Another Time and a Different Country
 

Yep. Can you imagine the outrage that would result if such a commercial was aired today.

And I am pretty certain those young Roy Rogers fans never went on to shoot up a church or movie theater. My, my how our values have changed as a nation. I feel privileged to have lived in the '50s.,,I fear we will never be the same.

i'll take 6..............for the grand kids.....

Ron,

I also have fond memories of the 1950s, having been born during them.

Those kids grew up to kill Vietcong, instead.


Sieger

Agree!!! Graduated from High School in 1953, went in the Navy also in 1953. What a different world. Wish we could go back but alas we are stuck with this one. Bill

I agree with Ron and with the previous posts, the World is changing and perhaps not for the best, this is happening also here in Italy, simply people are changing and this makes you wonder about the future.

Sergio

I remember walking to Jr. High School with my Stevens .22 cal rifle in hand. Stored it in my locker till school was out and then about ten of us and a teacher went down in the basement of the school and practiced target shooting. After the practice walking thru town and nobody thinking anything strange was happening. Spent the whole summer up in the hills around Warren Pa with the rest of the guys in the neighborhood. About every third day my mother would catch me coming down the hill for some more food and make me take a bath. Would be back up the hill before it got dark.

As Yeats said...."Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold"...Unless there is a drastic reformation soon, I fear that the America we grew up in is gone forever....and what is replacing it will indeed be "some rough Beast"

Well,
that is one toy I missed seeing; but if I had I woulda' wanted it real bad!

I really can't figure out what changed, but you guys are right, couldn't run that today; and
notice only the boy in the black hat got "shot".

Must be a moral there somewhere.

I grew up in those days too and I remember in the mid 50's before I was old enough to drive, I would take a city bus to a friends house across town with my .22 rifle in a case We then walked the last few blocks until we got out of town to hunt squirrels, rabbits or whatever was in season at the time with our .22's uncased Never had a problem.

I, also, grew up in the 50s. We lived in a small ranching/farming community. On Saturday morning I would take my .22 and carry it right through town and walk about 20-30 minutes to my 'hunting grounds'. Depending on what was in season, I would hunt until nearly dark, and then walk home with my booty if I had been successful. That is how all of the young boys did it. I have zero regrets about my childhood.

When I was around 13, I more or less took possession of my father's 22 bolt action that he got when he was a teenager. I decided that I wanted a scope on it so I bought a Weaver scope and had a local gunsmith mount it. To get to the gunsmith I just slung the rifle on my back and bicycled the few miles to the gunsmith. 'No big deal back then. Sigh........

I went for Mattel's belt buckle derringer that fired a plastic bullet from a cartridge with a spring. Then you could put a greeny stickem cap on the end for a bang. Now police shoot kids with toy guns... But now I can collect real Lugers and P-38s, much better... Older and wiser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7xM5wATkTI

I was a about those kids age-born in 47.
I had a pretty neat set of Hop Along Cassidy six shooters and lots of others.
There was a belt buckle that had a cap firing derringer which swung out and fired when you pulled the cord.
Yes a lot of us got to go kill "Viet Cong." NVA regulars, as well.
Just as all generations till then, military service was an obligation and part of the social contract we were born under.
My father got to kill Nazis as part of the 506th PIR and my grandfather killed Huns in France in 1918.
Most of my generation did our civic duty and fulfilled that obligation when called.
It's how we were raised.

As a senior in high school, I drug about a dozen WW2 weapons I had already collected including a BYF 41 Luger, Nambus, Garand and others, into my science class as a project.
Nobody batted an eye, I got a "A," and a couple leads.

When ducks were in season, I kept my Cogswell and Harrison 12 gauge double in my high school wall locker.

In the early 70's, I hunted deer after classes were done for the day at Ithaca College. To keep my 20 ga. Model 37 Ithaca safe during the day, I'd take it to the reception area/security office and sign it out after classes. I'm not sure if anyone could do this these days.