I remember

[dddaver]

I still remember listening to the first Ali-Frazer fight in my bed as a kid. Ali lost. I beat the shit out of my pillow.

WLS used to duct all the way from the windy city to central NY at night back in the 60s.

WOUR FM in Utica NY in '73 played kick-ass rock and roll, and simulcasted Don Kirshner's Midnight Special, or was that his Rock Concert?, sometimes too. Broadcast in STEREO too. Whoa BIG TIME!

 

[nukklehead]

pretty good stretch for wls there dave.. yeah I listened to them too on cloudy nights bout 250 mile away.. cant believe they made it that far.. wonder how far they {wls} could be heard.. any takers for there max distance in the days... ?? Kind of seems like short wave radio now.. lol...

 

[oldchuck]

I remember Haight Street in 1968. I attended my second riot that summer. My first was Detroit 1967. Then there was the Democratic National Convention in Chicago....

 

[armedoldhippy]

anyone here remember WOWO in Ft. Wayne Indiana? it used to be the only decent music on the radio after 11:00 pm ...

 

[Perpetual Nooch]

I remember ...

I remember ...

... back when all pop was in glass bottles on which you paid deposit, going around the neighbourhoods bottle-collecting.

It was usually on summer vacation. Needing money for whatever, usually hockey cards or pinball, a group of us kids would ask people if they had any empties they would like to donate. We'd take them back to the store in exchange for the cash.

We were around 8-11 years old at the time; whoever had a wagon would grab it and we'd go knocking on doors. We'd get a lot of people giving us a bottle or two. Once in a while we'd hit a mother lode and someone would have dozens of empties hoarded that they wanted gone.

Usually get 5 or 10 cents per bottle for the little single serving bottles. Then for the bigger 750ml and 1.5L, I think it went up to 15 or 20 cents by the time plastic 2L took over.

For kids, we made quite a bit of money like this back in the day.

 

[LowFalutin]

I remember...

I remember...

...when I used to remember... where I left my keys and wallet.

 

[rbt]

I grew up rural very rural I can remember riding my bicycle 5 miles to a 7-11 to get an ICEE and a box of 22 long rifle. To shoot gophers and take them to the feed store there was a bounty on them as the irrigation cannels were elevated. The gophers would dig under them and make them flood. A box was $1.25 and the big ICEE as $0.65 and a gopher paid $2.00. I got a good chum and a single shot Remington I made close to $140.00 that summer. Thought I was rich seems they didn't offer bounty at the West Valley Feed the next summer as they didn't have many gophers left with the ranchers and their dogs in the hunt as well. Can Imagine what would happen now if a 12 year old rode his StingRay bike down the street with a 22 over the handle bars.

So I then went for Muskrat down by the river. Un be known to people around the area the state sold some property to American Sportsman for them to install a private Fish Hatchery for resorts they owned 25 miles north or better. Well I suppose people can Imagine a 12 years old in a fish hatchery with a 22 rifle. I was having an outstanding day till the police & owner showed up. I didn't get in trouble as it was a 3 strand barded wire fence no signage posted I got back my rifle when my dad smoked a brown and took it to the police station. Times have changes

 

[dddaver]

Cool story bro. I grew up in a small town myself, 35,000. We even had sidewalks.

I had a .22 too, when I was about 12. They only let me shoot BBs and pellets before that. Crossman pump was the shit. Could shoot between the legs of those standing army men and hit the crouching army man that was behind him. Accurate! I bagged a shit-load of birds in my time too.

Sweet weapon that .22 though, cherry stock. Target shooting design. Fucking ACCURATE. I always liked that.

I had a grade school friend whose family was rich, his grandfather had started in the house heating oil business way back, maybe in the 1920's? That guy always had the nicest shit. Great toys, and lots of 'em. Later cool BB gun, expensive mini-bike, later Honda 350 too, and a new VW Beetle too, whatever. You get the picture. But this guy also had a .22 when we were about 12 too. We went "hunting" (and toking when we got about 15) a lot. Nice guy overall.

We used to go sit and chirp, by sucking in air over your teeth. Then a chipmunk would pop it's head up to see what was making that noise, and you could get it with a head-shot. Once this freak lined up the 7 dead chipmunks we shot on a big flat rock like we were big game hunters in Africa or something. He also once left this big fat ground-hog he shot by my old car after we had split up while hunting, so I wouldn't miss it. Fucking gross! I quit "hunting" shortly after that last bullshit, of him leaving that dead carcass so I could see what a stud he was. Fucking WEIRD.

My best buddy in high school liked to hunt deer too. Stayed with it. Now he bow hunts mostly, and won a black powder long rifle a few years ago in a contest. Now he also hunts with that sometimes.

I got most of your story except about your Dad smoking a brown before he went and got your rifle back. Is that a cigar? He didn't smoke blunts back then did he?

 

[xavier7995]

Hightimes was "the" authority in all things weed. I had a centerfold from it on my wall that was just a lb brick of mexi, seeds and all in the foreground.

edit: my uncle was a crazy hunter/outdoorsman/freaked out old hippy and would give me all kinds of age inappropriate gifts. Turn 6, well...here is a foot long hunting knife. Turn 8, well kid, you just graduated to a 20 guage. To his credit, he did insist I knew what I was doing with all of them and enrolled me in a gun safety course.

 

[rbt]

Cool story bro. I grew up in a small

I got most of your story except about your Dad smoking a brown before he went and got your rifle back. Is that a cigar? He didn't smoke blunts back then did he?

