Dumb Thing I Got Away With

[rwsmith]

When I put something away......

When I put something away that I'm not going to need for a while, I put it in the most logical place I would look for it if it were lost. It doesn't help. I don't know how many times I've poked in a drawer, or shelf, or box and said, "I've been looking for that for years!" Some things I've hidden from myself were pretty important and have been lost for as many as 15 years out of the 35 I've been married. My favorite trick is to have a box with stuff in the bottom of it, and sitting a full box of something else inside it. I swear, "Man, I've looked in that box a million times and I know it's not in there!"

 

[model70hunter]

Not me, but my Dad. He had a Colt Woodsman that was his EDC. He told me he thought it had been stolen from his pickup while he was parked in front of the church. This was a small town in the 1970's so he probably didn't lock the truck. I eventually found a NIB second model Woodsman and gave it to him for Christmas. After about 4 years, he sheepishly informed me my mom found it tucked under the towels in her linen closet. He's put it there because the adjoining closet used for a gun cabinet had been locked.

Question; once I bought 2 pistols, my Dad borrowed one. Several years later he came by and borrowed the other one. Said his was cleaned and he didn't want to get it dirty. It did not come right back home. The next time over there I went down to watch football with Dad in the Family room and hanging on the wall was a display, Gramp's 45-70 trap door, Gramp's big indian axe flanked by my pistols.

I turned on Dad, he said well they look so right there. They make the display work. I said yea but you could buy your own Colt series 2 Black powder pistols. My Bro and SIS knew they were my guns and warned don't make any plans for them. I got them back years later when Bro and I divided up Dad's guns.

So is it a Dad thing or did he give you one of the Colt Woodsman?

 

[RobertJ.]

When I was little, my dad hid his Beretta Minx .22 Short on the top shelf of our pantry. He did such a good job hiding it, he couldn't find it for a year.

He didn't say he had misplaced it. I knew where it was, (I climbed everything) but I didn't know it was lost. One day, there was a great big bee in our house. I said to my mom, "Let's get Dad's gun and shoot it!" She told me that wasn't a good idea, and where is his gun, anyway?

So that's how he got it back. I was six years old. A few years later, that would be the first pistol he let me shoot un-supervised.

 

[Frank46]

Some years back (see where this is going?) I had a 1891 Argentine mauser I had bought with the help from a friend of another forum. Stripped it and took the lyman all steel sight off and stuck the mounting screws in their respective holes and taped over the screws and started wondering where can I put this so it does not get lost in the clutter of my work bench. i have a big storage cabinet where I stash most of my brass, loaded ammo and other goodies. Stuck it in there. Well to date as many times as I went through that cabinet I have yet to find it. Darn thing must be like the sock drawer mentioned by another poster. One of these days I'll find it or my kids will when I'm pushing up daisies. Frank

 

[soFlaNative]

I always find my stuff in the last place I look.

 

[M E Morrison]

I always find my stuff in the last place I look.

Now if you just look one more place after you find it.....

 

[tcon]

At about 12 years old, I was always out of the house with my Glenfield Model 25 .22 bolt gun (still have it). My dad lived in a good location - half mile away from a small town, within eyesight of the Ohio River and endless woods nearby. Nice place to grow up.

Anyway...in the early 70's we had a real cold winter - so cold that the Ohio river nearly froze completely. I went to check it out, carrying my rifle, of course. Could I resist walking out on it? No. It felt real solid near the bank and I walked out farther. Kept going. I got out far enough where I could see the path left by that last barge. About then, I could hear ice creaking. Not the kind of creaking like on a frozen lake - this creaking was loud had a sort of doppler effect. I could hear it start around my feet and go off in the distance.

I looked behind me and I was farther out than I had thought. I knew I had screwed up and it occurred to me that there was current moving under me and if I broke through, I would be dragged under the ice and they wouldn't have found me. The creaking was still happening so I laid down on my belly and inched my way back carefully crawling using my elbows and thighs like a soldier under barbwire obstacle field.

Was so glad to get off the ice. I never told my dad I did that.

 

[Doug627]

tcon:

I don't know if your father is still alive, but if he is, he would still whip you for what you did. My father, if he were still alive, would still whip me for racing that train.