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LoboGunLeather

LoboGunLeather

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Grade school days with "duck and cover" drills, preparing us for the inevitable nuclear bombs that might come at any time? Hunkering down under your school desk, head tucked between your knees, doing your best to kiss your hiney goodbye?

Civil Defense signs directing people to public fallout shelters, mostly in public buildings like libraries and city halls, dark basements with barrels of water and emergency food rations.

Family fallout shelters in backyards all over North America. Plans available free of charge from government agencies everywhere.

Such wonderful memories of a more carefree life! Ride the school bus with your .22 rifle or shotgun, leave it in the principal's office, then go hunting on the way home from school. If you were really good all year long, maybe a box of ammo in your Christmas stocking!

Feel free to add your own fond memories.
 
A loaded rifle/shotgun rack in every vehicle - in up state NY…….
High school rifle teams…….
30-06 ball ammo for a penny a round…….
Two-tone car paint jobs…….with Flared fenders……
Telephone party lines…….
TV stations signing off at midnight with the national anthem…….
Standing for the National Anthem……
My Dad’s WWII friends gathered round the kitchen table…..
Having to wear a jacket and tie when traveling by train or air….
Penny Oxfords Loafers ……..
Dean Martin signing “When The Moon Hits your Eye Like A Big Pizza Pie……”
High School dances………
That pretty blonde across the street…….
Respect for authority and our elders and the inherent courage that came with being an American…….
The American Character of justice and fairness……..
Sigh………The world sure seemed simpler then……
 
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In Junior High (aka middle school) we had speech class. Each student was required to give a speech but could chose pretty much whatever topic they wanted. I gave a speech about my father's Winchester Pre-64 Model 70 target rifle that he used in Camp Perry competition. Principal approved my bringing the rifle to school and keeping it and a round of US issued 30-06 match ammo in my locker up to and after the class.

My fellow students were allowed to look/handle both the rifle and ammo after the speech and I received an A in the class. Mr. Hartman, the instructor was impressed that the rifle was used to shoot targets 1,000 yards away using iron sights. The only downside was lugging that thing to and from school. It was not light!

Those days are gone forever!
 
Gas was less than 25 cents a gallon
Paper hulled shotgun shells for $1.25 a box
You could buy less than a box of shells
A real Browning A5 for about 100 dollars NIB
Model 12 Winchester was still in production
Riding in the back of Dads pickup
Drinking from a water hose
Jeans with rolled up cuffs and patches on the knees
Riding on a passenger train before Amtrack
Newspapers had a morning and evening edition
And many more, it was a simpler time with less aggravation
 
Remembrances from the late 60's, early 70's

I'm 67, I would get paddled at school, if I didn't do my homework!

I had lunch with my 8th grade history teacher a few weeks ago, he said he hadn't paddled a student since 1972. I said you got me in 1971. (I was using a rubber band to shoot a friend with paper wads.) He said as he got better, he could keep students on the classwork, and apologized. No hard feelings, I deserved it.

Got in a fist fight at school, his best shot had no effect on me, so it was over. Within 48 hours, all was back to normal.

Taking my date to the Junior Prom with me to the tuxedo shop to pick out my tux. Maroon Crushed Velet! Senior Prom, different girl Black Crushed Velvet. (4 years later I got married, Baby Blue Tux with tails, no velvet to be seen anywhere!)

The whole school had an assembly every year in early September. So the FFA could teach us a hunting safety course. You got Half a day of excused absence for small game hunting and a whole day for Deer hunting! My senior year I took an additional half day for duck hunting too.

About 75 girls in my class, 8 had kids before we graduated and one of those had two. (she is still married to the love of her life!) About 25 of our girls got married the first few weeks out of school, about half actually wanted to!

One of my friends, owned his own P/U truck and a tractor, and farmed 700 acers of rented land when he was 15, and bought his first farm when 19 and paid cash! He and one of our classmates are still married after 48 years.

My High School had the number one chapter of FFA 21 out of 25 years! I don't know a framer I went to school with that got a divorce! I may not know where their current farm is now, but I know what church I can find them at on most Sundays.

Farmers let people hunt their land for free IF you came in the Spring and early Summer and shot groundhogs!

I didn't know anyone that ever rode a horse to school, but a lot of guys rode tractors if they missed the bus!

