Sad that its a different day and age.....

[1899b]

Was reminiscing lately and just wanted to share:

Grew up in Fort McMurray.  Remember being a 14 year old boy (1986) in November, getting off the school bus dropping my school gear off at home and running down to the Clearwater river to see if it was froze yet.  First weekend when it was i grabbed a pack and my Savage 99 in .308 and went out the front door and walked down the street with a rifle slung over my shoulder. Said good morning to the neighbours waiting for the Suncor bus as they wished me luck. These days the cops would be called.

My daughter is 12 now and will be doing the online Hunters Ed course so that i can get her out with me fully licensed.  She has the same zest i had at that age for hunting.  I am sad that she won't experience the upbringing and freedom i had as a youngster in regards to firearms and hunting as its now a different world.  I can only hope that i can do my part as a father to keep the tradition alive for her within this different day and age and help keep her zest alive for this amazing sport and lifestyle we all love....

 

[Walleyes]

It's changed for sure but there are still places it hasn't changed a lot. Our boys had all the freedom in the world when it came to that. We had our acerage just 7 miles out of lac la biche and for them boys it was like the 70s was for me. They grew up on their quads running around the sticks with their guns on the rack. They all started hinting on their own with their friends by the time they were old enough to drive. The C.O's would stop them on routine checks and never bothered them about the fact there was no adult with them. They were always polite and behaved I guess they figured the kids aren't up town running around so let them be. In the cities yah it's changed but that's why we have always kept away from them places.

Small town northern Alberta hasn't changed a whole lot, definitely some but not like the cities have. I know schools have changed, when we were in school just about everyone had their pocket knife or folding knife on the belt on them,, try that now.. How about the smoking areas schools had lol.. There was never a threat of someone pulling a knife in a fight because trust me if they ever did they would get the shit kicked out of them by everyone so it was just never thought of. And believe me in that town we had a few,, just about every day in school but there was a code of sorts some pride in a good scrap if you would..

[BruceW]

The pendulum swings slowly.  Decades of failed liberal social engineering will take time to rectify.  People's attitudes are slowly changing as they begin to realize the rainbow's and unicorns they were sold by trdo1 are all imaginary.  (except the accompanying bills of course, they're very real and we're still paying them, daily)

Things like Cdn tire getting heavily into sporting goods and firearms is, IMO a wonderful thing to see.  Every soccer mom type that's taking little Johnny in for soccer shinpads will walk right past the displays, and despite what some of them believe, those evil gun's won't attack them.  Despite the left's claims, the streets haven't run red with liberal blood since the demise of the lgr.
Walmart's been known as anti gun, yet they have no problem selling skids of trap loads, etc.  With Cdn Tire claiming a market share I suspect Walmart won't be far behind;  it's not like walmart to leave a nickel in the market.

Women and youth are by far the fastest growing segments of new shooters and pal holders.  More women than ever are taking hunter training courses.  Yuppies/guppies or whatever you call them this generation are viewing hunting as sustainable healthy meat on their plate.  Hipsters, I think that's what you call them? 

When son was in high school there were maybe 3 kids in his class of around 45 that hunted.  Had a heck of a time getting him on a pal course as there were few in the area.  Daughters boyfriend just took his pal last weekend here in Bow Island;  looks to be 1-2 courses/month now.

I suspect things will be much better 10 yrs from now than they were 10 yrs ago;  unless of course trdo2 somehow gets elected.  Then it'll get ugly in all respects very quickly, but that's another topic.

[JIMMY 808]

Our dads and grand dads never have seen anything like this at Macleods hardware.  Its better today in some ways than it’s ever been.
Crappy tire has a ways to go here is a pic from wally mart Sparta Illinois.     

[JIMMY 808]

So many more people today then there was, everything is getting bigger and something’s can’t keep up.
5 million plus shells shot up in 14 days last year… 

[Walleyes]

Our dads and grand dads never have seen anything like this at Macleods hardware.  Its better today in some ways than it’s ever been.
Crappy tire has a ways to go here is a pic from wally mart Sparta Illinois.     

But at least when we went into Macleod's and had to talk to someone about something they actualy knew what they were talking about. Heck they even spoke English which was awesome. Our dads didn't need 50 differant types of shells to put through their guns,, they shot Federal amunition through a .303 or '06 and low and behold they put game on the ground. They hunted the animal they didn't really on the latest and greatest new toy to put meat on the ground. They didn't need the fastest, flattest, lightest new gadget,, hell they only practiced with it 2 days before hunting season. Put 4 shells down the pipe to make sure it was close and away they went and HUNTED the animal.

Way too much junk out there now a days taking away from the experience,, that's my biggest problem with things these days.. We have to get back to the basics and enjoy things in their raw form. People have been brain washed into thinking they need all this crap now days,, it's a joke.. Junk sold to the weak of mind..

[1899b]

I'm with Walleyes on this one!!!  Very well said Walleyes word for word you hit the nail on the head...

[Sonny]

When I was in grade nine I went to a high school that had a shooting range in the basement.It was just a 25 yard range and they only had old lee Enfields converted to .22lr.
Mr.Fraser,our history teaher was the range master and a lot of times us kids would bug him in history class to go to the range.Many times he gave in and took us to the basement to shoot,best teacher I ever had.

Yes it was a different day and age....to sad that kids nowadays won't ever see and do the stuff we did when we were young.