I think it was 1967 or 68 when I started shooting a recurve with my two older brothers. Last day of school in the 9th grade I broke my collar bone playing softball. It really sucked not being able to shoot. But every day after it healed I worked on pulling it back ( 45lb Heerters ), oh it didn't feel good at all but after about ten days I was shooting again.
About that time my dad was in a business venture to renovate in old three story hotel in Winter garden outside of Orlando.
He put me and next older brother in the hotel to start cleaning out the old beds, furniture etc. We took an old mattress up on the roof where we had a great shooting range and that mattress was a perfect arrow stop. A few days later we got watch the Apollo launch from the roof while shooting. Pretty cool memory for a 15 yr old. Hard to believe it was 50 years ago.
Let's see, prior to going in the military, I was 19, married with one child, doing construction work and hunting with a #50 Bear Grizzly.
In a crib :goldtooth: :biglaugh:
I was learning to ride bike... I remember it like it was yesterday....
And learning g to shoot my toy bow....didnt work to with a cowboy hat on :biglaugh:
Summer of '69 I was in Army basic training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina.
In 69 I was fighting in Judo tournaments throughout BC and Washington state, I was in grade 11 had a 45# Ben Pearson Cougar,shooting Carp in the Okanagan and it would be my 4th year hunting Blacktails with Dad, yes I truly miss those days.
By 1966 I had already been bowhunting for 14 years.
1964
[attachment=1,msg2866029]
1966
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Me on my right with my new Bear Tamerlane the first year they came out....what year was that?
I was 8yrs old! Spending most of my summer days at the JCC swimming pool!!!!
Bisch
Summer of '69 I had left seminary and taken the pastorate of a church in a small southern Indiana town--Dupont, Indiana. I had a wife (still have her by the way :o) and a small 2 year old daughter. It was not an appealing little village the day we went there as a candidate for the job, but after the Lord making me know it was where I needed to go, we accepted the call and enjoyed 12 of the most productive, happy years in ministry I have had in my now 53 years as a pastor. I was 26 years old at the time and it was while there that I picked up my archery interest which had lain idle for several years. Boy, some great memories. :archer:
9 years old and terrorizing the neighborhood with a green fiberglass Bear recurve and Woolworths cedar arrows.
Who you callin' old? :dunno:
I was in the north woods striking fear and terror in the hearts of squirrels.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/8156/29690689162_8d50b7bf44_z.jpg)
Out in the back yard flinging fiberglass arrows with my yellow, solid glass bow that Santa brought me. I must have been a good boy that year (or just didn't get caught). Of course, only being 9 years old, I had it strung backwards. My older cousin showed me how to string it correctly, and I terrorized anything that moved in woods after that.
Todd.
I've been laughin' at your post for an hour. :thumbsup:
Deno
I still get the same thrill now as i did back then seeing those arrows fly. I just don't get to do it as much anymore. It's hard to believe it's been 50 Years! :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2:
Man, You guys are making me feel old :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
In the Air Force at March AFB, Riverside, Ca. Shooting with the Riverside Archery Club and hunting every chance I could. Shooting my wedding present from my wife, a Black Widow HS60 55#@28. In the spring of 71 the bow blew up, my marriage hasn't!
I was in a Boy Scout camp the same week as the moon landing and we watched it on a small TV in one of the counselors cabins.
Same week I got my Archery merit badge. :archer:
May of 69 just got home from the Nam,and wasn't real sure that I was welcome. Bob
Trying to get a handle on life outside the Corps. Married in May 69, 50 years the 17th. New job as well. Not much time for any hunting as I worked 60 hour weeks, nights no less.
I was participating in the Georgia Study Abroad Program at the University of Dijon in France.
I turned 5 in the summer of '69. We had moved to a trailer house in the Adirondack mountains. Took a year to get a well drilled and running water in the house. Beaver flows, trout streams and river fishing for pike. Frog legs in the early summer, home made maple syrup and berries fresh off the bushes. It was the beginning of a childhood sent from heaven.
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1969... I was about 18 years from existence, and about 34 years from bowhunting.
Hey, my son calls me old!!
In Basic Training...12 days out high school.
The year that I killed my first buck,Things got even bigger & better there after.
Great replies and stories. Keepm' coming.
And yes it's hard to believe it's been 50 years since recalling some of those great memories.