When I was in H.S. the district was 175 square miles and had 1800 students in all grades. About double the students now.

Ivan
 
Ninth grade prom memories......

With a white sport coat and pink carnation
I took Judy to the prom
I was an inexperienced dorky 15 year old
So what could possibly go wrong ?
Judy dropped her dance card on the floor
and I bent down to pick it up
My elbow caught in the edge of her dress
and I began to lift THAT up
"HEY ! ... CUT THAT OUT !!
I heard her shout
with panic and alarm
I guess she thought her "hormonal" date
was about to do her harm.
Then we sat, and had a Coke
and when my cup was empty
I put mine down into her's
and it squirted out Coke aplenty
There was still enough Coke left in her's
to "spot up" her dress completely.
"Smooth move" you dufus dude
You're screwing this date up quite neatly !
Then off we go with Madelyn and Mike
for an after prom pizza foursome
Tony's Villa in Langley Park
was just the place to get some.
The pizza arrives with molten cheese
and my hunger just wouldn't wait
so I take a big 'ol gooey slice
and stuff it right into my face
The pain..THE PAIN !!.. OH MY GOD !!
I was trying not to SHOUT
with that red hot, molten, gooey mess
sticking right to the roof of my mouth
But Judy and I both survived
the perils of the prom we shared
needing only some standard dry cleaning help
and basic medical care


I remember well the "duck and cover" drills in elementary school. I was living in Washington D.C. ------ I was pretty sure "duck and cover" was NOT going to save me !
 
I remember the "CD canned water" in the basement of PS #7 in my hometown. Used a "church key" to open one. Blech, undrinkable and stored in hundreds of cases stacked high. At least we only had one "official" enemy to fear in those simpler times. Joe
 
Rode a horse to one room school in a pasture between two ranches. Two students and the lady teacher who lived in the school.
We said pledge of allegiance every morning and practiced hiding under our desks.
Korean war going on. We didn’t know who Stalin was but we hid our cap guns in a badger hole at the end of the last recess so he couldn’t find and steal them.

Years later after driving 40 miles to high school every day I graduated in the largest class in the history of the school. There were 13 of us.
 
Ah, memories. Several decades ago I happened to be walking in downtown Pittsburgh and something started nagging at me. So, I wandered around a bit and finally realized that the Civil Defense bomb/fallout shelter signs were missing from buildings that once had them.

Wonder what they did with the indoor rifle range in my old high school? IIRC, they tore the school down so it's academic.

I recall 2 movies that were required viewing. One was Signal 30, a graphic, full color rendition of the after math of vehicle accidents. Probably be rated a hard R or even X today, but drove home the probable/possible results of being an idiot. (Course we all figured it wouldn't happed to us, but at least they made an effort.)

The other one definitely should be required viewing in history classes today. It was a compilation of newsreel footage (you younger folks google the term) of what was happening in Germany in the 1930's & 40's. It was narrated by William Shirer who was a foreign correspondent at the time. History repeats itself because human nature doesn't change much.
 
LoboGunLeather said:
Grade school days with "duck and cover" drills, preparing us for the inevitable nuclear bombs that might come at any time? Hunkering down under your school desk, head tucked between your knees, doing your best to kiss your hiney goodbye?

Civil Defense signs directing people to public fallout shelters, mostly in public buildings like libraries and city halls, dark basements with barrels of water and emergency food rations.

Family fallout shelters in backyards all over North America. Plans available free of charge from government agencies everywhere.
Click to expand...

Yup, sure do. We lived in central Florida from '62 to '67, and while I was too young to really know what was going on during the Cuban Missile Crisis of '62 and beyond, I do recall the hide-under-your-desk-and-hold-a-book-over-your-head drills as well as playing in a few backyard bomb shelters. Those were the days indeed. Wonder if those bomb shelters are still intact?
 
I can't remember the last time I had a memory lapse....:rolleyes:

I do remember the summer after my last year of high school, (1970) when a couple of teachers and a few students were put to work building a student centre (yes, "centre"- this was in Canuckistan) behind the Senior School. We would go to the Junior School a block away for lunch. Not sure why the school cafeteria was still running in the summer but apparently the food was rather better (ie edible) than during term time. I would eat quickly, then go back to the Senior School where we were working and put some food scraps out by a brush pile and shoot the rats that came out with my Anschütz .22. I guess I took the rifle there on the bus (?)

