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I REMEMBER WHEN

You can logically trace the decline of everything America to liberalism. Think about it. God removed from the schools. Personal responsibility for one's actions removed. Parental discipline in the home ended. Zero discipline in the classroom as well. Moral decay brought on by liberalism, if it feels good do it. The Roe v. Wade decision. Everybody gets a trophy. Government handouts for able bodied persons just too lazy to work. The list goes on and on. Liberalism is a cancer that needs ended.
This sums it all up...one of the best posts of the year.
 
I also remember guns in the dorm room. The pic below was in my dorm room in 1979 at Lassen College in NE California.
Officially you were supposed to have them locked in the “gun room” down the hall. However everybody wanted to go shooting on the weekends and thats when the druggie RA was shacking up with his girlfriend in town. There was no way to get your gun so we all just did this.
Nobody cared


View attachment 1219856.
Cleverly disguised as a hat rack!:cool:
 
The shower I had when I got home and the lunch (actually it was dinner in our part of the world) Mom fixed was really good.

Now there is a statement that brings back memories and even to this day some confusion on my part. Growing up on the farm it was a 4 meal day. Breakfast was after morning chores, dinner was at noon, lunch was around 4 and brought to us in the fields unless we were working close to the farm house and supper was after evening chores. If it was a short day it was a day with no lunch. Even to this day my wife and myself laugh about the confusion when we are invited to dinner. We usually know what they mean but it is just not the way we grew up.
 
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At about 12 or 13 yo, a friend and I decided we were going to camp out on Cedar Bayou. Plans were made and parents said ok so off we went a good mile into the woods. I have no idea what inspired the trip but our parents made no attempt to stop us. We had 22 rifles, some fishing stuff, a can of beans and some Spam. Our drinking water was dipped out of the bayou.
We set up camp and after it got dark things started to change. However, there was no backing out at this time. No way to communicate with home to come and pick us up. We didn't get much sleep that night. Too much slapping of mosquitos and strange sounds that the woods make at night that we had never heard. After a few hours the only light we had was the light of the camp fire and the stars. Alkaline batteries had not been invented yet so the flashlight was no good. I know for sure that we heard the Black Panther scream once. Nobody had ever seen it but everybody knew it was in the woods. The other thing that kept us up was those stinking Cottonmouths sneaking out of the bayou to get us
The next morning we broke camp and met our ride at the edge of the woods and told them how much fun we had. The shower I had when I got home and the lunch (actually it was dinner in our part of the world) Mom fixed was really good.

I feel sorry for the kids growing up today because I grew up at the greatest time in history.
I have a similar story to KMart's. Also when I was around 12 or 13 a friend of mine and myself were sleeping in a tent in the field behind the farm house. Around midnight we heard some noises outside the tent and all of a sudden the tent front flap opened up and my mom found herself staring at a large hunting knife and a BB gun pointed at her. She was worried about waking us up so she had opened up the tent front flap unannounced. I am not sure who scarred who the most.
 
I remember taking my city slicker cousin snipe hunting after dark. For those of you that don't know how that's done, here's the scoop. I have him take a gunny sack and guide him out to the back pasture in the dark. Had him sit down by a fence corner and hold the gunny sack open while I walked off to go "find a snipe and drive it to him". I mean right to him and it would go in the sack, at which point he was to close the sack quickly. I headed back to the house. My cousin was from Mom's side of the family so she insisted that I go back and get him. :) And yes, dinner on the farm was at noon and supper in the evening. Our daughters had questions about that when they moved to the city. :)
 
I remember taking my city slicker cousin snipe hunting after dark. For those of you that don't know how that's done, here's the scoop. I have him take a gunny sack and guide him out to the back pasture in the dark. Had him sit down by a fence corner and hold the gunny sack open while I walked off to go "find a snipe and drive it to him". I mean right to him and it would go in the sack, at which point he was to close the sack quickly. I headed back to the house. My cousin was from Mom's side of the family so she insisted that I go back and get him. :) And yes, dinner on the farm was at noon and supper in the evening. Our daughters had questions about that when they moved to the city. :)
Snipe hunting, now that's a classic. We used to take newbies up to our deer camp for archery and small game when the leaves were still on the trees. On a night you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, we'd walk them 100 or so yards up the mountain to see if they could catch a snipe, burlap bag but no light. They'd sit down on a stump or rock, we'd take the flashlight and walk back to the cabin. After about twenty minutes, we would sneak up real close. One guy would let out a blast on those plastic horns they banned at football games while I would light off a string of firecrackers. Some took the joke and some didn't. The former got invited back. Not so much for the latter.
 
I remember when I was about 12, some kids on the way home on the school bus said to me “You got a BB gun, right?” I said yes. “Bring it over after school, come to my back yard we built a fort out of plywood way in back.”

So I got home, changed, grabbed my BB gun and headed out, first walking through back yards, then a wooded lot, across a field and then more back yards. I just naturally thought we were going to have a target contest or something. As I approached the fort, this kid comes out carrying his BB gun, hunched over, slinking from tree to tree to meet me. So we meet, he says c'mon. Stay low. I'm thinking, what's this?

We go into the fort. They have these slits, openings and I look out one of them and some kids says get away from there, you're gonna get shot. I said WHAT??? He says we're having BB gun wars with such-and-such other kids from another street. They're attacking our fort. Tomorrow we attack theirs.

I go, you mean you all are SHOOTING at each other deliberately? They're like, yeah of course why else would you have a BB gun?
The local bunch did have bb gun wars. Red Ryder type guns. No shooting above the waist, no crotch shots. Then I got my "Spitting Image" Model 94 Daisy. Had too much Owie factor. That got our attention and we moved on to other weapons.
 
