All us kids in our little school district never really had a bully.
One of our farm girls would pound knots on his head if he got out of line.
It was fun when it snowed and drifted hard so us older boys could help the
bus driver put on tire chains.
It was not uncommon for a couple guys to have a fire arm on the bus and nobody ever asked why.
The bus driver would let one of the aforementioned kids out in the middle of "a couple miles from home"
so the kid could hike over some ground and shoot a rabbit and or a squirrel or two on the rest of the afternoon.
I was one of the kids and my Uncle was the bus driver.
His daughter, my cousin Cathy was a year older than me and the toughest woman I have ever known.
I lived with those folks for quite a few years and remember when they were getting plumbing in the house sometime in the 60's
We had quite some times back then, I was an accomplished truck and tractor driver by the time I was 12.
Kind of would like to drift back there again.

LOL Zim

Sounds like good times Zim

The 60's and 70's were a good time to grow up. Too many electronic distractions nowadays! Urban sprawl has not helped either!

Chris

The first time I solo'd on a tractor, I was six. My uncle and dad were loading irrigation pipe on the trailer while I tried to keep the wheels in the row going about 1 mph. At the end of the row, my dad would jump onto the tractor and get me turned around the other direction and step off again.

My mom got pulled over for speeding in the family beetle. There was an uncased 20ga shotgun (unloaded) on the floor of the back seat that my dad used to kill crows in the corn field. Three of us little kids were in the back seat with it. State trooper didn't say a word about it.

My 10 year old friends and I would take our backpacks and sleeping bags and disappear into the woods for the weekend with no adults.

I guess we had kind of a facebook back then, now that I think about it.
It was called a party line.
Ours was 3 rings.
There were no secrets.

Zim

I remember dad would drop off me and my friend at daylight wherever we wanted.
As long as we were back at my uncle's at dark.
Common to go through a brick each of .22 rounds shooting Jack's.
We'd walk MILES a day.
No permission needed. Wasn't uncommon to see over 1000 Jack's a day. Now, seldom see one.
Ahh, the good ole days!

The fiftys were the best years for me. Could go as far as my leg would take me, no one would think a thing about it, just say howdy! I started the fiftys off with a bang. Dad went to town, town was a mile from the end of our half mile long lane. I decided to go there too. I was three, and had a tricycle for wheels. Here I was about eight in the morning pedeling my bike down the highway. A number of people went by and waved, before the next door neighbor stopped me only about a quarter mile from town. He hauled me home and mom worked on my hind end a bit!

About 57 or 58, a neighbor boy that I ran around with some, decided that a fish bait stand along the highway would be a good endeavor. We dug worms, caught grasshoppers, crawdads, minnows and such, and made ourselves a few bucks. Was a good time to grow up, as even the local lawyer was well liked and was like everyone else. Wasn't the backstabbing and money grubbing that goes on nowdays, back then....or at least as a kid, I sure didn't see it! lol

My first trapping was done in 54. I thought I'd died and went to heaven! Civet cats, aka spotted skunks were the main menu, with a few possums and stripers. Used to get the FCTaylor fur price lists in the mail, and spend days looking at them. Dream about catching a mink.....but I lived on an upland farm, and there wasn't even coon around. I remember crossing the pasture in the summer, and there in some baked dry mud was a set of coon tracks. I dreamed about catching that coon for months, but never saw any sign again!

Those were good days and times. I wish the world was as simple and honest as folks were back in those days. Thanks for letting me ramble!

I never rode a trike to town but all the rest rings true. Thanks for the memories.

bunch of oldies on here

I took a marlin .22 to school and made a new walnut stock for it.
Later I sold it to a policeman.

Hey Zim...did you take a Big Bus...or a Little Bus to school...........:)

50 years ago-aaaah the girls.

I collected pop bottles for a year to buy my first deer rifle a 30-30 Marlin. Still got it!! Took guns to school to do reports on and even ammo to show what they shot, teacher just stacked them in the corner. I wonder what has happened to our country and why we cant get it back?? I think if they threw a few parents in jail for their kids shooting up a school people might start checking their kids better. No way could I have got out the door with my mom not knowing what I had. But she loved me and parents were different back then kids were not your best friends they was kids and the teach was right!!

thanks guy brings back lots of good times

The 50's :

A spincast rod/reel was the cats meow, When we eventually did get one, it took 5 minutes for the B/W television to warm up and get a picture, not very good by todays standards. Rawhide was my favorite show.
Cars were made of real steel and had a lot of character. Us kids used to run behind the fog (DDT) trucks that drove through in the summertime. Drinking a soda pop and eating a hamburger "out" was a huge treat.
I remember the buzz watching Sputnik overhead in the night sky. I remember sitting in my uncle's dentist office, getting my first fillings without any anesthetic.

All of the Above!!!! Those were good days!!

I remember bringing my single shot .22 to school on the bus for "show and tell".Every country boy had a knife in his pocket.Every class had one big pencil sharpener in the back of the room.Ours broke one day and the teacher put me in charge of sharpening pencils with my jack knife.On lunch break we would shoot marbles out in the gravel parking lot.every boy had a bag of marbles with him.No running water in our farm house.Had a double seater out house in the back.I remember the old man sending me up on the roof to spin the TV antenna and he would yell when the channel came in clear.3channels,,4 on a real clear day.We would watch Red Skelton at night for laughs.Rawhide and Bonanza were two of my favorite shows.Also the Rifleman.We raised pretty much everything we ate.150 chickens each year along with one bull,three pigs and some turkeys.Canned everything from the garden.Helped the neighbor hood dairy farmers hay their fields for some spending money.Money was usually spent on BBs or .22 shells.

SO many good memories from 60's & 70's growing up. I think about those times ad the things that have changed that the young today will never experience.

I remember getting off the couch to change the channel.....boy do I miss those days........

And buying tubes of BB’s