When I was 14 I walked through town with a shotgun or a 22 semi-automatic rifle on my shoulder, to go hunting with buddies, and no one gave it a second thought.
When I was 18 I bought myself a Marlin 336 Lever action rifle in 30-30 caliber, my first firearms purchase independent of parental assistance.
I drove to school, in my own car purchased with my own money, with guns and ammunition in my vehicle, to be used for after school hunting with my friends.
I also bought my girlfriend and diamond and asked her to marry me, which she did, one week after graduating high school.
This June will be 40 years together, and we're still crazy about each other. We had an argument once. I think it was 1980. Don't recall what it was about.
We worked together for 7 years to get to to the point that we could afford a child.
A couple of years later we added another one, because the first one needed someone to boss around and protect.
We instilled them our beliefs and morals and sent them on their way. They're more educated than we are, but not nearly as smart.

Now you go back through the above list and take out all of the things that liberals have taken away from our culture; like discipline, child labor, the ability to learn that stupid hurts, fighting, unsupervised kids playing, praying in school, pledging allegiance to a flag in order to unify us all towards one common goal; and you tell me again how guns are the problem, and why 18 year olds aren't mature enough or emotionally developed enough to handle and purchase firearms.

Same Same.
Our version of the tobacco fields were walking beans and bailing hay.
Started walking beans when my head/hat was above them.
Honestly can't remember my age, less than 10.
Hay came later.
Our town had a daily siren at 12:00 so we knew it was lunch time.
Headed home when the street lights came on.

R

 

[Slowfire]

Great post!! Walk back in time. Thanks guys!

 

[Foul Mike]

This has been a GREAT thread. Thanks Tucker, and I am going to let you off on hosting the Sniper's Hide Mud Rasslin, motorcycle racein, BBQ. potato gun launch and all kinds of general fuckery held at your place that I usually post about this time of the year when Spring Fever comes around. The past posts about that have all been all in fun and everyone put in what kind of event could be held and how to bring earth moving equipment etc. to alter you landscape and rid you of all of those weeds that grow in orderly rows and how to dig shitters on your place in various spots. Those threads were great fun and would go on and on as we all tried to best each other at your expense.

However, I have come to the conclusion, from all of the above posts, that if an event like that were ever to come about and occur it would be written up in history where a whole lot of Assholes from all over the globe got together and had one of the greatest times ever and all could get along with each other, no matter what age, race or religion, and the stories told should all go into a book of how things should be done. We seem to all think alike.
It seems to me that we all have some sort or another of kinds of thoughts and memories that are held by each of us and the stories told around a campfire would be more than enough to fill up a book.
Regards, Foul Mike

 

[tnichols]

Same Same.
Our version of the tobacco fields were walking beans and bailing hay.
Started walking beans when my head/hat was above them.
Honestly can't remember my age, less than 10.
Hay came later.
Our town had a daily siren at 12:00 so we knew it was lunch time.
Headed home when the street lights came on.

R

This ^^^. Add shelling corn out of flat bottom cribs. I was right there with ya’ R, just a little further west.

 

[shipereyes445]

 

[Rthur]

This ^^^. Add shelling corn out of flat bottom cribs. I was right there with ya’ R, just a little further west.

Yep, been there done that.
A local older gentleman would bring down two Amish fellers with their sheller.
Always helped them and got the cobs for "free".
Also forgot corn detasseling .

R

 

[rookie7]

Based on today’s society and children and teenagers and based on what parents DONT do - my opinion is it won’t hurt anyone to wait until they are 21 to buy an AR-15.

That opinion is in reference to your AVERAGE adolescent. It’s not an absolute.

I am very similar to the above posters. I bought my Daisy BB gun at 7 with my own money. Grew up on a farm hunting and shooting my whole life.

I base my opinion on my 19 years in public education where I have taught and coached over 10,000 students and athletes. I have taught all ages from K to 12th.

I can tell you without a doubt the moral fabric of society is hanging on by a worn out thread.