Running around with my bow and fishing rod in the Pocono Mountains in Northeast Pa. I was 10
Was 17 and had a job at a Ramada Inn as a desk clerk and occasional busboy. Shot field tournaments with a Hoyt Pro Medalist and hunted with a Root Field Master. My cousins had just moved to Pueblo, Colorado and a week before school started I took a 12 hour bus ride to their place and my cousin and I hunted deer for a week before school started.
In '69 I was in naval flight training in Pensacola FL.
Summer of 69 I was in Denmark with my dad. His first time back to his home country since the 1920's.
It was pretty cool to watch our astronauts doing the moon landing while we were in another country.
Working for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Division in Renton, WA., Just married, going to night school at the UW. Bought a 69 Bear Super Kodiak. Wife was working in H.R. dept. However, things changed quickly and the company laid off 20,000 in 69 and 50,000 by 1971 when Boeing lost the SST Program. Reader boards around the area read, "last person out, turn out the lights". First son was born in Dec. 25, 1969.
http://old.seattletimes.com/special/centennial/november/lights_out.html
Summer of 69 I was just a few months old.....dreaming of hunting in the big backyard out the window no doubt.
Tim B
I was 11. Used to live in a pair of board shorts. No towel nothing else, in bare feet would walk down a bush track to Palm Beach in Sydney. Swim and surf till I got hungry then rummage through bins, dig out the bottles and cash them for 5 cents each. Four bought you a huge hamburger from the milk bar, covered in onions and ETA barbecue sauce, was the best....
That's during the years our family did Canada summer vacations (mom was from there) so I was on a lake with a fishing pole in my hand.
On holiday in South East Asia.
I was just turning 19 and in my first year of college. Fishing , hunting , cars and girls. It was a great time to be young. Met my wife that fall. Didn't meet the bow for two more years.
I was 11 years old riding bike in the woods, fishing and shooting bow at the barn pigeons. Had an old Sears fiberglas 25# bow. Couldn't hunt yet, 12 years old was the age allowed in PA, picked up bowhunting in High School with 45# Ben Pearson.
I was 16 years old and had a bear Super Kodiak..killed my first deer the next year. I can remember slipping off with my best friend to go to the Byron International pop festival (it was in Atlanta the year before but was banned from coming back) after my Dad had specifically told me not to go. Long story short, our car broke down and I got busted/grounded for 3 months!
Just turned 5 years old in the summer of '69.
Don't remember where I was. Probably hanging from my mother's apron
My first month in the US Army at Ft. Bliss, Texas. Married March 29, 1969, Draft Letter 3 weeks later and inducted on May 9, 1969.
Some where in the South China Sea.
Thanks to all the veterans for their service! I was born in 72 so in 69, half my DNA was in Vietnam with my Dad and the other half was in nursing school with my Mom.
I was 8 years old, im sure I was catching frogs and snakes and throwing rocks at whatever I couldn't catch. and plenty of fishing with my dad.
I'm a yougin. Didn't start til 1970.
Married, one baby born in January, just moved into the first house, preparing to hunt Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the fall where I was to kill my first deer with a bow or gun.
Ten years old. Roaming the woods and creek edges catching frogs and snakes. Shooting a homemade hickory limbed bow with shoe string string.
When school was first out we went to DC. My first time in a jet.
The next month we went to Florida. Went to Cape Canaveral and watched Apollo 11 being rolled out to the launch pad. I tried to talk my patents into staying to watch the launch. Didn't work.
Back to Cape Canaveral and watched Apollo 13 rolling out to the launch pad. Who woulda thunk what would happen?
I was in between junior and senior year of high school and spent the summer chasing this one girl. In my spare time I was perfecting my technique on hay bales in the backyard with a new Shakespeare Necedah and Herters Aluminum arrows. Also spent a lot of weekends scouting Quantico Marine Corps Base and building stands with my dad. Shot my first deer, a button buck, on the last day of the season that year. Reminds me, I need to thank my day - he turns 95 this weekend.
Looking forward to my senior year in high school, working on the farm and camping with the family. Shooting my Browning Nomad Stalker. Bought that in 67.
Graduated high school, 1969. In June went out to Juliard Music School, I had a tuition free scholarship. I found out that i did not like flying and i did not like New York. Came home for a weekend then drove out to Chicago, where I also had a tuition free deal with the Chicago School of Music. Major race riots broke out right next to the campus, lots of rock throwing. i decided that was not for me either. July one found me paddling a wood canvas canoe in the Boundary Waters, much more my speed. October 4, found myself field dressing an 8 pointer alongtheu Rock River.
