There was a time. . .ww

I saw this on another forum, and thought it was worth sharing:

There was a time when red ants were a dove hunter’s biggest concern, and you had to wait until noon to start hunting the dove… when most landowners would let you hunt their land just for asking… when deer weren’t the main game to hunt, because there weren’t many, but squirrels and rabbits were plentiful… when a single-shot .22 or .410 shotgun were prized possessions of a young hunter… when carbide headlights were the coon hunter’s light, and you could only see the eyes, and not the whole coon… when a Calcutta pole and a length of line was all you had to fish with… when a trotline was set by swimming it across the river without a boat… when the fishing trips you remembered most were remembered for nights spent on a riverbank with your dad, fighting bugs and listening to the night sounds, not for the huge fish you caught… when your first prized new reel was not a Diawa Whatever, but a Zebco 303… when a package of BB’s for your BB gun could be bought for a nickel, and came in a cellophane package… when .22 shorts were as plentiful on the shelf as .22 Longs and Long Rifles… when you read whatever outdoor magazine you had been passed down by a kerosene lamp… when a 15 hp motor was considered plenty on a boat… when camping was done with a pallet on the ground or, if lucky, in an 8X8 tent… when a pop-up trailer was considered a supreme luxury… when you put a dime in a pay phone to call home to tell them how you were doing… when your camping vehicle was also the family car… when you could camp anywhere you wanted in a national park… when people saw a hunter with a gun and didn’t panic. If you remember most or any of this, you are probably of my generation, a generation you will never see again. Whether it was better or worse than today’s is a matter of perspective. There was a time……

I am not that old and remember almost every bit of that, even remember 35 cent gas

I can relate to all of this ... ... much simpler times!

I think I could add a few to the list ...

I'm under 40, but I have experienced most of that.

My Dad scared the heck out me talking about a 'gas war'. 15 cents a gallon. 5.00 more that filled up my 65 Ford Falcon. Good times.

Yessir, all that, plus gun racks in pickup trucks and camo was a red/black wool shirt...

I remember all of those things as I experienced them first hand. It was a time when hunting was hunting, not shopping. It was a simpler time and am so sorry that my Grand kids, if I ever have any, will not have the opportunity to experience it. Hunting in this fashion is what taught me skills that most folks will never learn. There is no doubt that being raised in this fashion is the reason that I don't want a guide. I want to be turned loose in the middle of a huge ranch or forest and be allowed to "make it or break it" on my own.
While I want to hunt on my own, I must admit that my days of living on the ground or in a dry camp for a week are gone. I like to stay in a warm room with running water.
Adios,
Gary

When I was a kid, I remember a family member(who escapes me) gave me a whole shoe box full of those cellophane BB packs. I thought I was rich. I can remember 8-10 cent gas in Wichita Falls in 1972(+/-). I remember buying cigs for 3o cents a pack and complaining about the price. Cigarette vending machines. The local gunsmith would open a box of rifle or shotgun shells and sell you individual rounds. I remember buying 5 .222 shells for my Dad's rifle or a couple of #4 lead High Brass for goose hunting. Great times I will never see again, nor will my grandkids. We'll have to make other times for them to remember.

I remember as well, a simpler time.

The days of my youth Hunting and fishing in the Sabine river bottom south of Marshall Tx Woolworth Hunting club 8k ac of bottom land and every member related by blood or marriage. You camped in surplus army tents . And got around in Willys jeeps . You hunted squirrel and deer by finding a Pinoak flat and sitting on the ground leaning against a big Oak to break up your outline and sitting still. Used shotguns with buckshot and contrary to popular belief were very successful. Doe were strictly off limits and any buck was a trophy. Had a great uncle and some hillbilly cousins that had hounds and would run deer and hogs and it was a highly coordinated event in the hills, the river bottom was off limits to hunt with dogs. We ate like kings and had fellowship in camp that you just don't have now a days . I drove past that bottom along Hwy 59 a few months ago and where huge old Oaks stood nothing but pine plantation.

I don't remember $.15 gas but I remember shooting .22 shorts because the long rifles got stuck in the breech of my falling block single shot.

We were more skilled back then because we had to be to be successful, I'm thankful of that. But hunting now is so much better in terms of management and even equipment I would never want to go back to those days. We didn't know any different back then. That 15 hp motor on the back of grandpas 16' v hull (we had a 15 hp johnson and then a 9.9 hp evinrude) was great, but I wouldn't give up my 20' center console with the 140 hp on it, I can get further, faster and in a greater variety of conditions than I could before.

You can easily recreate a lot of the old times, leave the tent, phones, gps, etc. at home and rough it. Or not. The choice is up to you.

When we go up in the mountains we stay in tents. Aside from the gps and some of our cook wear it's almost like being back in 1985.