This story's not such a feel good one. Kinda dark, actually.

I remember when I was in Jr. High School, there was a certain substitute teacher who was used frequently by the school. They'd bring him in for any subject, any subject at all. He'd try to “teach” on the subject but really, mostly had no idea and only succeeded in displaying his ignorance in a pompous manner.

He was tall, overweight and out of shape. His hair was always oily and he always looked way overdue for a haircut. He was loud, forceful, and overbearing. He gave me the impression of someone who drank a lot, he always seemed just a little out of control to me.

He was a pastor at a church in town, a mainstream domination (which I never really understood) and he was known as an early adopter of liberation theology.

To say this guy rubbed me the wrong way is an understatement. Strangely many people, mostly women of his church, would say they loved him and admired him because he was such a good man.

Anyway, I remember when in 9th grade, I forget what subject or even the context of the particular point of his lecture, but he said and repeated it several times. “The lawmaker is above the law.” He said, if an individual or a body (such as a government) has written the law, by their nature as the creator, their creation...the law...was below them and they were not bound by it. They were free from the constraints it placed on others.

Like I said, he repeated that several times...the lawmaker is above the law...and after each statement he would scan the classroom with a glare as if challenging students to question or disagree. I remember wondering what he was trying to do...was he really presenting this as a truth, or was he challenging students to think on their own and say no, that's not right. I remember thinking no, that is absolutely not true, I disagree completely but I also remember thinking there was no way I was going to engage this guy with a comment or a question because he was just an ass and treated students horribly, like he was trying to control by fear, ridicule and intimidation.

I guess the school system was hard up for substitutes.

Some years later, after I had graduated high school, suddenly this guy disappeared. Gone from the church, gone from the town, of course gone from the school. I never gave it any thought, just figured he retired. I found out sometime later what happened was he was sexually abusing a teenage girl.
 
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I have really enjoyed most of these remembrance posts but I can not believe nobody has mentioned mom saying "Do you have your dime?" as you were walking out the door.

I am really sad that my kids did not have the same experiences and adventures that I did.
How about "Do you have on clean underwear"? "You might be in an accident". "Yeah, Mom". Of course, I didn't. e-laugh.gif
 
Since my last story was a downer, here's another one. In fact I love to tell this one and just about everyone who knows me has heard it.

I remember when I was in first grade. The teacher was reading to the class a book about the changing of the seasons and the coming winter. The book described observations like the leaves had turned colors and there was a chill in the air...the book said “woodchucks were no longer seen sitting outside their holes” then she stops reading and asks the class the reason for this. No kid knew the answer so she says “Your homework assignment is to ask your parents the reason why. Tomorrow I will ask you the question again.”

So...at the evening meal I asked “What is a woodchuck?” Now, no one in my family used the term woodchuck. To us they were groundhogs. But my Mom thought I said “woodcock” so she says it's a bird. I thought, aha! Now I know the answer. I knew some birds migrated south for the winter so this “woodchuck” must be a migratory bird...it has to be, I mean why else would it be no longer seen in the winter?

Next day, she asks the question and I enthusiastically thrust my hand up with a silent but obvious oh, oh, call on me! I was so proud of myself, I KNEW the answer because I was smart. I didn't have to ask my parents to explain it to me...I KNEW because I knew about birds and migration and stuff...

So teacher sets me up to hit a home run...”Donald, why were woodchucks no longer seen sitting outside their holes?”

And I proudly said (loud so everyone could hear) “Because They Flew South For The Winter!”

...and the entire class immediately breaks out in laughter...loud, raucous laughter. “BwahHaHa ha ha...”
I thought, hmm, what could possibly be wrong with my answer?

So that's how I learned what a woodchuck is.
 
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Since my last story was a downer, here's another one. In fact I love to tell this one and just about everyone who knows me has heard it.

I remember when I was in first grade. The teacher was reading to the class a book about the changing of the seasons and the coming winter. The book described observations like the leaves had turned colors and there was a chill in the air...the book said “woodchucks were no longer seen sitting outside their holes” then she stops reading and asks the class the reason for this. No kid knew the answer so she says “Your homework assignment is to ask your parents the reason why. Tomorrow I will ask you the question again.”

So...at the evening meal I asked “What is a woodchuck?” Now, no one in my family used the term woodchuck. To us they were groundhogs. But my Mom thought I said “woodcock” so she says it's a bird. I thought, aha! Now I know the answer. I knew some birds migrated south for the winter so this “woodchuck” must be a migratory bird...it has to be, I mean why else would it be no longer seen in the winter?

Next day, she asks the question and I enthusiastically thrust my hand up with a silent but obvious oh, oh, call on me! I was so proud of myself, I KNEW the answer because I was smart. I didn't have to ask my parents to explain it to me...I KNEW because I knew about birds and migration and stuff...

So teacher sets me up to hit a home run...”Donald, why were woodchucks no longer seen sitting outside their holes?”

And I proudly said (loud so everyone could hear) “Because They Flew South For The Winter!”

...and the entire class immediately breaks out in laughter...loud, raucous laughter. “BwahHaHa ha ha...”
I thought, hmm, what could possibly be wrong with my answer?

So that's how I learned what a woodchuck is.

On the bright side you were correct about the woodcocks migrating in winter. However, it must be a long slow flight down here. I have only seen them fly a max of 40 yards before they stop and they never fly in a straight line.
 

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