Friday Favorite - throwback: Toy Guns

btw I just took that picture. I have this just like you see it.

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Back when I was probably 4th maybe 5th grade in my neighborhood a few friends and I had a little surprise different times back in the 1950’s Chicago police in my neighborhood they would get out of the patrol car to walk the beat they would play with the kids. Play war with our toy guns with the kids it was different times you know in the 1950’s. Got to ride in the car in the back seat, one Irish cop (imagine an Irish cop in Chicago) well the two cops asked permission from my mom and the other kids to bring us and my two friends to the station which was probably a couple miles from home, the two brought us to the precinct to the lock up and in a cell with the door or whatever it’s called opened door. It was scary I always remember that day, I have never been in trouble in my life and I always remember my trip to Chicago jail cell. Back then patrol cars well car’s didn’t have air conditioning until about 1959-1960 originally it was aftermarket item. But cops would change off drivers so they could have both arms get tan instead of one arm tan and the other not tan.

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OMG!! I fgt about them!!! Lol l granny carries concealed, simpler times when everything WAS NOT being judged POLITICALLY CORRECT, That’s an oxymoron politically correct, wow that takes a BIG stretch of the imagination

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I would wear my double holster, with my capguns and watch the Lone Ranger. Oh, the memories.

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We wore out cap guns! They were made of pot-metal and didn’t have the orange plastic piece on the muzzle. We hardly ever had the caps for them. We would just make the “pew pew” sounds when we fired. We would play “Cowboys and Indians” (:scream:) all the time at home on the farm, in the barns and out buildings. We would also use our BB guns without the BBs, of course. “Cops and Robbers” was what we played in our Grandma’s big house (3 stories). Great times!!

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@DBrogue I have never seen one of those, that’s awesome!

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Its amazing what you can run across when going to small garage sales and flea markets.

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It’s interesting, the thought of cap guns immediately includes the fragrance of the powder burning. I may have had the beginnings of addiction based upon inhaling that chemical reaction and the sound association.

Before 8 years of age, the M14 wood rifle with working bolt assembly and some form of snap caps/magazine I now realize was one of my favorites and holds a strong memory for me. Yet, another thing occurs to me which is not so much the fact that I had these things, but somehow and along the way of time, they all disappeared under suspicious circumstance… as in “like poof!” I remember thinking this at the time and still have no clear answer. Nor do I have recourse to ask as my parents and family have passed.

My first real bonding with a toy were the Benjamin .22 pneumatic air rifle and 177 pistol. Although I was never to own either until my mid 20’s they were the object of childhood fixation from the first time I was given the opportunity to learn how to use them … sometime around 8 or 9 years old. I did purchase a Daisy CO2 BB rifle when I was eleven which could fire 5 BBs very quickly. It was a love-hate relationship as the BBs were not accurate beyond a very close range. It was also the weapon I learned to kill with and taught me about the emotional/moral relationship surrounding the taking of life.

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My best friends Father was the Station Chief of the local volunteer fire department. Dad was one of the volunteers. Coolest thing ever, and never to be seen these days for the liability of it, was to stand on the back of the Engine and ride from home to the firehouse next to my Pop. Learned how to guide a nozzle, keep a hose and dry them afterward. Saw how a Scott air pack worked when they came out and I guess that helped me feel real comfortable with an OBA when I was in the Navy on ship and later at Fire school. Interesting how we find our childhood heroes eh? When it was all said and done for Dad at the Department he’d been in service 28 years, and was also accorded Chief.

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The good ol’ Wham-O Air Blaster
s-l225

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Although I enjoyed my toy cap guns, BB gun, etc., in all honesty, my favorite was taking apart a Bic pen, using tape and a rubber band to make it into a mini crossbow which used the cap as the cross member and the ink cartridge/ballpoint part as the arrow.

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I was listening to KLOVE the other day on the way home from the hospital where I had dropped off a family member for surgery (wasn’t an elective surgery and their recovery is going well), and the DJ’s were talking about how much stress everyone is under being stuck at home. And one thing they both advocated was Nerf Gun wars! We used to have them all of the time when my kids were little. It may be time to dig out the Nerf Guns…

How long has it been since you’ve had a Nerf Gun war?


_picture borrowed from: https://www.gamelife.com/gaming/best-nerf-guns-to-buy-for-christmas-2017/_

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New Year’s Eve. 2010. My friend would throw a blowout New Year’s Eve party, we all just kept ammo there. Huge garbage can of ammo and smaller stashes around the house.

Old friends who had known me 20 years or more.

Good times.

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I can’t even remember when. It has to be 10 years ago or more.

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Upon reading this post, I went looking for my old cap gun, and dart gun. I still have them both somewhere. I remember shooting my poor old teddy bear with that dart gun. Im 64 years old, so that was a while ago! I have my original tonka truck collection (like new condition) in my office. Am missing one piece, a tonka white wrecker. What memories, still have my two original train sets, and an original race car set. The dart gun? I think I have several of the plastic/rubber tipped darts. Usta watch Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, Tanto, loved Trigger, and Silver! Remember the series “The Rifleman”? What did he shoot a 30-30? My dad wouldn’t let me have a bb gun!

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OMG, I think I have my old double holster, and a leather vest, OH YES the “Lone Ranger” !!! Brings back memories!!! What was the saying? Hi Ho Silver Away??? I could have had the black mask…remember Johnny Depp in what was the movie??? I cant remember…

OMG the memories!!!

Now that I think about it…I think when I was 4 years old, a kid by the name of Timmy and I stole sheriffs badges from the local dime store? I got in a lot pf trouble!

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Chris4 posted this, great verbiage! I wonder if that is why I like the smell of gun powder and jet fuel when it burns???

Lots of farming going on here around us…love the sound of diesel engines and the whine of hydraulics!!

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A few days ago, the movie Legend of the Lone Ranger was on. Good movie. It talked about why he called the horse Silver, and used silver bullets.

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Fun fact: The Wham-o Air Blaster was the weapon used by the Martians in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”, a perennial holiday favorite. As I recall, the air blaster rendered people ‘frozen’ for a period of time.