I'm under 30 and have experienced a lot of those things. I grew up living the simple life, we didn't have luxury items of any kind. Heck, my parents bought their first new car when I was 12. It wasn't exactly "nice", it was a 2002 work truck f150 with no bells or whistles, but it had a/c! I didn't have a cell phone til I graduated high school and bought myself one, now every 8yr old has one. Probably not many people grow up now days with even the life I've had. It's sad

No tv, listen to the radio. Games played was what we could think up. The swing, old tire tied in tree, great family times together.

I used to be the remote control for my parents

I'm 36 and can relate a pretty good portion of this.

-I remember when bricks of .22 ammo were ~$5, but you darn sure didn't waste them. The .22 I had was bought by my uncle at a garage sale for $10.
-I bought thousands of daisy BB's that came in little cardboard tubes.
-Nights were spent on the lake shore or the river back in a lawn chair with mesh bottom and a coleman lantern.
-I bought my first non-Zebco Shimano spinning real when I was about 12 at Wal-mart, and probably caught more fish with that rig than any of the "fancier" combos I have today.
-A bag of worms, a canoe, a sack lunch, and a river made for a great summer day's entertainment.
-All outdoor reading I did up until the age of ~18 came from Grandpa's passed down magazines and catalogs.

And finally, we used to take our rifles in our trucks to High School, and think nothing of it because we were heading out to go hog or deer hunting right after school got out. Can't imagine that happening now....

Times have changed and unfortunately not for the better. I sure do enjoy some of the luxuries we have now but I'd give anything to go back to the old way (and I'm not that old).

Yep , me too. And it was black and white not color and you only got 3 channels. ABC, NBC, CBS.

I remember when the fanciest feeder we had was a Texas Hunter 5-gallon bucket with that bolt sticking out the bottom with two pieces of tin to catch the wind. Or a tire cut in half you poured corn in. When a Weaver scope was living large and the Marlin .30-30 with the "micro-groove" barrel was cutting edge firepower.

Remember hand warmers?

Remember when Grog and Mog sat by the fire, killed things with sticks and rocks, and grunted at each other? Man, THOSE were the days!

no need for a remote until I was in my teens, we only got one channel. Then dad got a newer TV (still black/white) that had the additional UHF antenna and we picked up 2 more channels, for a total of 3. Occasionally when the weather & clouds were just right, we could pick up a PBS channel out of San Antonio but it was pretty fuzzy under perfect conditions. My parents finally got a color TV (21") when I left for college and gave me their old 19" b/w for my dorm room.

saw that someone mentioned the 5 gallon bucket feeders ... before those, we would take the old wooden coke bottle cases/crate and drive a couple of pieces of re-bar formed into a U shape to hold them down, the dump corn in the crate ... deer's nose would fit but a cow's wouldn't. We then started making out own 5 gallon bucket feeders using a broom handle thru the bottom with a cedar branch bailing wired to it so the wind would move it enough to dribble corn out.

The 5 gallon bucket feeders.....I went big time early 70's I think and bought a bucket with a automatic timer/motor for $35.00. That was big time. The timer / motor was made by Braden Wire works in San Antonio. Had power from 4 D cell batteries.

Did it have the solar eye feature? feeder spun at 15 minutes after day break and then again at something like 8 or 10 hours later? I think I still have the first one my dad bought back in the mid/late 70s.

I'm over 1/2 century and remember it all (thank goodness). As TxAG said we used to take shotguns & rifles in truck to school and we even took them into locker room and leaned them up against the wall during sports practices. Opening day of squirrel and deer season were basically school holidays.

You're lying! Had you pegged for 42

We lived in Abilene when I was young and remember on trips to Brownwood that the gas was 10-12 cents a gal. Got married in 1966 and gas was 18-22 cents in Abilene and you could buy 5 sacks of food, meat and all for 25 bucks but was making 600 bucks a month. Things have changed a lot over the years, such as buying a new 69 ford pickup single cab for 2000 bucks.

Boys at Texas returned fire with deer rifles from their pickups during the tower incident. If they hadn't, there would have been more dead. So much for Katie Kurich and her BS "Good guys with guns argument is a myth".

me too. and rabbit ear adjuster. "ok. . .move it up. .ok! ! right there! ! "

i can remember my grandpa sending me in the store
in quitman to buy 5 shotgun shells and into the
grocery store to buy a pack of smokes

My greatest childhood memories were being hand a WHOLE BOX of .22lr and a sandwich on Saturday morning and being told to be "back by dark".

Good Times....Yes Sir...

I can remember having my old willy's jeep in the school parking lot "loaded"...ready to head straight to the nearest hunting ground right after school.

Born in 1942 and remember all of those things. Dad went to WW2 before I was born and didn't come back until I was 18 months old. I still have the VMails that he sent back.