Quang Tri So. Vietnam.
I had just graduated from a 2 yr auto tech school in Waynesville Mo I spent the summer chasing tourist girls with my buddies at the Bagnel Dam strip at Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. It was my last summer of freedom because I was on a delayed enlistment into the USAF. During the previous two years I had watched the draftees that were going through Basic and Infantry training at Fort Leonard Wood and knew that I didn't want to be drafted into the Army or Marines. I received a draft notice about a month after I went on active duty. I stayed in the USAF 22 yrs and 3 mos, maintaining the Minuteman Missiles. I was shooting a 53# Bear Cub and Micro Flite arrows that I still have.
I was an Army short timer at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim Germany. I knocked my girlfriend up on my first leave home out of Ft Rucker (helicopter crewchief) in 67 so I was a married man with a son at 20.
I had my family with me in Germany but some low life stole my car and I couldn't afford to buy another on Army pay. I had to get up at 4:30 and ride streetcars and busses for hours to get to the base from where I lived in Viernheim Germany, same on the trip back home after work. I sent the family back to the states and moved into the barracks for my last year of service in Germany.
I got out in Dec of 69, found a good job and lived the American dream.
A lot of veterans posting up. You have my sincere gratitude for your service. Thank you.
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I was 4.5 years old exploring the wilderness of my back yard in Henrietta, NY.
U. S. Army flight school, Ft. Rucker, Alabama.
I was out terrorizing the woodlot behind the house with my new Bear Little Bear bow that was an upgrade from the Shakespeare Parabow I bought three years previous. Still have both and didn't think about the Little Bear being 50 years old until this thread. :archer2:
Quote from: nek4me on May 03, 2019, 01:04:31 PM
I was out terrorizing the woodlot behind the house with my new Bear Little Bear bow that was an upgrade from the Shakespeare Parabow I bought three years previous. Still have both and didn't think about the Little Bear being 50 years old until this thread. :archer2:
LOL, I never would have thought that when that photo was taken 50 years ago I would still have that old Ben Pearson and a few of the dozen arrows!
USMC OCS My "Woodstock " was an M14!!
Was loosing arrows out of my Little Bear which I still have held on to.
Meeting my future wife. Getting ready for my second year of college, using the GI bill.
I turned 14 that summer. I was enjoying shooting my 43# Pearson Gamester. Carp and frogs were in trouble back then. 1969 also sticks out in my memory because that Spring my dad hired a contractor to move our house from St. Feriole island in Prairie du Chien. He bought a lot on the high ground in town where they poured a new basement for the house. It was a good thing, it flooded pretty bad that year.
I had just graduated from high school, living a dream with my girlfriend and wife of 49 years now, and a 69 Roadrunner. Following year was introduced to Uncle Sam.
imbowhunt10, don't you wish you had that 69 Roadrunner back? I sure wish I had my 69 Chevelle. The 60's and early 70's were a crazy time, but I enjoyed them. It wasn't until '70 (I think) that I killed my first deer using a Ben Pearson Gamester at 45#.
Summer of "69" I had just graduated from college and was preparing for my first teaching/coaching job in Newport News, VA. Bought a Wing Thunderbird that summer and started a life with stick and string. :archer2:
Let's see ... like blacktailbob, I was 15 years old in the summer of '69. In West Michigan, many of us picked blueberries each summer to put a little jingle in our pockets. So, I was picking blueberries during the day, hawking after pretty girls at night and working out my right arm getting ready for fall football season in my spare moments. Didn't shoot bows back then . . . wish I had.
Good memories for sure!
Forgot to mention, I wasn't a full fledged bow hunter at that time. I shot carp with an old 35 pound Pearson Collegian, and shot the heck out of everything else with a slingshot. Whitetail were just beginning to show up in northwestern Ohio at that time. Yes Sam I sure would like to have that orange roadrunner now, and I would have loved to seen your chevelle. What color was it?
I had finished my freshman year at the University of Montana School of Forestry and was working on the Kootenia National Forest. Started working on the brush crew running a chainsaw and piling brush, then they found out I was a
Forestry student at the UM and started me doing forestry work. That was the start of my long career in forestry and living the dream I had dreamed since I was a boy. I worked in Montana for 30 years and got another dream job in Alaska and have been here since. Been bowhunting since I was 16 years old.
