When I was growing up on the farm we had several guns, most of which were 0.22 calibre. One was an old pump action Remington 0.22 with a magazine that held about 15 shorts. For a period of time we had an Iver-Johnson 0.22 revolver. We also had B-B guns (Daisy Air Rifle), but that is story for another post.
Many of out barn windows, and a few signs suffered from my attacks. Occasionally a bird or a rabbit. (Sorry about that nature: I beg your forgiveness). Sometimes me and one of my neighbors Johnny B would go to the creek and hunt carp. We would bring our 0.22 rifles, remove our shoes and socks, hike up the pants and wade up stream. When we would see a carp ahead of us in the shallow creek, we would attempt to shoot it. There are a few problems with shooting carp in the water, one of which is that as a 12 year old my ability to calculate index of refraction between the air and our targets under the water was not very quick, so we would have to shoot a little closer than where the carp appeared to be. Another is that the energy of a 0.22 short that we usually used for this sport was expended in the first few inches of water. I don’t remember ever causing the death of any of the carp but I do remember that it was a lot of fun to be out wading in a creek with guns.
Guns also taught me some valuable skills that were of use later in life. For instance I felt like I needed a bandolier to look cool wandering around the woods near our house. I created the bandolier as an arm band out of some old denim, and some elastic bands that I sewed together. I would fit the 0.22 bullets into the elastic bands sown at bullet sized intervals. Later I occasionally would hem my own blue jeans and even sow buttons back onto my shirts. See – I learned a valuable skill.
When I was in ninth grade we had the option to take a gun safety course as part of our physical education/health class. We were required to bring own gun to school.
Let me repeat that sentence: We were required to bring our own gun to school. But it had to be unloaded, and it had to be in a case. So I bought the $0.77 case from Coast-to-Coast Hardware with the string tie at the stock end, packed up my bullets, my books, my homework and headed to school on the bus, with a few other farm kids in that same class. I had to take the gun directly to my locker and leave it there until the class. At class we would board a school bus and go to a nearby shooting range where the Phy Ed teacher would demonstrate how not to accidentally kill one another, and we did some target practice. At the end of the course we were given a junior hunting license that allowed us to bag a couple of pheasants, ducks or quail.
By this time I was not as interested in hunting for sport as I was shooting carp that I could never hit. I never developed an interest in hunting. And having survived bullets through my South Minneapolis home and garage I no longer have a fondness for guns that I had as a kid. I would gladly skip my experiences with guns as a youth if that could have saved our society from the insane violence of recent decades.
Toad Aweigh 