The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

[ecurbh]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

[Ramius]

In fact, more to the point: Back then on an Alaska Air flight they didn't warn you about not carrying guns. They simply asked "How many guns do you have and where are they?"

[Ramius]

That would include my former roommates who I forced to watch Wizards. . .

Oh my... it's worse than I thought. Perhaps a direct intervention is in order.

[Wneighbor]

Remembering "normal" is a relative term here.

I forgot I had a handgun in my purse and walked into DFW in 1985 just to pick up Jill returning from a visit with her dad. I remember it was 1985 because it seems that the fact that I had an infant to nurse made it more convincing that I was really harmless and forgetful. Myranda was only about 6 weeks old.

[Wneighbor]

Methinks a treatment center might be needed here!

[Fedora]

In fact, more to the point: Back then on an Alaska Air flight they didn't warn you about not carrying guns. They simply asked "How many guns do you have and where are they?"

Times have changed, huh? When was the first hijacking, anyway?--early 70s or so? Hard to imagine now that at one time there was no such thing to worry about.

[Fedora]

Oh my... it's worse than I thought. Perhaps a direct intervention is in order.

LOL! Don't worry, it's not that bad: I didn't like Wizards--it wasn't even as good as Fire and Ice :) Besides, I can stop anytime I want to. . .

[Ramius]

In my case they let me go because I was able to successfully explain that all my guns and ammo were in my checked baggage. I had merely forgotten about the speedloaders for my .357 that were in my carry-on bag.

This was back when it was OK to check guns and ammo together. Stupid rules now.

I have a lot of respect for the TSA folk that work the airports. They're doing the best they can under the circumstances. I never thought that federalizing the TSA was a good idea, but it's a done deal now. No sense crying over it. They do the best they can with what they have, and I wouldn't change jobs with them for any amount of money. All they can do is fail. They'll never get a bonus for the guns/bombs/knives that don't get onto an airplane. The only way they'll ever get headlines is when they blow it. And statistics being what they are, eventually they'll miss one that really matters.

Nothing on 9/11 happened because there were too many weapons on those planes. Mostly those things happened because there were *too few* weapons on those planes. I believe this with every fiber of my soul, but of course this will never be airline policy. Political correctness killed a great many people that day that didn't need to die.

It's not the airlines fault. It's not the FAA's fault. It's our fault.

[Fedora]

Good night!

[Ramius]

Times have changed, huh?

You bet they have. Example:

I was on my high school rifle team, and I lettered in it. We stored the rifles at the school in lockers. We cleaned them there, and we trained with them there in non-shooting stance drills. We regularly carried rifles in and out of the school to our vehicles to go back and forth to the armory (where the range was) for practice.

Rifle team was very important to me when I was a high school student, and it was one of the interscholastic sports that I was *really* good at. We had an awesome rifle team, some members of which were olympic contenders.

My old high school no longer has a rifle team, for all of the lame PC reasons you might think.

[Wneighbor]

It's our fault.

Of course!

I am very thankful that I live in an area and come from a family were this sensible thinking is predominate. However, being in this environment also led people like us to think the country would *never* get into the state we are now.

This hit home very well to Myranda when we moved from Valley Mills to Wichita Falls. She was completely comfortable with having friends at school who kept firearms in their vehicles for the purpose of going out hunting after school. Yes, we all know about school shootings... and guns on school grounds are illegal... but, in that culture, the rules didn't make sense so they were ignorred? A failure in the system? I don't think so. I never had a qualm about Myranda riding home with friends with guns in the car. Just the opposite, there was more comfort in that. But, it's a different culture and mentality.

When we moved here, Myranda was stunned at the attitudes of her fellow students as well as being brought face to face with the 2nd amendment issues that she was already much in support of.

Matter of fact, when we were still in Valley Mills, Myranda was a journalism student. She wrote some pretty good articles and editorials on gun control. You woulda liked 'em. Still, in Valley Mills, all that was taken for granted because *everyone* thought that way.

Back home though, she shared her opinions and was met with kudos for writing well. Here, she learned to fight for it. That is not a bad thing either.

[300winmag]

I've read LOTR and The Hobbit from my Palm Pilot. Can't really snuggle up with a Palm, but it worked well enough for all the waiting at doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms for the past year.

[Wneighbor]

You had a rifle team? We didn't have a rifle team. That woulda been fun! Not that I woulda been any good. But, at least it would be fun.

[Fedora]

My old high school no longer has a rifle team, for all of the lame PC reasons you might think.

Yeah, it's lame and getting lamer. I couldn't believe when I heard recently that there's a movement to ban competitive sports now because some consider them detrimental to children's self-esteem. (shaking head in disbelief)

[Ramius]

Roger that.

When I was in High School (class of 80) is was *entirely* normal, especially during hunting season, for folks to have a rifle in the gun rack of most every pickup truck in the parking lot at school. Big hairy deal.

When deer season was on, it was *common* that guys would show up late or miss first period, cuz they were out hunting that morning. No big deal. They'd also cut out for the evening hunt. The whole time, their rifle was in the rack of the truck in plain sight all day. Big hairy deal.

[Wneighbor]

So can you believe that there are still a few little enclaves around where that still happens? Myranda and her boyfriend had first period together her last year in VM. He only managed to get to class on time when it wasn't hunting season. And he stayed mad at me because I wouldn't let her cut class to go hunting with him.

I dunno... Myranda kept accusing me of having a dirty mind. Somehow, I just didn't want her boyfriend picking her up in the dark at 4:30 or 5 and hauling her out in the dark to someplace where they could sit in a deer stand alone. Gees, of course nothing woulda ever happened!

uh huh.

They didn't like my way of thinking. Another reason it was good to get her out of there.

[Ramius]

You had a rifle team? We didn't have a rifle team. That woulda been fun!

We had an awesome rifle team!!! We regularly competed with THE ARMY up at Fort Lewis on weeks when we didn't have a meet with some other school. We kept 'em honest, and beat them on many occasions.

Some of the guys had some pretty special equipment. A couple of guys had custom made Anschutz Olympic-class rifles. Many thousands of bucks, those, even back then. I wasn't so hard core. I lived quite nicely with the school-supplied Winchester Model 70 bull barrel rifles that were issued to us.

[Ramius]

Hmmm... Somehow that reminds me of "snipe hunts".

Sure... it's hunting, but not of the sort for which there is a license...

[Fedora]

Speaking of rifles and deer season, either of you into archery?--I've been getting into that lately, now that I'm in a place where I have enough room to set up my own shooting range in the yard. Had to quit for the winter because the snow's too deep and I'll lose my arrows, but when spring comes I'm planning to set up the range again and hopefully add a pistol/rifle range. We've got a lot of deer around here. The last day of hunting season about a dozen gathered on the neighbor's front lawn across the road five minutes before the season closed, LOL! Got a lot of turkeys, too.

[Wneighbor]

We kept 'em honest, and beat them on many occasions.

Outstanding! Very nice that ya'll had that. :-)

Seems like you got a lot of special equipment now, even if you did nicely with school issued stuff back then. Sometimes it helps to start out without all that. :-)

[Fedora]

I've read LOTR and The Hobbit from my Palm Pilot. Can't really snuggle up with a Palm, but it worked well enough for all the waiting at doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms for the past year.

Now that's a dedicated fan! :)