Just graduated high school, my parents let me buy my first car with some university money. A 1951 2 door Chevy "torpedo back", 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree.
Summer job at a men's wear store and "Stadium Dances" every Friday night. So this would be our 50 year high school reunion.
It was a few years until I even started hunting, but I haven't stopped.
imbowhunt10, that Chevelle was sort of a mint green, better looking than it sounds. It ran pretty good, too. Oddly, my dad bought it for me while I was in Europe, so I didn't see it till September. I previously had a 64 Mercury Comet but blew it up on my way back to college one afternoon. Somewhere I have a photo of my first deer kill draped across the hood of that Chevy. As good looking as the car was, it looked a lot cooler with that deer on it. The morning I got that deer was the day of the local Deer Festival held on the town square. It just so happened that I "had" to drive around the square with the 10 pointer on the hood. I know that pride and showing off is frowned upon, but I was young and wanted everyone to see it. I still get excited when get a deer and will give up hunting if I ever lose the thrill of it. 69 was a good year in many ways.
Ashau Valley
I was a sophomore in veterinary school at Ohio State. 1970 was the Kent State shootings when Governor Rhodes closed all the state colleges in Ohio except for the junior & senior classes of med, dent, and vet school. I was one of six classes on the entire Ohio State campus. Very strange times!!
Sounds like it was the "Green Machine," especially with your 10 point on the hood! Dig up that picture if you can, that would really liven things up.....
Sixteen yrs old. Another time and place. Read a book about the first guy to backpack the Pacific Crest Trail. Bought the same Kelty pack he used. Every chance I got I headed for the Cascades back country with fly rod in hand. Didn't start hunting until the early 80's. But by then I knew some good places!
On a backpacking/hunting trip with the USMC in southeast Asia.
I was 5 years old getting ready to start kindergarten. I remember my older brother shooting at straw bales about that time. Because my older brother was interested in archery, we stopped at the Fred Bear Museum on the way home from a family vacation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Very interesting post. My gratitude goes out to those who served during the Vietnam Conflict.
I was 17, working a summer job at a tent theater in Milwaukee. My dad and uncle had joined Sherwood Forest Bow Club and we would spend our free time shooting there. I had killed my first deer, a 3pt. buck the season before. Working, playing and listening to some of the best rock music ever made...just enjoying life !
I was 9 years old. We lived across the Indian River from Kennedy Space Center.
My Dad worked on the Apollo missions for McDonnell/ Douglas.
I saw the 11, 12 and 13 launches in person. We moved to Arkansas in the fall of '71.
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Working on the Hahn's Peak District, Routt National Forest. Lived up in the Seedhouse Guard Station. Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area to east. Elk River flowed behind the Guard Station. Could not believe I was getting paid to work and live there. Went to town (Steamboat Springs) every two weeks for groceries and liquid refreshments. Still shake my head at it all.
In 1969 I was 8 years old and had been shooting a bow for 5 years.
21 yrs old fixin to marry wife # 1.
Just before turning out of a 5 year apprenticeship and planning to go to work in Las Vegas. Ended up north of Vegas at the nuclear test site, quite an experience and the start of a career that has seen me working in 21 states. I'm retired/back to work now at another more laid back nuclear site, plant Vogtle here in GA.
The summer of 69 I was 13 going on 14. My neighbors and I all had are fiberglass bows. Mine was orange colored, Mike's was blue and Tim's was tan. All were 25 to 30 pounds. We would go to the local hardware store and buy wood arrows with target tips for 25 cents an arrow. Field tip arrows were 50 cents I think. They also had boxes of a dozen arrows complete with Bear razor heads. We would drool over these arrows and hoped some day we were rich enough to buy them. We took our bows and arrows that summer to the mighty Mullet river and proceeded to put a dent into the growing carp population. We did actually manage to kill a few carp. We would just walk down the river in old tennis shoes and shorts. We had a blast in the summer of 69.
I was 12, my daily routine rotated from Baseball to fishing to shooting bullfrogs with a '58 Bear Panda. My Dad fried up the frog legs cause Mom wouldn't touch them. The '58 Bear is upstairs in a Dan Quillian Archery Traditions bow sock, grandsons will give up toy bows and move on to it this year.
Man, all these stories could make a really cool "Summer of 69 " movie.
