RobertJ.
Member
1976. I was sixteen. I called my aunt in Portland to buy me tickets to what was going to be my first rock concert. I was going to see Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of my favorite bands.
A couple days before the show, I smarted off to my mom, and my dad said that was it, I wasn't going to the concert.
I thought the heck with you, and to get even, I ran away from home. But I didn't go to the concert, I went camping at a county park about forty miles away. I was out there for almost a week (there was a little store a few miles away where I got supplies) before a sheriff's deputy came out and got me. I had become friends with a guy who was camped out on a hunting trip, and I think he reported me. I had "borrowed" my dad's Ruger Standard .22, and since this guy and I had done a little target shooting, I was positive that he reported that I was armed. So the sheriff said, "I hear you have a gun. Let's see it." So I showed him my dad's pistol. He pulled out the magazine, checked the chamber, which was empty, then put the magazine back in the gun, put it back in the holster, then handed it back to me! He said, "When I get you home, give this back to your dad!" I told him I would. Thankfully, I was able to put it back un-detected.
What I didn't know, was that my dad thought I had gone to the concert, and he went there looking for me!
Fast forward 30 years. My dad and I were having our weekly coffee at a little cafe, which is what we did after my he and my mom split up. He asked me, "Do you remember when you ran away, and I went to the concert looking for you?" I told him of course I remember, how could I forget something like that? He said, "You should have gone. They were good!" So I asked him, "Did you know that I borrowed your .22 pistol when I went camping?" He said, "NO!!" We both got a pretty good laugh out of that whole thing!
Times sure have changed. Today, there would have been a swat team out there to apprehend me, and that deputy wouldn't have given the gun back to me!
My dad and I saw Ted Nugent a month later.
But he got to see Lynyrd Skynyrd!
A couple days before the show, I smarted off to my mom, and my dad said that was it, I wasn't going to the concert.
I thought the heck with you, and to get even, I ran away from home. But I didn't go to the concert, I went camping at a county park about forty miles away. I was out there for almost a week (there was a little store a few miles away where I got supplies) before a sheriff's deputy came out and got me. I had become friends with a guy who was camped out on a hunting trip, and I think he reported me. I had "borrowed" my dad's Ruger Standard .22, and since this guy and I had done a little target shooting, I was positive that he reported that I was armed. So the sheriff said, "I hear you have a gun. Let's see it." So I showed him my dad's pistol. He pulled out the magazine, checked the chamber, which was empty, then put the magazine back in the gun, put it back in the holster, then handed it back to me! He said, "When I get you home, give this back to your dad!" I told him I would. Thankfully, I was able to put it back un-detected.
What I didn't know, was that my dad thought I had gone to the concert, and he went there looking for me!
Fast forward 30 years. My dad and I were having our weekly coffee at a little cafe, which is what we did after my he and my mom split up. He asked me, "Do you remember when you ran away, and I went to the concert looking for you?" I told him of course I remember, how could I forget something like that? He said, "You should have gone. They were good!" So I asked him, "Did you know that I borrowed your .22 pistol when I went camping?" He said, "NO!!" We both got a pretty good laugh out of that whole thing!
Times sure have changed. Today, there would have been a swat team out there to apprehend me, and that deputy wouldn't have given the gun back to me!
My dad and I saw Ted Nugent a month later.
But he got to see Lynyrd Skynyrd!
