Author Topic: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man  (Read 4498 times)

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Offline BBF

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #30 on: April 13, 2009, 07:17:51 AM »
Sweetwater:
This kind of stuff leaves "scars" !!
I was lucky, my ex had her faults, and so did and have  I. She was realistic and more then fair. She knew my income, knew there would never be "bonus" income and never pushed for an increase .
 We settled out of court on the support per child and as each hit 19 years old the total went down. Not many ex'es would do this, mine did and I give her credit for it.
What is the point of Life if you can't have fun.

Offline Sweetwater

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #31 on: April 13, 2009, 06:44:50 PM »
BBF- You are one of the lucky ones in that respect. I've got two ex's and neither has a concept for fair. One I have no contact with, and the other I still have too much as we still have kids in college and then there are the grandkids...it just goes on, but I try not to dwell on it and if the kids bring up something I just remind them that they know their mother and we don't need to discuss it. My #3 is a "Jewel" in every sense of the word and wish she were first and only, but we are an impatient people. I try to emphasis to the kids that most of my problems have been created by impatience. The "I want it now" syndrome. I know this has nothing to do with the younger generation and the great outdoors, but it does have a bunch to do with overall developement of our young. Thanks for listening.

Regards,
Sweetwater
Regards,
Sweetwater

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway - John Wayne

The proof is in the freezer - Sweetwater

Offline BBF

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #32 on: April 14, 2009, 04:21:37 AM »
 ;D
My present( No 2) is a keeper. I was the No 2 for my ex. She is presently with No 4 and has been for a long time. Both of us are still well below old Larry King. I think he is on the 7th ;D ::) but then he has the $$ to blow.


My apology to the original poster for having taken this off track. When OF's start to reflect it can go anywhere. ;)
What is the point of Life if you can't have fun.

Offline Rex in OTZ

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The age of common sence was departed long ago.
« Reply #33 on: April 29, 2009, 09:54:14 AM »
Its great to see a small cell of humanity struggling in the face of the common trend to be stupid
After reading some the publications of a past era the amount of responseability awarded kids was amazeing!
Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn mabe been fictional characters but they were modeld off what some kids were like in them days.
I really liked a Harding press book "Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper by E.N. Woodcock" the whole idea of knowing what your limitations were and pitting your self in nature is enlightening.
One my childhood favorites was my side the mountain.
The de-naturization of american youth is a pity, its actually a crime, ignorance of nature will get to the point that we shouldent use that as a excuse for what we do today,
I did travel down to the States a few years back and the urban sprawl was alarming what was once pastures and what few wooded places and haymeddows, crop ground are all now gone, you dont notice it but its creeping across the beautifull places like a cancer.
This was all throughout Eastern Colorado and North Western Kansas.
Where are the grouse and pheasants and other wildlife to live and reproduce?
We soon wont have any wild places left to carry a firearm in a open and un-molested manner and the few wild places that still are you wont be allowed to do so on public lands.
I know we all want to live off at the edge of civilization but there are going to have to be safe guards designating some areas as agricultrial only areas, or restrictions on oversized farm factories, Ive visited my childhood area and downward slide tha has taken plcae, where there was nice pasture and haymeddows wooded creek bottoms is now all denuded of anything natural, the soil is all leveld and soil is erodeing into where the creed was, the pasture and haymeddow is now a Huge Hog confinement facility they have saturated the ground water with so much nitrates the well water round there is not safe to drink, the ditches still exist but the fence rows and plumb brush and ground cover is gone, they now farm from road to road every square yard of land is utilized, not for the beterment to the surrounding area and definately not condusive for the prairiechicken and wildturkey that once flourished there, no cover for wild game that we once had. I know its how modern business works, problem is the smaller farms and ranches have been bought up by investment firms and they are playing monopoly with our heratage, too bad its come to the point that the average family can just barely hang on to a small farm, they have to work 2 and some times 3 jobs to augment ther income to hang on to the place, modern business environment has made it very tough if not impossible to operate as they did in the day's prior to the 1980's.
Big business will always exploit economic advantages (economic collapse of farms/ranches) buying land cheap and horeing it out to the highest bidder to hell with whats advantages were before they started
who cares about the old growth cotton wood trees planted by some homesteader they were clear cut for pallet wood, all the neat history gone, one the last year We had our place I was out hunting prairie chicken when crossing through a draw I kicked up a old rusty spur, I stuck it in my hip pocket and later on the dash board of my truck, a neighbor saw that rusty relic and stated that it was a old U.S. Calvary spurr.
Well that ravine is now leveld and thers a hog confienment facility there today, weeds growing were bigbluestem, indiangrass, brome once gave cover to some the best hunting grounds I'd seen in SouthDakota/Nebraska.

Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #34 on: April 29, 2009, 11:14:55 AM »
Quote
One my childhood favorites was my side the mountain.

At the time I thought I was the only one in the world that had ever read that book!
“Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.”

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Offline Blue Duck

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #35 on: June 08, 2009, 03:57:29 AM »
Wow you guys just jerked me back to the good old days.  Glad I checked this forum out.  Didn't know there were any of us left.   Most all of the posts here zeroed in on my younger days.  Thanks for the memories...

Offline Old Fart

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #36 on: September 21, 2009, 11:08:01 AM »
The kids in my classes I teach find it hard to believe but it wasn't uncommon to drive through our high school parking lot and see pickups with gun rack and in those gun racks were 22's and old beat up shotguns. Nobody thought a thing of it.