I've really enjoyed reading ALL these stories.
Graduated from military high school, stopped shaving, letting my hair grow and heading to college in South Florida. That was my renaissance year....still haven't shaved so I guess my beard is 50 this June. :saywhat: Hair fell out years ago. :bigsmyl:
I was 11 years old mostly wearing out tires on my bike but also did a fair amount of roving in the adjacent fields with a yellow fiberglass bow.
I was ten living in south Boston . Brownstones and brick buildings . We played stickball in the streets and you where out side from the get go all season . Long journey but I'm in Florida now and still a newbie to shooting my stick bow 5 years or so . Hunting last 20 years compound and gun . Dam time flys
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Shuttling between Nha Be, the Bassac River and sundry other unsavory places, hunting Victor Charles, but not with a bow....
I was told by an old archery hippie if you remember the 60s you were'nt there.
Angus, I left Nha Be May of 69, I was in the Sea bees and spent a lot of time in the Delta, putting stuff back togeather so ole Charlie could practice demolition and target practice. Welcome home, Bob
M60gunner Congratulations on your Golden Anniversary coming on the 17th. That is a blessing most couples would only dream about. :clapper:
I was 13 and my brother 10... My father would take us (hunting) at first light on Sundays with our fiberglass bows... Not far from home in The Bronx, on the shore line between the Throggs Neck & Whitestone Bridges... Rabbit and pheasant were seen but never taken... Imagine That...
First- THANKS to all you guys who served, and I appreceiate all you have done.
I was 12 , hauling hay (loaded by hand, remember those?) ,fishing, riding my motorcycle.
Still a couple years from buying that green all glass Bear bow for $5 at school...
Got out of the army (after 3 years, 2 months and 13 days), got a hot car (AMX 2-seater w/390 Serial number 05390), fell for a beautiful girl, and took the fall off to hunt every day. Thought that all would crowd Viet Nam out of my mind. I didn't know then that it never goes away. It's part of the reason I hunt only with a bow.
I remember saying prayers for my oldest brother every night who was in Nam . When he came home we where told not to make any loud noises around him . The guys from southie lost a bunch over there .
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I'd have been shooting my first "real" bow a Browning Mohawk. Sure killed a lot of chipmunks with it. Sometimes I still think that was my best shooting:(
Four years old. I hadn't gotten my hands on the Bear Red Fox just yet. That happened in about 1971ish.
Getting ready to leave the farm and head off to college. Exciting times.
Mike
working at Daisy BB, huntin & fishin.
I turned 2
I turned 21 in 1969, I was drinking beer, playing pool and racing around in my 1965 Chevy II .... shot my first Mule deer with a Wing bow that fall .....
I got my first hunting license that year. It's neat to read about the Herters bow. I spent many hours with the Herters catalog on my lap. Better than the Sears Christmas catalog.
My '63 Tamerlane and '62 K Mag were in the closet at my folks house waiting for me to come home from the Navy. Totaled my Triumph sportscar and the passenger passed on from injuries in the wreck the first week that year. Got married after my court date in July. My wife soon learned that archery was a big deal, cause when I got out of the Navy soon after, I traded a Winchester Varmit model rifle for a whole bunch of bows. After almost 50 years of marriage, she understands my love for my rack of old rosewood recurves from that same time period.
I was 18-hot motorcycles, hotter girls-thought I knew all and had the world by the tail. Next year drafted in final year and realized I didn't know **it. Did a lot of growing up in Uncle Sam's company. Just glad I made it home and able to live a boring life of working,family and grandkids. Shooting the bow has been my stress buster for a loooong time.
I was on a 1-year vacation in a hot, rainy land. Couldn't wait to get back to my family.
1969 was the year before I killed my first antlered buck, a 9 point that weighed 182 field dressed with my 54# Wing Thunderbird.
Outbackbob48, quite a lot different then, people did not respect our great servicemen so much then. Little did they care what you did for them. I sure do appreciate our great heroes Thanks to all that served.
This needs to be brought to the top again. :archer: :thumbsup:
Not Woodstock....but wish I was!
