MY ONE AND ONLY BB GUN
I was nine years old when I got my BB Gun, a Daisy short-barreled carbine with a wooden stock. That gift will always be remembered as a highlight in my life. I sometimes get a tear in my eye when I pick it up and shoot it. It is the most accurate shooting BB gun ever made. You have to see me shoot it to believe how great a shot I still am and I am not bent to exaggerate a truth, or am I? It was hard to cock and took all my strength. I practiced and practiced; day-by-day it got easy. God gave me the ability to see the BB, leave the gun, and hit the target. I got so good I could hit a BB on the sidewalk at 10'. I could hit flies, bees, ants, locust, (they were best), mice, and any thing that moved or stood still. I could-and still can-shoot a leaf out of a tree. You pick the leaf and I cut the stem right at the leaf. Brother Bud never wanted a BB gun. I cannot remember him ever shooting mine, but then he was a pusher (see note) and the best I ever met. During the war BB's were not steel copper-coated but lead shot. When the lead BB hit concrete or a rock it would whine like a real bullet one heard in the Western movies on Friday nights at the Ashton Theater in Clarendon.
I remember one time I turned on the kitchen light and all the rest off while I sat in the dark dining room and waited for the mice to show under the refrigerator. I never missed a mouse. I did not keep score, but when you are around ten what better hunting was there? I did get into trouble in the beginning, but, as I got better at evasion and repair, my problems were few.
We had a telephone pole behind our garage and our neighbor, Mr. Hohein, had his radio antenna from his house attached to the pole. There was a glass insulator attached to the wire to keep lightning strikes on the pole from running the wire to his radio. Sparrows liked to sit on that insulator. I got very good at replacing that insulator. I even put a quick disconnect on the pole to shorten the time needed. The problem with lead shot was that some were not perfect and would cause a very strange trajectory, which usually resulted in trouble. The reason that the glass insulators met their demise was due to those lead BB’s. (I still have two of those insulators in my tool drawer. One must be prepared.)
It was fun to be a boy in the 1930's and 40’s. No one expected a boy to be anything but a boy. There were no organized sports. No Little League baseball or football. Soccer had not been invented, no swim teams. We kids had our own games without interference from adults. If someone had a baseball, we played baseball. We made up the rules to all the games we played as we went along. Kick-the-can was one we spent hours playing. Most of our games required a good imagination and what was available.
Ken Simmons made a slingshot out of a heavy-duty coat hanger with a wood inlayed handle, and the leather pouch was made from the tongue of an old shoe. I was hooked. The problem was rubber bands. During the war they were hard to find, but we had Woolworth's 5 and 10 Cents store in Clarendon and every now and then they got a shipment, and we bought as many as we could. It is important to remember to match the bands so that both sides have the same power. New bands have to be stretched gradually to full draw in order for them to have longer life. I hate to brag, but I was and still am a really fine marksman. BB lead shot were the best in a slingshot due to the heavier weight. The slingshot was something a kid could stick in his pocket and go anywhere-picnics, vacations, visit relatives, or any other place where it might be dull. I cannot recall dull times unless it was school.
Note: Boys come in two kinds, pushers and bangers. Wheels or guns. Brother Bud was a pusher and I am a banger to the end.
I remember one time I turned on the kitchen light and all the rest off while I sat in the dark dining room and waited for the mice to show under the refrigerator. I never missed a mouse. I did not keep score, but when you are around ten what better hunting was there? I did get into trouble in the beginning, but, as I got better at evasion and repair, my problems were few.
We had a telephone pole behind our garage and our neighbor, Mr. Hohein, had his radio antenna from his house attached to the pole. There was a glass insulator attached to the wire to keep lightning strikes on the pole from running the wire to his radio. Sparrows liked to sit on that insulator. I got very good at replacing that insulator. I even put a quick disconnect on the pole to shorten the time needed. The problem with lead shot was that some were not perfect and would cause a very strange trajectory, which usually resulted in trouble. The reason that the glass insulators met their demise was due to those lead BB’s. (I still have two of those insulators in my tool drawer. One must be prepared.)
It was fun to be a boy in the 1930's and 40’s. No one expected a boy to be anything but a boy. There were no organized sports. No Little League baseball or football. Soccer had not been invented, no swim teams. We kids had our own games without interference from adults. If someone had a baseball, we played baseball. We made up the rules to all the games we played as we went along. Kick-the-can was one we spent hours playing. Most of our games required a good imagination and what was available.
Ken Simmons made a slingshot out of a heavy-duty coat hanger with a wood inlayed handle, and the leather pouch was made from the tongue of an old shoe. I was hooked. The problem was rubber bands. During the war they were hard to find, but we had Woolworth's 5 and 10 Cents store in Clarendon and every now and then they got a shipment, and we bought as many as we could. It is important to remember to match the bands so that both sides have the same power. New bands have to be stretched gradually to full draw in order for them to have longer life. I hate to brag, but I was and still am a really fine marksman. BB lead shot were the best in a slingshot due to the heavier weight. The slingshot was something a kid could stick in his pocket and go anywhere-picnics, vacations, visit relatives, or any other place where it might be dull. I cannot recall dull times unless it was school.
Note: Boys come in two kinds, pushers and bangers. Wheels or guns. Brother Bud was a pusher and I am a banger to the end.
posted by JackSML | 9:43 PM
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