Spent a decent part of my youth in boy scouts out camping and tromping through the woods. Learned almost all my woodcraft from scouting. I don't remember ever feeling like I was lost. Taught early how to read terrain and maps served me well over the years. I've spent probably 25 or 30 years as a volunteer in the scouting movement. There's still lots of fine young men out there learning pretty much the same way I did. Unfortunately we don't hear about them in the news very often, every now and then a bad apple slips through and the press jumps on it.
"All my life I've had a bad case of the Fred's. Fredrick Vanderbilt taste on a Fred Sanford budget." CR
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Offline Winter Hawk

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #37 on: November 02, 2009, 11:09:25 AM »
After reading this thread, I checked wit the library and found they had My Side of the Mountain.  I put a hold on it, picked it up last Friday, and am now reading it to my 10 year old in the evening before bed.  Thanks for telling about it!

-Winter Hawk-
"All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife." - D. Boone

Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #38 on: November 02, 2009, 11:35:24 AM »
After reading this thread, I checked wit the library and found they had My Side of the Mountain.  I put a hold on it, picked it up last Friday, and am now reading it to my 10 year old in the evening before bed.  Thanks for telling about it!

-Winter Hawk-

you'll both love that book, I gotta get it to read to my grandsons, although them reading it in 10 years may be better. but Grandpas gotta have fun too!
“Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.”

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Offline Winter Hawk

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #39 on: November 05, 2009, 03:45:18 PM »
This is my third boy, the other two are out of the house.  I read to them all until they lost interest or were chasing girls.  My Dad read to me also until homework in high school got in the way.

Nathanael told me last night that this is the neatest book we have read thus far!

-Kees-
"All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife." - D. Boone

Offline LEO

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #40 on: January 30, 2010, 08:18:53 AM »
This thread has hit home for me as well.  It sounds like many of us have had similar expeiences in childhood.  It is amazing how many kids today have different outlooks than we ever thought about.  We had some company at the house the other night, it was a fellow and his son that my better half knows through a SAR organization that she works with.  Well it was quite the experience, I had shot a beaver back earlier in the fall that was the biggest one I had seen around here (it bottomed a 50 lb scale without any difficulty) but anyway, there was a picture of me with it, a piture of me with a goose I had shot and a picture of me and my beloved with a limit of geese we had killed on the refrigerator.  The man and his son were shocked that we did such things and the shotgun standing next to the door about pushed them over the edge.  After supper we were sitting around talking and it was a real mild night, my daughter (20 months old and already been camping)  likes to look at the stars and she wanted me to take her out to see the stars.  I asked the boy if he wanted to go with us.  We went out back and my daughter was looking at the stars and moon when this little boy became frantic, he was convinced that we were about to be eaten by coyotes because some yelped a couple of ridges over from the house.  He would not be satisfied until he had went back inside the house and closed the door.  This was after me explaining to him that the coyotes wouldn't come around because of our dogs and the fact that coyotes were not tolerated near the house due to the chickens and other critters (back to the shotgun beside the door)  (their reaction to the critters is another story).  They were completely shocked that we don't have cable or satelite TV after all this is 2010.  None of these things were done in anyway to make the guests uncomfortable it is just the way we live and neither me or my beloved thought anything about it before they arrived, it appears that this fellow is very different from the way he presents himself when his is at the SAR team.  This is said to make this point, if we who enjoy the outdoor life style don't make a concentrated effort to get youth interested in it it will be lost in a generation.

Offline Sweetwater

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #41 on: January 30, 2010, 09:15:40 AM »
LEO- well presented and all too true!

Regards,
Sweetwater
Regards,
Sweetwater

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway - John Wayne

The proof is in the freezer - Sweetwater

Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #42 on: January 30, 2010, 11:53:09 AM »
Good Post LEO!
“Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.”

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Offline vacek

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Re: Just the ramblings of a semi-old man
« Reply #43 on: February 19, 2010, 04:21:33 AM »
A little poem I wrote that fits.

A Town for Boys – Alleys and Vacant Lots
       
Any day, when boys run free
Pocketknife … loaded Daisy
Levis, Keds, an old t-shirt
Early morning rise, a glass of milk
Grab some cold bologne, and slip out the door
Ready for the alley safari.

The Alley, a place and a time 2 generations past
Sparrow and tin can fair game
Stalking quietly, the yellow jacket’s lair
Slowly, carefully taking aim.
Every safari has its dangerous time
But without risk the adventure is lame
---------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free
A hike to the junkyard … Got knife? Daisy?
A quick drink from the hose, before starting the trip
A mile west from the schoolyard  …  stop for a pee.
Turn north to the smell and smolder
Ready for the junkyard safari

The Junkyard, a place and a time 2 generations past
Rat and glass jar fair game
Keeping a sharp eye for a snake in the weeds
Sneak up on one, carefully taking aim.
Every safari has its dangerous time,
But without risk the adventure is lame
--------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free
Walking the track … in a baseball cap …  the Daisy
Pick up some spikes; lay a penny on the rail
Flattened by the mail train, when it passes at 3:00.
One hour heading west with the wind in your face
Hitch a ride back because you’re late … then face Mom’s fury

The track, a place and a time 2 generations past
A quarter to the city, one-way
A soda at the Corner Drug, a swim at City Park
Back to the depot at 5:00, the train won’t delay
Another quarter will get you home
To the end of a great summer’s day
--------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free,
Over to the vacant lot for a look-see
To join a game of round-up … start in right field
Catch a fly ball and you’re batting for free
Hit as many as you can
Before flying out or getting called out at strike three

The Vacant Lot, a place and a time 2 generations past
We always played a fair game
Whether it was football or baseball, your age mattered not
What mattered … you are there ... that you came.
And so what if it was “tackle” without any pads
Without risk the game was too lame.
-------------------------------------------
Any day when a man’s mind roams free,
He goes back home in his memory
And whispers a prayer of thanks for that time and that place
Now two generations past  ….  For the friends and his family
And those times with his friends still play in his mind
When he and the boys all ran free.