Posted on 01/07/2014 3:41:39 AM PST by Maceman
Every boy brought their pocket knife everywhere they went, particularly to school. The nanny state would have a stroke. Tops sharpened to split the other kid’s top was fun as well. Can you bring yo yos to school now?
We used to do that in grade school. Every kid had a pocket knife. I guess they don’t allow that anymore. :-)
We played a variation called “stretch.” We’d stand facing each other and take turns throwing a Bowie knife at the ground on either side of the opponent’s feet. If the knife stuck, he had to move his foot where the knife was. Once the knife was stuck in the ground at a point that he couldn’t stretch his foot to, you won.
Dittos. Before school, recess, lunch and after school. All the fellas played. I can remember teachers and staff, on occasion, checking our games out as we played! We used to stone our blade’s tips on our desktops right in class! Today the SWAT teams, crisis counseling, shrinks etc. etc. would be called in. A long, long time ago in a very different America.....I miss that America.
The good old days.Got by first BB gun at 8 and got hit by many a ricochet.
It never even occurred to us that a high school kid with a rifle was a problem we actually had an indoor range in the basement of an elementary school and the little kids used to love the “fireworks” they could hear.
Mumbley peg was an art form from my youth. Long before Jethro Gibbs rule #9 all the boys I knew didn’t leave home without a pocket knife and a bag of marbles. I still have a cigar box full of Aggies, catseyes, toothpaste and Oxbloods. We played marbles and Mumbley peg for “keepsies”.
We also used to carry our shotguns to elementary school on the bus, leave them in the coatroom during class and then walk home after school, locked and loaded for dove hunting.
My son will never know the freedoms or the joys of being a boy I once enjoyed. The kids today play Mario and Pokémon on their tablets. The world has changed.
Sad, innit?
Last I looked, Dad still keeps his Daisy BB on the back porch for stray cats. (Nobody likes fresh pawprints on a newly washed car or strewn baby rabbit guts after watching them grow all Spring.) As for popping the offender while it’s lazing on top of your car - oops, that Daisy shoots left!
Thanks, BTW, as I hadn’t a clue how mumblety-peg was played!
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