Jon
Quote from: Pine on April 07, 2022, 07:34:58 PM
This needs to be brought to the top again. :archer: :thumbsup:
I'm so glad you did... Missed it the first time :campfire:
As others have done, I want to thank each and everyone of you veterans and first responders that have gone before us in a life of service & sacrifice for our country :clapper: :pray: :notworthy:
I was born in the summer of 69 to a Father who served in Vietnam and a Mother who Loved the Lord with all her Heart, Soul, and Mind... Both have passed far too soon but I'll never forget that Freedom isn't Free. Thank you all and to Christ our Savior :notworthy: :pray: :clapper:
Posted earlier, still remember that green SEARS fiberglas bow and the Ben Pearson, wish I still had them. Had fun growing up in Central PA, such a care free time it was.
:campfire: :coffee: :archer2:
I was finishing my 2nd year of vet school at Ohio State.
Pulling rack radios out of 52's at Anderson in Guam
1969 I was 10 years old and got my first bow. :archer2:
WOW! Summer of '69 - haven't thought about that in a long, long time.
I was 13, living in Michigan's UP, baling hay, trimming Christmas trees, and splitting firewood all summer until I had earned enough to buy my first real hunting bow, a Bear Archery Grizzly. If I remember correctly it was $35.00 - a fortune for me in those days.
I was 10 years old and shooting a Bear yellow fiberglass bow my folks gave me.
I was in the ninth grade. Went undefeated in Cross Country (1.5 miles) that fall. Broke the school record twice (8:26).
I was shooting a RH Ben Pearson Cougar. I hunted mostly chipmunks with it. I was still one year from seeing and shooting, with that bow, my first ever white-tail deer at age 16.
Quite a year. Got out of high school, watched the moon landing, loaded up my car left home, car broke down, bought a 69 SS 396 Chevy, got married to Lucy, bought my first bowhunting license, and a Ben Pearson 45 lb. recurve. Life moved pretty fast back then.
Would like to thank all the vets, my draft number was 360, allot of my friends didn't make it home. I still feel kind of guilty but also thankful.
Nice to see this topic brought back. Oh...the memories !
If we could only turn the time, back the late 60s and the 70s were the best in my life . I was a junior in high school in 69 and I hunted then with a 1962 Bear Cub still have it and an Identical one I was gifted on here by a member that had it for sale or trade I asked him what he would trade for it and he gave it to me .
I was 10 years old.
Playing baseball, a lot of swimming and sneaking onto some farmer's irrigation ponds to catch big old bluegills and bullheads. :tongue:
I was just a yearling back then but I'm sure I was trying to build a bow out of a switch my mom used to tear my azz up for being an outgoing boy :biglaugh:
In the process of flunking out of Navy "A" school before being sent to Viet Nam. I came to traditional archery only 7-8 years ago.
Just getting out of high school and signed up for the draft in Vietnam but I drew a high number shooting my 66 Kodiak hunting rats down a dumps
I was a couple of years out of the 82 Airborne, married with one son, working for the largest textile company in the world (Burlington, Industries) , going to school at nights, and had no time for much else. It wasn't until the 1990s that I got back to shooting a bow. In a couple of years I had taken possession of about a hundred recurves that I found at flea market and yard sales. It is difficult to make up for lost time. :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :archer2: :deadhorse: :archer2:
High school in Pulaski NY, fishing the Salmon river
Byron International Pop Festival (previous year was Atlanta International Pop Festival but was banned from coming back). Bought my first recurve..I think a Bear Grizzly and never looked back!
I was learning to crawl.
I just graduated from High School.
I was at the Byron Festival too, I think that was the summer of '70 but I was also at the Palm Beach Festival in the fall of 69". I had just started college in Jansen Beach Fl. :thumbsup:
I was 13 , hauling hay, building fence, riding a dirt bike , and fishing.
A big thank you to all you veterans, it was over when I got to 18 or maybe selective service.
Dang, Kenny and Pat, you guys are really old:)
:laughing:
I was a love child.
Was a busy busy yr for me but a good one. Workwise, life style wise, bowhunting and family(daughter was born). Could write a book abt that one.
I was graduating from high school, had the first date with the girl that I ended up marrying 8 years later, went off to Europe with my Grandparents and then came back to start college in Boston. It was one heck of a year.
Viet Nam July 69-July 70
Hey, Roy, we're just mature for our age. :goldtooth: :laughing:
My older brother was in Nam in 1969. My Dad passed in April that year. They brought my bro home then sent him back after the funeral. My Mom didn't want him to come home just to go back.
