How the times have changed... Tell your story

[1911 mike]

+1 one on what COLT556 said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[K_W]

When I started Elementary school, the School Library had card catalogs and you had to find your own book.

When I was in Jr. High you could look for any book you wanted on a green screen terminal and then ask the librarian where to find it.

When I left High School, you only had to walk across the classroom and get on the school Intranet, choose your book from a list of required reading, and pick it up from the librarian at the front desk during the next passing period. Or get on the Internet from home and and pick it up the next morning.

Now I hear some schools want to issue eReaders to every student, TO SAVE MONEY.

And

I got the privilege of buying my first cell phone at 16 because I had got my license and my parent's saw a reason for it.

My neighbor just upgraded his 9 year old's contract phone because she was bored with it and wanted an iPhone like "all her friends" have.
​

 

[rambone]

The more tightly controlled our society has become, the more the people turn into the sheep they are today. The more the government is allowed to do, the more the sheep expect. The more rules society creates, the more backlash results. All these "gun free zones" and "illegal items" have led us down this path.

I dread what things will look like in another 20 years. Everything that is not banned will be mandatory.

Thank you for all your stories.

 

[Roadie]

Being in the late sixty's and in high school, carrying a knife everyday. Social Studies teacher borrowing it to cut open some type of news paper for students. The knife was a butterfly knife that my father brought home from the Philippines. Using a Victors No 2 coil spring trap to do a demonstration speech in English class and no one raising an eyebrow. Being told the truth without it being spun to fit a situation............Duce<><

^THIS^

I was a Cub Scout and ALWAYS had a knife on me from grade school on. I usually carried a Swiss Army knife and remember teachers borrowing it as well. It had tweezers on it, and I remember in high school (80s) pulling it out so the teacher could help someone remove a splinter.

Nobody ever blinked, was shocked, was appalled, called the Principal, the Police..

Yet now, some kid home from boot camp gets suspended from school for a 2inch knife in his med kit, in his car..

 

[revsaxon]

Man.. reading this makes me regret being born as late as I was. I never knew a world where people had that kind of common sense. Guns and knives were always a no-no at school. Seems kinda odd y'all had them almost no shooting/danger, we couldn't have them and well...

 

[Hammerhead]

Back in the 90s as I was going through school, I made friends (or at least made nice) with the principals of the schools I went to. Generally, this kept me out of trouble. However, keeping my big mouth shut and not flaunting the fact that I carried knives in my pockets and a pager in my backpack (I was not a drug dealer, I had specific reasons for carrying it) even though both items were "frowned upon".

Now kids carry cellphones, iPads and laptops and get expelled for carrying Lego gun accessories and camping fork/spoon/knife combos, or for the length of their hair.

Never carried a gun, but I probably could have left them in the car.

Then, after I graduated, came a rash of school shootings and everyone puckered their sphincters. Then came 9-11 and you could hear the knees jerking and we have arrived where we are today.

 

[TRWXXA]

Junior year of H.S. we were studyting the U.S. Civil War (that's the "War of Northern Aggression", for those of you who associate yourselves with the losing side). The history teacher brough in a former student of his who was a Civil War re-enactor. He brought in his complete ensemble, even his reproduction, Springfield rifle musket. Several of us got to fire it (without the minie ball) out on the practice field, right next to the town's main drag.

Try that today and see what happens.

 

[ironhorsemanfxsts]

As a kid in the early 80s I had some friends that lived in an apartment above the Crescent Donut Shop in Bloomington. They had a door that led out to part of the flat roof of the building that overlooked the Rose Hill Cemetery. We would set targets along the the creek in front of the wall of the cemetery and shoot from the roof with bb and pellet guns. With a lot of the old timers critiquing our shots. And yes there were a lot of cops there back then. And they didn't seem to mind.

 

[drgnrobo]

Had a high school assignment on instructional speech for an english class & one student had a presentation on how to load & fire a muzzleloading rifle on the sports field. (1980-1984)

 

[Captain Bligh]

I always carried a pocket knife to school.

Still in my collection is a pristine Belgium Browning A-5 that I bought through the Speigel's Catalogue Company. I mailed my order and my check, and got the gun back the same way. I was 18.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I graduated HS in 1996...not all that long ago.

I carried a pocket knife, in some form or another, every single day. Like was mentioned above, it was used often. By teachers, too, of course.

