Young and Stupid: THOSE Were The Days!

V

VorpelSword

Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
1,020
Born in 1950 and a kid so I as a pre-teen to middle school Boy Scout in the early 1960s . . .it was just not that long after WW-II and wr surplus everything was everywhere and cheap.

As a Kid between say, 11 and 14, having a bayonet or USMC KaBar brought a lot of coolness and envy. But what to do?

Give six kids thirty minutes untasked and unobserved: And so we would stand facing on another two arms lengths apart and throw a big knife into the ground just beyond the others foot. It had to stick into the dirt point first. He would then touch the knife with that foot, pull it out hand back your knife and do that to you. Eventually on or the other would be so extended that he fell over when pulling out the knife . . .and "lost",

How many ways can that go wrong?
 
I often wonder how we survived childhood. Didn't have bayonets or Kabars, so we played mumblety-peg with our Scout knives, usually with the leather punch. Wrecked a lot of knives :rolleyes: .
 
And by "good stuff" mentioned above, I mean there were racks of guns available at the hardware store. Mausers and Csrcanos along with WW-I era trench shotguns etc . . .there were ads for all of that in the magazines and if you sent them a check it would come to your house in the mail. One of my high school bus-stop buddies got a summer job and spent his money on a DEWAT Thompson! But that is another story for another thread.
 
I was born in the 80s but grew up all over (military brat). Having pocket knives, running around the farm shooting woodchucks with .22s or bugger with dad and generally allowed to be kids was normal. Heck we all had fixed blades as well, and my uncle taught me to make knives. Tip don't use your moms hair dryer as a bellows, she finds out the next day when black soot blows in her hair haha (thank you $50 dollar forge). (Farm in PA, FT.Meade was dad's base) The Baltimore area was NOT knife/gun friendly and still isn't.

Anyway, jumping from hay mounds, blowing things up (didn't know they were called bombs yet). Generally had a knife on me at all times, I still have my first few pocket knives, all buck made.
 
Last edited:
Chicken plays the other way. Start with legs wide apart and move the foot to the knife thrown in between. First one to bail out is the chicken.
 
VorpelSword said:
Born in 1950 and a kid so I as a pre-teen to middle school Boy Scout in the early 1960s . . .it was just not that long after WW-II and wr surplus everything was everywhere and cheap.

As a Kid between say, 11 and 14, having a bayonet or USMC KaBar brought a lot of coolness and envy. But what to do?

Give six kids thirty minutes untasked and unobserved: And so we would stand facing on another two arms lengths apart and throw a big knife into the ground just beyond the others foot. It had to stick into the dirt point first. He would then touch the knife with that foot, pull it out hand back your knife and do that to you. Eventually on or the other would be so extended that he fell over when pulling out the knife . . .and "lost",

How many ways can that go wrong?
Click to expand...
LOL My childhood friends and I played the exact same game. GOOD TIMES!
 
Yeah, 1947 here. Most of the scouts in our troop couldn't afford a whole uniform so almost all of our gear for camping was WW2 surplus. Backpacks, sleeping bags, canteens, first aid kits all came from the surplus store. My neighbor boys and myself used to walk the roads with a bushel basket looking for discarded bottles, we got 2 cents for regular soda or beer bottles and 5 cents for the quart bottles. Then we'd hop on our bicycles and pedal 6-8 miles to the town with the surplus store and go right to the barrel full of MK 2s. $1.50 for a used one and $2.00 for an unissued one. Then back to our camp in the woods where we'd throw the knife at trees until it was lost in the leaves or broken and repeat the whole process. We never used to throw them at one another, we used pocket knives for throwing at one another's feet. I feel partly resposible for the high prices MK 2s bring today, we must have broken or lost 30-40 of them in a four year period. I did get a Carcano carbine for $5.50 and an Enfield .303 rifle for $7.50 at the same store. To bad I wasn't smart enough to buy and keep a bunch of Garands, but hey were $20-30 each.
 
Gunsil: Surplus gear was a staple for about everyone as late as the mid sixties. Only Sears was selling "modern" camping gear, but it was heavy canvass oriented towards fmily car camping as I recall. The modern, light weight backpacking stuff didn't really become widely available till the last half of the sixties with Kelty leading the way.

I grew up in a less seriously disadvantaged situation, but our troop still used mostly surplus packs and tents. I remember using a forest a cavernous rucksack and shelter half lashed to a forest green pack board on a twenty mile overnight once. Looking back some 55 to 60 years now, it is my childhood perception that it was less a matter of money and more about availability.

Back to knives now: My prized possession at age 14 or so was a carbon steel Airforce Pilot's Survival Knife, saw teeth and all. And to underline how much things have changed . . .I was able to bring it to school so that I could grind off the cross guard and make a leather sheath for it in Shop Class!
 
I was born 1949. What I remember as a kid was ads (in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics) for Jeeps, in parts that could be assembled for $500. My father could not see me putting a jeep together when I was 9.
 
Vorpel, there were modern gear available in the early 60s and before. Eddie Bauer and LL Bean had lightweight gear and there was a place in NY called Camp and Trail (not Camp Trails) that made stock and custom lightweight gear. (I still have my 15" Beans boots from 1964 and they still fit but the rubber soles are well worn down). Yeah, as far as school, from 3rd grade I always carried a scout/utility knife in one pocket and a stockman in the other. Most boys still carried a pocket knife everywhere they went. The village dump was close to the school and when in 5th grade my neighbor boy and myself would take our .22s to school, leave them in the principal's office and take them to the dump for rat shooting after school. So sad that a group of boys walking down the road with rifles and ammo would be a cause for alarm today or can't carry a pocket knife to class.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
I was born 1949. What I remember as a kid was ads (in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics) for Jeeps, in parts that could be assembled for $500. My father could not see me putting a jeep together when I was 9.
Click to expand...
1960 is my birth year. Man did I want one of those Jeeps ! My dad worked in the motor pool and had lotsa experience with them.
But I never got one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top