I was shortly before being turned out of a 5 year Pipefitter Apprenticeship Program. When I was I went out to Las Vegas and worked at the Nuclear Test Site to the North next to area 51 and must have liked it. Since then I've spent 12 years working in 21 states from Alaska to Florida and just got home from a job in Illinois on Monday.
!!Holy Crap Jim Wright, you have been working a long time :notworthy:
Fishing. Two more years of High School
Flem, I guess I have, I see you are in Montana, my wife and I lived there in 1973&74 and I return often to the west side of the state to fly fish and visit friends in Ronan. I am lucky to have been born at the right time and to have been able to go to a lot of places I wanted to for work. And for some time now I have been able to continue to work in "covered employment" and draw a full pension as well as social security. I'm blessed with good genes and good health and I never was one of the guys that hated his job and couldn't wait to get out. Plus I have a fairly low I.Q.
Sitting in a hi chair watching the moon landing on tv.
Getting sun burnt in the sand box.
What a cool thread....
I would have been 4 years old, terrorising tin cans in our back yard with my BB gun, prowling like a Zulu Impi through the creek and gully below our house with a stick as a spear, and sometimes riding with my Dad while he drove his early morning paper round.
Bows came a very short time later.
Best
Lex
Love these type threads ..
They stir the mind of days & times we have seen that will never be again.....
Funny how much many of us here have in common. Like A.Lex ( only a couple yrs prior and on the other side of the pond;)
Though many seasons between us, Ron and I have many things in common as well , which is a good example of a bond forged between Nature and those exposed so deeply at a very young age. I thankfully had busy parents that chose to raise us in farmland with woods & streams ....Lots of nature and habitat to learn from , and (Thankfully)set free to let the great teachings begin .
The kind of freedom that would likely have a parent arrested these days;^))) Thank the heavens I was right where this wolf was meant to be with the right parents to let me feed my mind , body , and soul what it graved.....The freedom to go it alone undistracted , pure to take in these GREAT teachings. To see, hear, feel how nature truly works . I spent all but a couple of years out of my first 25 yrs of life doing just that....it will carry on till my last day.....and I am forever Thankful. Every child should live at least several years of youth exploring , learning , and hunting the truth of nature like many here and myself were gifted.
......... For such natural exposure to nature builds an unbreakable bond.... with that is a Natural desire to protect all aspects of Wild places & life within that we love beyond measure . For it is part of us........
Very cool thread. I enjoy reading other's experiences. Thank you to all the brave men and women that served in our armed forces as well! :notworthy:
Summer of 69'
A portion of me was in Vietnam with my dad and a portion of me was with my mom in nursing school. I made my grand entrance in 72'.
Playing little league baseball lol
I was working at my Uncle's store, may his memory be eternal, getting enough money for college tuition. I was about to start my senior year. I was also busy falling in love with my soon to be wife. We were married Aug. of '71.
I was not shooting much back then. I was too focused on getting an education.
I enlisted in the USAR in 1970. The next 6 years were taken up with serving and teaching.
Our first daughter was born 1977 and our second 1981.
My brother of eternal memory and I spent time together shooting and hunting.
Making all wooden bows came about 1990. I shot with my brother back then and now do some shooting with my oldest daughter.
Spending time with family is a joy and my family is my blessing.
This is a great thread. Thank you.
Jawge
Similar to Ralph, I spend many hours on the "back 40" and on the "Crick", getting wet and muddy chasing whatever.
:campfire: :coffee: :archer2:
Working in Cincinnati, Ohio.
This was a time between when I had a bow in my hand every day in the summer as a kid, and when I rediscovered archery in the late1980s. There was a period of about 25 years where I was just too busy. In the year 1969 I was working as a 2nd shift supervisor, going to school, renewing our first house, and trying to be a good husband, and dad to 2 kids. It didn't leave much time. However, when the kids were grown, I picked up a bow, and it was like I had never put it down. For several years there was a 3-D shoot every weekend, and deer to hunt. Now, at 78 years, I find myself still interested, but less involved in hunting. :archer2:
I was 5 years old living the Bronx, NY dreaming of one day pulling my Dad's Pearson longbow and begging my Mom every time we passed the hardware store to buy my arrows and a deer target. I used to cut branches from my Dad's bushes and use any string I could find to make a bow and I used to "hunt" the crazy squirrels in my tiny backyard.
I wa 5 years old, on Sherwood Drive, watching men land on the moon at 3am.