This was even AFTER all the "no knives" crap started permeating schools.

Carried it every day in college as well.

-J-

 

[Amishman44]

...If only I had a time machine I'd love to go back to those days. It was harder life but I think it was better overall and the world just wasn't as crazy as it is now.....

I concur with Colt556...

I grew up on a farm east of FW, from the mid-60's and into the early 80's, and I can remember taking my (then, new) Mossberg 500 CG 20 GA shotgun to Ag class to do a demonstration on how to breakdown and clean a shotgun (of course, it HAD to be dirty, so the weekend prior, it got used fairly heavily!) I parked as close to the Ag department as I could that day and simply went out to the truck to get it for class. Nothing was said to the administration, the police, nor my parents, and no one complained about me having a shotgun in school! After football practice, we (a bunch of the guys) stood around and looked at it...and again, no one complained. (I did the same demonstration speech, later, in college in and got an "A" the second time, too...he he!)

I got that shotgun when I was 16 ('81) and it still doesn't have a scratch on it (knock on wood!) It came with a 26" accu-choke barrel (I still have all 3 chokes) but it's now fitted with a 24" rifled, sighted slug barrel, scope and mount, for deer! With that barrel, it does a nicer job today than it did 28 years ago when I first got it!

I went to college to become a teacher and just stopped teaching in June of '09! During the early '90's, if a kid brought a gun to school (scheduled, then), and had it out in the open with the action open, things were OK because most times he knew what he was doing, and it wasn't a problem. Now-a-days, everyone gets their panties in such a twist because IF someone has a gun, more times than not,
a) they've not had anyone train them the right way to do things, or
b) they've not had sufficent experience with it to know what they're doing, and
c) they've probably wanted way too many movies where they pull the trigger once and the bad guy just falls down, or
d) they are the bad guy,

...and it makes them just plain dangerous!

I always have a knife on me somewhere...with a little bit of training, a knife is an excellent defensive weapon!

 

[schafe]

Does anyone remember playing Mumblety Peg in the schoolyard? It was cool trying to stick the pocketknife in the ground as close to our own feet as we could, without hitting our foot. The winner was the one who got the closest.There were style points, and of course, if you stuck your own foot, you were a real man, and the winner by default. Try playing that game today!!

 

[stilllearning09]

Once upon a time:
When My Dad was a boy in elementary school, his teacher gave the boys their Christmas present, a brand new pocket knife.
When I was growing up, the ladies in my neighborhood carried derringers in their apron pocket.
You saw more gun racks in the back window of pick up trucks than not.
The boys would plan a weekend hunt, and on Friday, with guns, ammo and gear in the back of their trucks at school, ran out to the parking lot to start their weekend. More than once, some of their teachers joined in on the group hunt. The gear and guns were clearly visible in the trucks.

 

[Hornett]

Thanks for all the stories!

I teach a teen age boys Sunday school class in Oolitic.
I have given them knives at Christmas.
And on more than one occasion we have taken the class shooting trap or skeet.
I am doing my best to not let the good part of American life get completely away.

 

[combat45acp]

Made this knife in machine shop in high school in the late 80's. Threaded end cap with o-ring seal. Rambo was popular, took the Buck Master and made it longer, -the spikes on the handle, and a few other details.

 

[Duce]

Wow! This reminds me of something that was way back in 91??
I was in the UP of Michigan, Escanaba to be exact. They were holding their equivalent of the state fair. I watched as a Spanish American War renactors fired their Gatling gun, {30/40 Krag} man that thing sure was murder on watermelons. Funny how this was in town on a busy fairgrounds with just a pile of sand for a backstop ..........Duce<><

 

[patton487]

I like reading all the stories. Here's what I remember.

When I was 16 and got my first vehicle. A Dodge pickup. I put a gun rack in the back window and had my rifle in it. Drove every where like that, including the school parking lot!

No problems, no one complained and no one died...

 

[Cemetery-man]

I remember when dirt was invented!

 

[trigger643]

I grew up in rural Western Colorado. Hunter Safety was taught in the schools. Marksmanship with school owned single shot bolt action .22 rifles shooting .22 shorts into traps was conducted in the school gym after hours for grades 2-12 (kindergarten through high school was in the same building). This was late '60s, early '70s