It will not surprise me at all when God shakes his head in disgust and pushes the reset button.

 

[Snuby642]

The day you complete basic training you should have full rights!
No shitty state or federal law should be allowed to deny that.
Being old enough to get your ass shot off, and signing up (or drafted) to do so are two different things!

Here's a little toast for you.
Go to the VFW and order three shots for each, goes like this.

"For those that serve" drink the shot.
"For those that couldn't " drink the shot.
"For those that wouldn't " turn the shot upside down.

I would make that the last drink of the night, leave a big tip and haul ass.

 

[rookie7]

The day you complete basic training you should have full rights!.

I don’t disagree with that.

 

[Snuby642]

There have been a lot of kids at my house over the years.
Some didn't turn out so good, some were average
A good portion of the best went on to serve.
I tought most of them to shoot because thier parents weren't worth much.
I blame that on the slackers from my own generation, and the next just got worse.

We didn't get any time out cards in my day.
Most of the best young adults I know or meet are vets.

 

[Cheese]

This might be kind of relevatnt to the subject...
Couple years ago at the range I had a Scout Master teaching the basics to his pack with a .22 rifle.
I was a bit of a distraction shooting an AR dialing in an EOTech.
I asked if any of his group wanted to get a tour or even shoot the AR under direct supervision.
Yes, was the answer but he had to make it an "unofficial" event under Scout rules.
Every one of those boy's got a history lesson, close up and a couple supervised shots of the weapon.
Smiles all around and many "Thank You Sir's" later later he asked why I did it for them.
I just told him someone did that for me with a lever action when I was a kid and I never forgot it.
Actually it somehow helped me to join the Military when I was an 18 year old pup.
I didn't ride off into the sunset or anything but, I did feel like million bucks on the ride home.

 

[oneshot86]

I'm 35 , grew up about as poor as can be . My mom worked three jobs to support me , my shithawk father and his misc. girlfriends. My father wasn't around 29 days of the month , so little me had to take up the slack.

My mom would run the chainsaw and I'd load the wood . Once we got home she'd cook the squirrels we shot and I'd stack the wood in the shed . Everybody in our family was better off than us and they all hunted , they would bring us 8-10 deer and a bear or 2 every fall . I was a semi pro butcher at 10 years old and developed a taste and respect for game that still rings true today.

My son is on a similar road , but it's a little less bumpy due to the fact that he has me and his mother to light the way .

I haven't seen my father in 18 years, and it won't bother me at all if I never see him again. If I do , I'll politely break his jaw .

you are a stud

 

[Snuby642]

Yea you never forget running a range full of scouts.
Every rangemaster should try it once.
It's nice when they recognize you years later.

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Fantastic post Tucker...just fantastic. It takes me back.

 

[mackdrvr]

I turned 18 in the Marine Corps, if you called me a kid I’d bust you in the chops.

I was 17 when I joined the Corps. My parents had to co-sign for me. Semper Fi brother.

 

[lash]

And yet now you would not be legally able to own a firearm until age 21. Such a glaring disparity that is being almost completely ignored.

 

[rockranger77]

This is a great post. I grew up in the 60s and 70s my Grandfather was a Ranger in WW11,my uncle was in Vietnam, I spent 15 years Airborne Infantry. My wife is 19yrs younger than me and doesn't understand my rants and raves about the social predicament we are in as a society. My 17yr old just ( #4 of 5) just enlisted on the split option into the Army and I understand some ppl concern about age and maturity and firearm ownership. Bottom line, only law abiding citizens obey the laws and more laws will not stop law breakers. We have our own elected officials who disregard the rule of law and think they are above the law and how can we expect our kids to understand the rule of law when the watch on the media our government break the law with no accountability or prosecution.

Sorry guys I know I have gotten of course. My bad

Thanks Tucker for the fond memiores of a time past when I could walk down the side of the road with a 410 on my shoulder and a pistol on my hip and have local LEO stop and ask if I had any luck on my hunt.

I have to agree with Rookie7. One day God's patients will run out.