“In the first three grades some even carried cap pistols to school to play with on the playground, this did incur some restrictions though, the teachers would not allow using actual caps in them because it was too noisy.”
Do you remember sling-shots?. They could be brutal yet I don’t recall any serious injuries from them.
Men were men,women were women,and kids were allowed to run free and learn,on their own,how rough life could be.
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There was magic in discovering the raw power of striking an entire roll of caps with a hammer, and total bliss hitting the entire box of caps with a single blow. It wasn’t all that easy to get all five rolls of caps to go off at once. I think there were 5 rolls of caps to a box. I’m talking about taking the rolls of caps out of the box when going for the whole enchilada. I can almost hear the temporarily deafening blast and smell the pungent odor of the explosions, as I sit here at home recalling the fond memories of an unencumbered non PC childhood.
Remember the plastic rockets that you filled with water and then pumped up with air, then fired skyward? They were so efficient that even though the thought may have crossed one’s mind to aim them at someone else, you wouldn’t dare do it for fear of seriously hurting them.
We used to make our own slingshots, cut a y shaped branch and whittle it and use a piece of an old inner tube which everyone had in those days. We had plenty of small rocks to use for ammo. We also made the other kind as “Brother Dave” Gardner described in a comedy album about Little David and Goliath. He folded a blue suede tennis shoe tongue, attached two lines thereunto and searched diligently in the roundabout thereof for a smooth flat river rock. We used to actually use the tongue from a worn out work shoe with a couple of strings attached. We never learned to be accurate with one but you could throw a rock a phenomenal distance with enough speed to kill a steer if you could hit him in the head with it.
WE didn’t allow parents at our after school activities. At the pond, it was kids. Dads were allowed on Saturdays, and then only if there was a preschooler needing a skating lesson.
Bullying happened, it was not good. It was often countered with success, but not by parents.