Merely thinking of such activiy today would invite a SWAT team and close off 3 blocks in all directions.
 
After the two Northeast Ohio Bunch gatherings I intended I drove over to Elyria to see my first old elementary school and old house. The house sures looks tiny now. The first time the school had been converted to a day care center. The second time I went the school had been leveled.

I went to 3 different elementary schools in 3rd grade (my family moved twice that school year). Two of them have now been torn down.
 
As part of my job, I attended a bidders conference at the Japan Meteorological Agency. There must have been a hundred or so of us there, mostly Japanese but a few foreigners as well. In the middle of the session there was an earthquake drill.

Everyone, the JMA officials at narrow tables facing us at the front of the room and all of us bidders at our narrow tables in two rows, aisle in the middle, facing them, got down on the floor in our suits and under the tables..

I was in my late fifties at the time, and felt utterly ridiculous. Had a lot of company, so there was that.

(And, if it had been an earthquake severe enough to cause the ceiling to fall, the tables would have provided some protection. Still, it was one of those "the things I do for the company..." moments.)

I recall the early 60s drills, too. In the classroom, under our desks with the heavy curtains drawn. A half century later, when we were all fretting about terrorist attacks, I would remind myself that when my generation were small fry we were fretting about the end of the world. (And, to be honest, I was not much of a fretter at the time.)
 
Grew up in the 60's. We never did duck and cover. I remember the fall out shelter signs, the green cans in the basement. But no duck and cover. We even had a military base in the area.
 
Early 1950s riding the city bus to the City Shooting Range with my .22 rifle in Santa Monica, Calif. (yes, the city later dominated by Hanoi Jane Fonda). High school in late 1950s saw the LAPD shooting team come and give shooting exhibitions in the high school gym! Lots of crime in Los Angeles even back then, but still a fun place to live if you could run fast.
 
No TV, we read 2 daily newspapers, one the local gossip, the other a statewide. Listened to the news on the radio. Had to be quiet when the noon farm markets came on.
I remember the "duck & cover" but here in America's heartland we weren't extremely worried, far from the coasts and no near military bases.

About 75 girls in my class, 8 had kids before we graduated and one of those had two. (she is still married to the love of her life!) About 25 of our girls got married the first few weeks out of school, about half actually wanted to!

Similar numbers in my class. I was one of those that got married to long time boyfriend soon after graduation cuz married guys weren't being drafted. Bad mistake! He got drafted later anyway.
 
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The mentions of duck & cover sparked a latent memory. Initially, we did the hide under the desk thing. Even as a little kid, I always wondered about that given all the glass windows in the WPA/CCC built schools. Sometime during grades 3-5 someone with authority realized it was stupid and moved us into the halls.
 
in the mid 1970's I helped "reorganize" the fallout shelter at my grade school... mostly stacking junk higher so the music teacher had more space and messing around with the Geiger counter, which was really cool... entire school was to head to the basement for nuclear war or tornadoes.. the great plains truly are great... and being within 50 miles of a major target meant desks wouldn't matter for survival... flash.. start counting and praying
 
LoboGunLeather said:
Grade school days with "duck and cover" drills, preparing us for the inevitable nuclear bombs that might come at any time? Hunkering down under your school desk, head tucked between your knees, doing your best to kiss your hiney goodbye?

Civil Defense signs directing people to public fallout shelters, mostly in public buildings like libraries and city halls, dark basements with barrels of water and emergency food rations.

Family fallout shelters in backyards all over North America. Plans available free of charge from government agencies everywhere.

Such wonderful memories of a more carefree life! Ride the school bus with your .22 rifle or shotgun, leave it in the principal's office, then go hunting on the way home from school. If you were really good all year long, maybe a box of ammo in your Christmas stocking!

Feel free to add your own fond memories.
Click to expand...

Yeah I remember all that stuff as well. At the time my Dad was still a young man. Only once did he talk about the Kamikaze plane that hit his ship. Back then we didn't know what PTSD was, but now I truly understand.

With the nostalgia of this thread, it makes me wonder if back then we were just "playing", but now maybe we need to do it for real.
 
