The Good Ol Days

[frankwright]

Yes, I remember the good old days. Walking in the woods before daylight with a cheap d cell battery as bright as a candle. Feet frozen in cheap rubber boots with cotton socks.
Cotton long johns and a barely insulated jacket made sure I was too cold to nod off.
Hammering big spikes into a tree for steps with a 3 lb hammer while hanging on with one hand.
Good Times!

I do believe like everything else we have let it become to modern. Bass fishing is like watching a video game. Hunting is getting close to that.
We can simplify hunting and probably still kill as many deer.

 

[Railroader]

If I remember correctly the Stevens guns were sold by Sears & Roebuck? I think they were bought out by Savage maybe not sure but I knew lots of folks back in the day who had guns that they bought from Sears. And from Montgomery Ward also.

My Stevens 20 came from Western Auto...

 

[Stob]

Hecks sold them too, they unfortunately went out of business in the 90s, was a great store.

Heck's - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Savage bought out Stevens in the 1920.

First ”new” gun I ever owned, my dad bought for me at Heck’s in Huntington. It was a Winchester 12 gauge pump. I don’t remember the model #number.

That's where my mawmaw would take me for school clothes back in the day before shipping me back south each summer.

 

[jbogg]

Man, a lot of you guys were living my dream. I grew up never knowing any hunters, or even outdoorsman for that matter, but from an early age I asked for subscriptions to outdoor life, field and stream, and sports afield for every birthday.

We moved to a suburb north of Atlanta in the mid 1960s. I- 285 has not been completed, and Georgia 400 wasn’t even thought of. We lived on about half an acre with houses all around us, but my house backed up to the “Big Woods”. Even had a creek flowing down the boundary. I wasn’t old enough yet to start cutting grass and making my own money, so I saved all my birthday and Christmas money until I had the $28 to carry over to service merchandise and purchase a Crossman 760 pump action with a real wood stock that I had been drooling over in the catalog for about six months. It would shoot either pellets, or BBs, and BBs were much cheaper so that was my ammo of choice. I was absolutely heck on songbirds and squirrels for a few years.

I had to go back to the old neighborhood a few weeks ago for a funeral and decided to drive past my old home of 50 years ago. Turns out my big woods was only about 1.5 acres of hardwoods wedged in between a bunch of houses. It wasn’t much, but it lit a fire that still burns red hot to this day.

 

[Danuwoa]

I remember deer hunting with my daddy starting wjrn I was four or five years old. Turkey hunting started about eight when I could be still. Squirrel and rabbit when I was big enough to tell him I wanted to go.

We had some beagles. I was so little I can only remember the names of two of them, a male named Ring and a female named Little Bit. I can remember the sound of those dogs in the distance chasing after a rabbit. I can remember being squirrel hunting with my daddy and him telling me, “Pretend the only way you are gonna eat tonight is if you kill some squirrels.” It helped me understand how to go about the thing.

I r remember shooting bows in the summer evenings getting ready for September and things like taking a sleeping bag to the deer stand in gun season to try to stay warm. I can remember walking out in my daddy’s barn as a boy of about four and seeing red foxes, coons, and Bob cats that he had trapped and thinking my daddy must be Daniel Boone.

I’m still living the good old days. I spend most of my free time in the woods and on the water and I have not experienced any of the waning interest I see some hunters complain about here. I probably love hunting and fishing more than I ever have. My daddy was that way up until the day he drew his last breath and I believe I will be too.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I worked many days in tobacco for family members that I never got one red cent for. I only got paid for working in tobacco when I worked for a local farmer outside of the family. If I made 5 bucks per day I was lucky. When I moved to SC in 1965 down there they were still paying 4 bucks a day for tobacco croppers.

I also picked cotton for one cent per pound.

Same here. And the same with putting up hay. We would also pick up nightcrawlers, dig ginseng and other herbs and roots, and trap muskrats, minks, coons, and other critters for spending money.

 

[Danuwoa]

We coon hunted with Plotts which are still the only coon hound for me. I’m about to get me a couple and start taking my nephew.

We had an old green canvas JC Higgins tent that my daddy bought at the hardware store. It seemed huge to me when I was little. It went on a lot of camping trips with us deer and turkey hunting. I spent some cold nights in that tent but you just had had to dang be tough. Some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten came off my daddy’s Coleman stove.

 

[sprewett]

Yes, I remember the good old days. Walking in the woods before daylight with a cheap d cell battery as bright as a candle. Feet frozen in cheap rubber boots with cotton socks.
Cotton long johns and a barely insulated jacket made sure I was too cold to nod off.
Hammering big spikes into a tree for steps with a 3 lb hammer while hanging on with one hand.
Good Times!

I do believe like everything else we have let it become to modern. Bass fishing is like watching a video game. Hunting is getting close to that.
We can simplify hunting and probably still kill as many deer.

I completely forgot about climbing those spike hammered into a tree until I read your story. I would take my gloves off for fear of slipping and goodness I remember them rascals being cold and the transition from them to the wooden platform a death wish.

 

[hawkeye123]

Still got my 20 gauge New England Arms single shot..spent most of my Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays of my youth at my grandfather's farm in Wilkes Co Ga walking through pastures & woods usually with a beagle or setter..a great day when we had a "mixed bag" ..had hunting vest with game pauch , some times we got a couple of doves a quail..a rabbit & couple of squirrels too..a couple of ponds would sometimes get lucky & jump a woodie 2 also..tried this recently & got skunked at fil farm..still had fun..love seeing my dog run through the woods shotgun in hand..I also always carried slugs & .00 buckshot & never used em either!!