Yeah, it was a simpler time but I also remember the polio epidemics when some of my friends died or were crippled for life. I also prefer indoor plumbing to out houses. The only Doctor, Doc Dabbs, was in Clovis New Mexico. It was a 30 mile drive from the farm/ranch and we generally toughed out most issues. Dentists were scarce and an awful lot of people had dentures in their 40's and 50's. Played HS football but not all kids could afford cleats. No big deal. All boys played football.

A man who was caught lying was shunned. An insult was cause for a fist fight.

Ammo was 22 shorts and hunting was rabbits. There were no deer on the plains but we did see antelope.

We sat around at night and listened to the radio while shelling peas. There wasn't a lot of sitting around during the day.

Grandma had a garden and an orchard. We canned everything for winter and put them in the cellar. We killed 2 beeves and some hogs every year. I believe that I ate my first vegetables that weren't home grown when I joined the military. That's also where I met my first Yankee and Jew. They talked faster than I could listen. We got along OK.

I was pretty well raised bilingual, Spanish and English, by vaqueros and Mexican farm hands.

Our address was Rt 2 Muleshoe Texas and the mailbox was at an intersection a couple of miles away. No name because the postman knew who had each of the boxes. Sometimes the neighbors got ours out and delivered it.

There's a lot more and when I tell my Grandkids about it, they just can't understand. I miss some of it but couldn't do that stuff now. Without indoor plumbing and AC I couldn't cut it.

Dave, you are right. Its easy to remember the good stuff but a little tougher to remember the bad. I knew 3 kids in my school with polio. There was a girl with spinal menengitis. I grew up in a town of 1100 so that's a pretty big percentage. There were others but man, thats been a long time. TB is one I remember someone having, seems like. I too, like indoor plumbing. And AC.

who can remember filling up at the old time gas pumps with the glass tops?

to great memories

PMK, yes it went off around sun-up and near sundown. I don't recall how long it would run each time Eventually got the idea to put the timer on a 55 gallon barrel. That was really big time.

Yes sir I remember, I think parents would tell the guy at the station to put in so many gallons rather than an amount in dollars.

Yep, I filled up my car once from a glass top pumper. It is a memory that will stick with me. I remember 35 cent ciggy machines. I pumped 19 cent gas. I watched them build the first Whataburger in Marshall. I repaired five tube AM radios for a living. First car was a 55 Chevy.

Where I lived until I was 16 and shot my first buck in San Antonio is now a subdivision. IH 35 cut through my parents property when I was about 10 years old. That was about 1956. Went back to where I lived at IH 35 and Weidner Rd. Looks a little different.

I'm staying out of this conversation.......

I love progress as much as the next guy. But I have a hard time with what much of hunting has become these days. But, hey, I guess folks still hunting is better than folks not hunting. So I'm trying to keep that in mind as I keep on doing it the way I grew up doing it for the most part.

Who of us remember when there were no Interstate highways?

Was that during the Obama administration "Shovel ready jobs program"

Cast, I remember as a kid, prowling around Cisco area while 20 was being built. I really don't remember traveling interstates. I'm not sure when they started going in. Google time.

Looks like mid 60's in Texas.

Me, me, me - I do!

I worked on I-20 at Baird,Texas in 1964. Talk about the cost of hunting in 1957. Dad and I hunted on T.C. Frambos ranch south of Strawn,Texas and he charged us $5.00 a day and if we killed a bobcat or red fox we got a free days hunt.( he raised goats ) Dad leased it for the season for 6 hunters for 250 dollars total. I think he went about 4 years later to $ 50.00 per person so that tells you how long in the tooth I'am.

I remember the construction of IH35 between Austin and Georgetown, that's how they found Inner Space Cavern. I also remember going with my dad to Kerrville when IH10 was being put in out there, dad was trying to get the fuel/oil contract with the construction company with all the heavy equipment, likely mid to late 60s.

IH20 came through Marshall's good hunting land when I was about 15. And yeah, Ike was right, going any distance without a IH really sux. It took us a REAL LONG time to get to gramma's house.

Amazed to hear TC Fambros name.My dad and rriends hunted his place in the late 60s.Part of our lease cost was lowered if we helped him gather his goats in the spring for shearing

Hunted around Valentine in 1967 for $5 a day, it was free if you killed an eagle or mountain lion.Saw my first eagle there, and no I didn't shoot it, I was in total awe of it.

I am blessed, as I still get invites and hunt for free. Of course they want me back in there helping with the predators, don't tell them but the predators are what I would rather hunt anyway.
Adios,
Gary

"there was a time"...also a line from one of the greatest movies of all time.

Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest in Monte Carlo and came in 3rd, now THATS a story.