If you walked through the parking lot at my H.S. you would probably find two dozen shotguns and 22's in vehicles, guys going squirrel hunting after school. Many of them in full view in the old rear truck window gun racks.

Our wood shop teacher had all of us boys bring pocketknives to school to learn whittling like 8th grade.

Also in wood shop guys would bring in guns to refinish wood stocks.

Many of our male teachers would let us boys chew snuff as long as we never spit anywhere except in cans and put them in the trash, keep it clean.

Like others have said, those days are gone forever.
 
I am a little too young for the duck and cover, but I do remember going pretty much anywhere with a gun and not even a second look.

Remember show and tell? We had lots of stuff brought in that would never pass muster today.

Our school didn't have a library so once a week the bookmobile would come, and we could check out 2 books for the week. I read the entire series of "We Were There" and the "Hardy Boys" one year.

There was a small restaurant called the Hamburger Inn, you could get a burger, fries and drink for 50 cents. Every boy had a pocketknife, and no one was in school on opening day of small game season.

The thing that really sticks with me to this day was the sonic booms that seemed to be commonplace in our area. We lived a couple of hours drive from Wright Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton and Rickenbacker was still up and running south of Columbus.

The jets seemed to fly between the two and I will never forget the booms and how they scared the bejeezuz out of me as a little dude. If you have ever experienced them, you can feel them.
 
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I remember CONELRAD, 640 and 1240 KHz on the AM radio dial. Marked with little triangles. If enemy planes were detected incoming, all AM radio stations were to go off the air. A few shifted to the CONELRAD frequencies in a round robin rotation fashion. This was to confuse the enemy planes using direction finding gear to home in on a target. The locations kept changing. At 15 years old, I was a ham radio operator, and we were required to monitor an AM station while we were on the air. We had to shut down operations if the station went off the air. That year was 1958.
The idea behind the program is so the government could communicate directly with the public. One way, of course.
I remember the old tower platforms that had gas engines, air compressors, and air raid sirens on them. And the weekly tests. Some of the towers were still up in the 1980's, very rusty.

73,
Rick
 
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llowry61 said:
I am a little too young for the duck and cover, but I do remember going pretty much anywhere with a gun and not even a second look.

Remember show and tell? We had lots of stuff brought in that would never pass muster today.

Our school didn't have a library so once a week the bookmobile would come, and we could check out 2 books for the week. I read the entire series of "We Were There" and the "Hardy Boys" one year.

There was a small restaurant called the Hamburger Inn, you could get a burger, fries and drink for 50 cents. Every boy had a pocketknife, and no one was in school on opening day of small game season.

The thing that really sticks with me to this day was the sonic booms that seemed to be commonplace in our area. We lived a couple of hours drive from Wright Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton and Rickenbacker was still up and running south of Columbus.

The jets seemed to fly between the two and I will never forget the booms and how they scared the bejeezuz out of me as a little dude. If you have ever experienced them, you can feel them.
Click to expand...


Sonic booms will get your attention. Here is a photo of what two F-105s did back in 1968 outside of Colorado Springs, CO.


 
I lived in a place called Ethel Hollow, WV. No duck and cover, no bomb shelter in grade school. Or in any school for that matter. Grade school was under 60 kids in 6 grades.
Preschool/Kindergarten was unheard-of in those hills. By the time we were in first grade we knew how to skin a Squirrel. Ethel Hollow is still there, the grade school is long gone, except for the memories.
 
Went to high school in the eighties. It was an old school with new bits added on. The old section had a basement area. There were several things down there, like the locker rooms, shower rooms, equipment rooms and even a small raquetball court. The coaches offices were down there also and there was a door that wasn't marked, or seemingly used much. It was usually locked but one day my buddy tried the knob and it turned. We opened it up and there was a short hallway and another door, with a yellow sign, old and dirty, on it. The sign said BOMB SHELTER and had a radiation symbol on it. We opened the door to a large space, and found a light switch next to the door. That's when we found out our school had a swimming pool. Not Olympic size, but still pretty big, it was stuffed with old boxes and cans and barrels and things. From the bottom of the pool to a couple feet above the top. Found out later the pool hadn't been used since the '40s and when they wanted to have a community shelter in the '60s they chose the school and the pool was a convenient place to store the supplies. Looked like they hadn't been touched since they were stored there.
 
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