Smoked a German Brown Trout in his Smoke House Dad Was famous for that. I didn't get around "MARIJUANA" till my older brother told me what the Vaquero's were bringing up with them to work the ranches and smoke. Then I found out about the WACKY WEED on a spring fleecing of the sheep some Vaqueros came down to the river and partied.
I remember $0.19 a gallon gas
jiffy peanut butter sold kites for 10cents. cigarettes were 23 cents a pack. And the local employer was a smelter the High School Team was called the "SMELTERITES" and proud of it. they would sell Ski lift passes at the School Lunch Counter
and run the school busses to help the
Ski industry I can remember have 2 winters with little snow and collecting food boxes and shoes for the families that owned the lifts and runs now they don't want for anything.

The one thing I once heard from my neighbor that I don't hear any more. My neighbor is a good man he has a flat side to him on his fence his tractor his wife's weight but never on his honesty. I miss that chat on the fence walking the cannels doing the weeding and Pheasant season. After I did my time in the service I gave up all hunting My dad was such a bad driver he killed more deer with a 55 Chevy than we ever did with a rifle but we feed them in hard winters too. I have never loved a weapon I have never loved the kill.

 

[stoned40yrs]

I was always into old things as a kid. The relics of the past looked pretty cool to me in the 1950s. I spent a lot of time talking to old people, people in their 70s and 80s. I could talk to them for hours about what it was like growing up in the 1800s. They all had cool stories. While they missed their youth, none of them missed the 1800s. Living was very hard in their youth and they all had lost family members to disease or accidents. While they all appreciated my interest they probably thought I was nuts to want to have lived in the 1800s.

 

[gekolite]

my grandfather lost his first wife and child during childbirth in the late 1800's after that he went to medical school , to insure as much as he could that would not happen again .

 

[7thson]

Going to the store as a child with a note to buy cigarettes for my dad.

 

[nukklehead]

anyone here remember WOWO in Ft. Wayne Indiana? it used to be the only decent music on the radio after 11:00 pm ...

missed that one armed... yeah WOWO was the bomb for the eastern midwest... lots of power and after dark would go a long way... thanks for the memory!!

 

[oldchuck]

missed that one armed... yeah WOWO was the bomb for the eastern midwest... lots of power and after dark would go a long way... thanks for the memory!!

XERB, Los Angeles, dude. The Wolfman growling me all across the country, 1970.

 

[Perpetual Nooch]

Chestnut Fights.

Once the big chestnut trees started dropping their seed pods, it was time to head to the spots and collect a bunch, looking for the next Champion.

Poke a nail through the centre of the nut and thread in a shoelace. Tie a knot in the end of the shoelace and there you go. Each player takes turns slamming the other guy's chestnut, who lays it in a slight depression on the ground. The winner is the one who breaks the other guy's chestnut so that it falls off the shoelace.

Each fight you win, the chestnut ages one year. So if you have a 6 year old it won six fights. The highest I ever had was a 12 year old. My buddy had a 15 one time. It was hard as a rock.

Who else did chestnut fights?

 

[dddaver]

The closest thing to that chestnut deal, was crab apple fights we had as a kid. Winging them at each other. Them suckers hurt! But if you could get one to explode on somebody's head, you won. But those green, unripe ones, just hurt. To play fair, you weren't allowed to pick any, just throw the ones that had dropped. I learned a valuable lesson there, not everybody plays fair.

 

[Perpetual Nooch]

The closest thing to that chestnut deal, was crab apple fights we had as a kid. Winging them at each other. Them suckers hurt! But if you could get one to explode on somebody's head, you won. But those green, unripe ones, just hurt. To play fair, you weren't allowed to pick any, just throw the ones that had dropped. I learned a valuable lesson there, not everybody plays fair.

Ya, we had crabapple fights too. Different sort of deal. We used slingshots the shoot the crabapples. I've had welts last for a week. Sort of dangerous looking back on it because no one wore eye or face protection.

We also made Flintstone guns. Take a piece of broken hockey stick and hammer two nails, or screws, into one end in a v formation. At the other end nail in a clothespin. Tie together a bunch of thick elastic bands with a piece of leather at the end, to hold your projectile. Load it into your clothespin and your ready to head out into the wilderness.

 

[dddaver]

Kids have No fear. And little sense sometimes. Somebody had the bright idea of having bb gun fights one day. I just happened not to be there that day. My buddy got shot just below the eye, raising a huge welt. His mother put an abrupt end to that.

There were 2 brothers who lived 2 houses down that got into some disagreement and they started throwing darts at each other. That ended when one brother caught a dart completely through one of his fingers. That same guy also ran around barefoot all the time. One time he was coming over to get me and I just heard him yelling my name. I looked out the door and I could just see half of him bent over around the corner of the house, frantically waving to me. He had stepped on a screw. He later was a barefoot field goal kicker on the football team.

We made slingshots out of bent coat hangers, or tree branch Ys, and rubber bands or bicycle tire tubes cut up. The tongue of an old shoe cut up made a great pouch.

I never had a bike helmet either, ever. Nobody ever died, and I don't even remember ever hearing about anyone getting brained in a bike accident either. Kids these days just don't seem to have that kind of fun we had back then. Too PC.

 

[noyd666]

yep remember them good old days, made an oversized slingshot once just to see if she would fly,she did ,first flight, we had a tree full of granny smiths that finished up on roofs far and wide, same old shoe tongues were turned into hinges for shed doors etc. kids these days are made out of soap.cracker[fireworks] guns were good fun, aim and look away.