Driving my 65 Chevy Nova at Alki Beach in Seattle WA .... :bigsmyl: and learning all about archery at NW Archery from Glenn St Charles
65 Chevy Nova !! Sure wish I had one now!!
Had a bud who put a built 350 in one to beat his bro with a built 409 in a 63 Impala SS. :goldtooth:
That little 65 could burn rubber, I can't imagine a 350 in one, changing the spark plugs in my 283 was a wrench and finger twist job. I saw a 67 Nova SS with a built engine sell on Barrett Jackson auto auction the other day for over $250,000, it was a full custom build and beautiful. The 66 Nova SS 327 was my favorite.
Wow! Serious flashback .... 1969 was an incredible year for all kinds of things. I was in my first year in high school in Sherwood Oregon. Back in those days it was a sleepy little town and our whole high school only had 327 students. Every year there was a Robin Hood Festival and they put on a feild archery competition that was attended by a group of archers from England...... But life was way too busy for me to be interested in archery in those days.
Every minute I wasn't in school was devoted to working in those days. I wanted a car really bad. I was an apprentice carpenter and had started with my dad at age 12. I spent time working with my grandad too. I had carpentry in my blood from both sides of the family, so I was destined to work my hands in wood. My dad was a doing mostly finish carpentry in those days, so I learned to hang doors and trim windows at a young age. We hunted each fall together for deer in eastern Oregon with rifles. I wasn't even introduced to archery until 1990.
The 60's and 70's were great years to grow up in. Living in a small town in the country was excellent. The muscle cars, the music, and the freedom the kids had to go and do most anything unsupervised was incredible..... it was a great time in my life. Kirk
Yawrp, pretty much had free rein, as long as I was home about dark.
:campfire: :coffee: :archer2:
I was either bucking hay bales, cutting brush or running around the woods. I was thirteen and spent all of my free time in the woods down by the creek near our house. An old gentleman down the road cut and baled hay for most everyone in the western part of our Indiana county and into eastern Illinois...clover, alfalfa, timothy, straw, orchard grass. Kept me in .22 shells and traps and out of trouble for the most part!
Bailing hay convinced me that I wanted an education. :laughing:
I put my name up in the creamery for bailing hay from the end of May till 3rd crop was done. Was never without work. 50 cents a load about 45 bails. Some people had them nice square balers (simple to stack) some had the old round bails that laid out in in the field and had to be pitched up onto a rack, all paid the same. But boy did I get good meals for dinner! At 14 and 15 I could almost eat my weight! 22 LR shells were 30 cents a box but I always bought shorts for 22 cents. Had a bow and a Ithaca single shot. Stayed at my uncles farm by the Wing River. Life was GOOD. West central Minn.
"A portion of me was in Vietnam with my dad and a portion of me was with my mom in nursing school. I made my grand entrance in 72'."
:laughing:
I was 13, living with my parents at Fort Rucker Alabama. My dad had a Bear Polar, 66" and 44#, he bought in 1961 and I had a laminated longbow bought in Germany when I was eight. I bought a Wing Nighthawk in 1970 that pulled a big 25#'s and killed many a gopher in Montana while Dad was in Viet Nam the second time.
U.S. Army , Ft. Rucker, Alabama
Summer of '69 I was a 1st lieutenant in the Army at Fort Rucker, Alabama learning how to fly the Huey helicopter. Graduated in class 69-34.
Going down to the crossroads...
I was doing a lot of fishing and shooting my bow getting ready for bow season. I was also contemplating marrying my first ex wife.
I was playing with hot wheels cars in the back yard. My oldest brother was in Vietnam.
I was 13 and watching my neighborhood guys come back from Vietnam.
I was spending summers at my Grandpa's place near Grayling Michigan.
I had (still have it) a York green glass bow, and a pretty good collection of mismatched hardware store arrows. By day, I snuck around trying to shoot "gophers" (13 lined ground squirrels). For every gopher I killed I got a comic book....usually Sgt Rock.
Most Saturdays we would go into Grayling, and visit Bear Archery. My Grandpa always called it "Bear Mountain", I'm not sure if that was the real name. I would prowl around the pro shop, and eventually end up in the mini theater watching Bear movies.
Statute of limitations is probably up.....my Grandpa also taught me how to run a trot line for brook trout. I was a full grown adult before I realized we shouldn't do that. Regardless, we had trout for breakfast most mornings.
Those were great days!!!!