 

[elfiii]

This thread is a great walk down memory lane. I still got the single shot Savage .410 my mother learned on that I learned on that my kids learned on. I killed my first duck with that gun 62 years ago the day before Christmas Eve and I remember it like it was yesterday.

It's old, the shell extractor needs to be replaced which will require some skillful fabrication since you can't get the part anymore and it needs to be re-blued but it still shoots like good as new. If I only had some grandkids!

 

[jaydawg]

^PawPaw!!…I love me sum .410’s….

 

[Duff]

Yea man. My favorite was snow days, when we were released from school early or out for 2 or 3 days. I kept my shotgun at my buddy's house. I would ride the bus home with him or find a ride to his house. There were 2 more close friends that lived within a mile of him. All 4 of us would comb the countryside looking for critters in the snow. Man, we would walk miles and miles.

Fun fun times. I will never forget them.

 

[Triple C]

When I think about the problems we face as a nation and as hunters, I think about how few get to experience a childhood like that. That’s a sad tale.

If you grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, and perhaps to a lesser degree, the ‘70’s, then you most likely grew up as a feral kid, particularly if you grew up in the country.

For the most part, those days are gone forever. Very few “country kids” these days are allowed to tote a .410 or .22 thru the woods at 12 yrs old unsupervised. Not to mention helmets when riding a bike or dirt bike, carrying a pocket knife, camping out with buddies along the side of a creek, etc.

 

[elfiii]

If you grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, and perhaps to a lesser degree, the ‘70’s, then you most likely grew up as a feral kid, particularly if you grew up in the country.

For the most part, those days are gone forever. Very few “country kids” these days are allowed to tote a .410 or .22 thru the woods at 12 yrs old unsupervised. Not to mention helmets when riding a bike or dirt bike, carrying a pocket knife, camping out with buddies along the side of a creek, etc.

Kids today have no idea what they are missing.

 

[The Original Rooster]

We coon hunted with Plotts which are still the only coon hound for me. I’m about to get me a couple and start taking my nephew.

We had an old green canvas JC Higgins tent that my daddy bought at the hardware store. It seemed huge to me when I was little. It went on a lot of camping trips with us deer and turkey hunting. I spent some cold nights in that tent but you just had had to dang be tough. Some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten came off my daddy’s Coleman stove.

A fond memory is the smell of that canvas tent, the whiff of Coleman fuel, lard in the frying pan, and corn meal and fish.

 

[fishfryer]

A fond memory is the smell of that canvas tent, the whiff of Coleman fuel, lard in the frying pan, and corn meal and fish.

A+

 

[Railroader]

If you grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, and perhaps to a lesser degree, the ‘70’s, then you most likely grew up as a feral kid, particularly if you grew up in the country.

For the most part, those days are gone forever. Very few “country kids” these days are allowed to tote a .410 or .22 thru the woods at 12 yrs old unsupervised. Not to mention helmets when riding a bike or dirt bike, carrying a pocket knife, camping out with buddies along the side of a creek, etc.

My grand boys are getting as big a dose of Feral as I can give them.

But it IS TRUE that there is no way I would allow them to do a lot of the things as I was allowed to do at their age...

Examples:

I rode a Honda Z50 to school in the 4th grade.

At 10 I was allowed to camp at the river from Friday after school till Sunday at lunchtime.

I was driving the truck on dog hunting clubs at 12.

I was toting a snuff can full time at 9.

Operating a tractor/bush hog by the age of about 10.

I had my own chainsaw...

I used a Baker Climber. Dad said "Be careful. If you screw up with that thing, it'll kill you."

And on, and on...

 

[Nicodemus]

My grand boys are getting as big a dose of Feral as I can give them.

But it IS TRUE that there is no way I would allow them to do a lot of the things as I was allowed to do at their age...

Examples:

I rode a Honda Z50 to school in the 4th grade.

At 10 I was allowed to camp at the river from Friday after school till Sunday at lunchtime.

I was driving the truck on dog hunting clubs at 12.

I was toting a snuff can full time at 9.

Operating a tractor/bush hog by the age of about 10.

I had my own chainsaw...

I used a Baker Climber. Dad said "Be careful. If you screw up with that thing, it'll kill you."

And on, and on...

Bring them boys over here the second full weekend in January to our Frontier Festival. I`ll teach em how to build a fire by rubbing two sticks together (for real), with flint and steel, how to cook over said fire that they build, how to throw a tomahawk, and plenty of other pre 1840 skills that will come in handy as they grow up.

 

[gma1320]

Bring them boys over here the second full weekend in January to our Frontier Festival. I`ll teach em how to build a fire by rubbing two sticks together (for real), with flint and steel, how to cook over said fire that they build, how to throw a tomahawk, and plenty of other pre 1840 skills that will come in handy as they grow up.

Is that down around where you live at?

 

[Gator89]

Is that down around where you live at?

Frontier Festival.

Article regarding last year's shindig:

A new year of fun kicks off with Frontier Festival at Chehaw

ALBANY — The holidays may be over, but that doesn’t mean the fun is going to stop at Chehaw Park and Zoo. As we get into the new year, exciting

www.albanyherald.com