It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum

Topics => History => Topic started by: Libertas on April 21, 2018, 12:53:06 PM

Title: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Libertas on April 21, 2018, 12:53:06 PM
(https://images2.imgbox.com/da/88/CBwPU3aO_o.jpg)

I had one of these...no orange parts...had a matching plastic helmet too.  A few years later my little sister would take them both and play with them.

Ahhh...those were good days then...had no idea they had an expiration date...

 :'(
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Pandora on April 21, 2018, 05:00:08 PM
Everything has an expiration date.  It's good for kids that they don't know that.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Alphabet Soup on April 22, 2018, 10:19:20 AM
Never had one. Couldn't afford it. But I had the great equalizer: a Grandpa who know how to woodcraft. We had no end of weaponry - from broadblade swords to pistols to rifles, he could make them all. They didn't actually fire nerf pellets or make noise but Grandpa knew that our imaginations could fill in the gap.

What would Grandpa think if today's kid were to ask him to carve a X-box?
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: John Florida on April 22, 2018, 07:46:03 PM
  The days when you played cowboys and Indians or God forbid WAR!
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: patentlymn on April 22, 2018, 08:31:25 PM
  The days when you played cowboys and Indians or God forbid WAR!

The arrows worked better if you took the suction cups off and put them in the pencil sharpener.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: IronDioPriest on April 22, 2018, 09:14:51 PM
  The days when you played cowboys and Indians or God forbid WAR!

The arrows worked better if you took the suction cups off and put them in the pencil sharpener.

 ::hysterical::
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: IronDioPriest on April 22, 2018, 09:15:40 PM
We used to have BB gun fights. We were smart enough to wear goggles, unless there were more guys than goggles, then we'd just wear sunglasses.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Libertas on April 23, 2018, 01:26:15 PM
We played mostly GI's vs whoever...commies, nazis, japs,...

Would have ground forts, tree forts.  Some guys had snazzy store-bough wrist-rockets...everybody else made their own.  Come war-fighting time we had a rule of no-rocks, only dirt clods.  OK, sometimes they had little rocks in 'em...and we would make artillery-launchers using old bicycle tire inner-tubes.  We got pretty wild.  Of course somebody would take too hard a hit and a truce would be called.  Don't recall any serious or approaching serious injuries...guys would use whatever sports or hand-fashioned armor to protect themselves.  Polish-cannon's fashioned from old soup cans and shooting flaming tennis balls was fun (as long as the fuzz lasted, 2-3 shots, then it was like a crusty meteor)...till some kid took one in the eye-socket...eye was OK, worst shiner I ever saw though!
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: AlanS on April 23, 2018, 05:15:11 PM
  Come war-fighting time we had a rule of no-rocks, only dirt clods.

Some of those had the consistency of rocks. I remember that well. Got hit with a few.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Syzygy on April 23, 2018, 09:33:02 PM
Almost all my early Christmases were gun themed,  mostly of the wild west variety .

The earliest I remember me and older bro got Wyatt Earp outfits,  gun not included. 

Next year,   it was a Paladin guns and holster set (two pistols,  although Boone only wore one in the series).  Sweet.  Real leather holsters and even came with the "Have Gun--Will Travel" calling cards. 

One year,  bro got a half size replica of the "Mare's Leg" Steve McQueen carried in the  Wanted: Dead or Alive series.

Another year,  he got a chrome Colt .45 replica w/imitation ivory grips that looked so real,  a cop would probably shoot the kid playing with it today.  And I got a huge book:  Great American Guns.  It told of notable firearms through history,  starting with the Kentucky/Pennsylvania long rifle,  and accompanied by a true short story for each. That thing was awesome.  Me and bro wore the damn thing out reading it...over and over and....

One year,  I got a Bat Masterson outfit,  complete with cane,  derby, and that little .38 (I think it was) he carried. 

The real beaut was a full sized replica of an M-1.  Mostly plastic but still realistic looking.   Parents did a real disservice in getting only one.  Anytime a war would break out (almost daily in the summer),  always a fuss twixt me and bro over who gets to use the M-1.

The gun of my dreams I never got:  The Rifleman's rifle.  I idolized Chuck Conners.  I did get a Rifleman sweatshirt though.  Proudly wore it on my first ever school day. 

And I had a younger cousin who did have one,  fortunately.  He was kind enough to loan me his,  loaded up with a fresh roll of caps,  so I could go out on his family's carport,  and re-enact the opening of The Rifleman...over and over and over again,  until I ran out of ammo (exhausted the roll of caps).  Sweet.   


 
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Libertas on April 24, 2018, 06:59:02 AM
Oh year...cap guns, the cowboy variety...people forget why caps came in rolls, break one segment off, stick it in the gun like a roll if film.  IIRC one style gun took it's own kind of caps, real pain to find.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: IronDioPriest on April 24, 2018, 03:07:51 PM
  Come war-fighting time we had a rule of no-rocks, only dirt clods.

Some of those had the consistency of rocks. I remember that well. Got hit with a few.

We used to have dirt clod wars too... Standing on top of dirt piles from new construction excavation... lobbing clods. Used to take special delight when the clod I grabbed had a rock in it.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: patentlymn on April 24, 2018, 03:20:07 PM

I think I had a belt buckle with a derringer in it. Or maybe I just wanted one. I can't remember.  I know I had a derringer.

I watched the recent movie The Florida Project, maybe on Amazon Prime. A bunch of poor, free range kids living in a cheap motel near Disneyworld. Not exactly like me growing up but they were free.
Even their screw ups seemed real to me.  How weere they supposed to know that the fireplace in the abandoned condos was not a real fireplace?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQ-NH1rRT4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQ-NH1rRT4)
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: patentlymn on April 24, 2018, 03:22:05 PM
  Come war-fighting time we had a rule of no-rocks, only dirt clods.

Some of those had the consistency of rocks. I remember that well. Got hit with a few.

We used to have dirt clod wars too... Standing on top of dirt piles from new construction excavation... lobbing clods. Used to take special delight when the clod I grabbed had a rock in it.

We had rules too. No rocks in snow balls. I remember the giant snow mounds in the middle of culdesacs. Perfect for king of the hill.
Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Libertas on April 24, 2018, 07:16:53 PM
Yeah I remember making snow forts and using hot water to firm up the walls...and to shore up the tunnels between two because you always needed a fallback position in case your lead one suffered battle damage.

Title: Re: I saw this and was transported back in time to the happiness of my youth
Post by: Alphabet Soup on April 24, 2018, 07:47:35 PM
Ha! I remember one of the younger kids (like me) getting hit with a snow-covered rock. I also remember my older brother and his buddies pantsing the dude and burying him up to the neck in snow.

I bet that guy still pulls the wings offa flies.