Do You Remember When...........

[longbowman]

Somebody said they remembered when they brought home $127.00/week in pay?  My wife cleaned out our strong box a while back and she had all of my old pay stubs in there.  My W-2 from that year was $2,288.00!  I hunted for meat and ate everything I hunted.  I really used to like squirrle but now I'm not sure how often I'd want to eat it.  Do I miss those days?  Nah!  I like being my age and enjoy remembering the old stuff.

[joe skipp]

My cousin also has an original Bear Northwoods backquiver from the late 60's...Paid a whopping $25 back then. Problem is...he won't sell it to me!!!

My first Catquiver was under $25...1970....

[Tom A]

You guys had it good. The first "bow" I ever shot was a crossbow.

[mike g]

I remember working for a $1 an hr....
   And when I was high school gas was around .29 a gallon for ever.
   We always told them to fill it up and gave them $5.00 abn almost always got change back, They actual came out to get the money, put the gas in for ya and washed the winshield....
    Now ya got to pump it yourself and then take them the money, Go figure....
    Saw my first color TV when I was in the 6th grade, Watched the Flintstones at a girl friends house....
    Those where the days....

[Ray Hammond]

gas was 30 cents a gallon when I was 16 and got my first car, which I paid for working in a restaurant about 35 hours a week and going to high school full time. I made way more in tips than I did in payroll check.

I also cut lawns for a living during the mornings in the summer. 5 bucks a yard and man that was big money in the 60's.

You could buy nickel hamburgers at McDonalds in southern California..and a nickel got you a soda, or a big paper bag full of penny candy.

At a buck an hour pay, though, most of the items that we are saying were cheap were actually just as dear to buy then, as now...its just relative.

[BrianfromTulsa]

At a mere 40 years of age, I can't compete with some of the posts on this thread but I do remember dreaming of the day that I would be able to afford my own Baker climbing stand!

That day fortunately never came but I do remember building my own hang on stands out of rebar, if you can believe that.  Dad had a welder and some scraps, add a chain and I was in business.  Some idiot actually stole one of those stands....... the rest are still right where I put them some 25 years ago.

I also remember my first bow, a white glass Wilson bros Black Widow handed down from Dad.  Wish I still had it but the top limb finally gave up the ghost.

Great thread

[Stone Knife]

I was at a small archery shop that a local has in his attic, he showed me a dozen forgewood arrows that he has in a box. Three of them had brand new Hilbre(i think) broad heads on them, he said they had compressed shafts. I also owned a baker slimjim climber that my boss at the time sold me, because he climbed a cherry tree with it and it slid down to the ground, leaving a pile of bark at the bottom of the tree. He said he would never trust it again.

[joe skipp]

I paid $99 for my Kittredge Signature one piece recurve, $12.95 for 6 Zwickey Eskimos and $24 for one doz Sweetland Forgewood Battleshafts, full dipped in Sky Blue with white feathers.

My first Pearson Deadheads were $6.95 and my Pearson fully dipped yellow practice arrows were
$7.95 per dz...with field Points!

We had great catalogs back then that were totally traditional to choose our gear from...Kittredge Bow Hut, Anderson Archery, Robin Hood Archery, Herters and in my area, the local, small sporting good shops were all Ma & Pa. They all carried Cedar arrows and some aluminum....all under $10. They stocked either Bear, Browning, Colt or Pearson recurves.

Most bows were all under $80...except for a few top of the line Bear bows. Imagine paying $2.95 for a leather shooting glove from Bear Archery? A doz Mercury speed nocks for .99 cents? A Black Hawk tapering tool for $3.95? Premium Cedar shafts and arrows from Acme and M.J. Log....
Good thread here.......

[John D]

I remember when aluminum arrows were bright silver, no camo. we would put nurses white shoe polish on the shafts to dall them down for hunting, then wipe them off for the range so they were nice and shiny. Hilbre broadheads were a big thing. (By the way no screw ins, just glue ons)

The best pair of sneakers you could buy were Converse (Chuck Taylor) All Stars $9.99 and boy you had to save, parents just could not see paying all that money for a pair of sneakers.

[Bonebuster]

I remember green Gamegetters, Autumn Orange  XX75`s, and when Bear Razorheads started being made of crappy stainless. When the truck wouldn`t start it was probably because the choke was stuck.
And "made in China" was something we didn`t see on almost EVERYTHING.

I remember when we would take a trip "up-north"
just so I could bowhunt. (thanks mom and dad)

I`m only 41, but I do remember when having a recurve in your hands was nothing unusual.
I remember when the law was passed when you could kill a deer with a bow and one with a gun, instead of one for the year.

Treebark camo.(That was cool) Bowhunting October Whitetails was brand new. (Still cool)
 
I also remember when almost EVERYONE was like the people on this site.

[John D]

Bonebuster
I also remember when almost EVERYONE was like the people on this site.

That is my favorite.      

[Gun]

Dang thats a long ways back. My first job paid $1.65 an hour. I remember paying .19 cents a gallon filling my motorcyle for less than a Buck. First Bowhunting liscense cost $1.oo, when I was twelve, still have it somewhere. First car a 63' Chevy II cost me $300 in 1971. Dozen custom made ceadr arrows with Bear Razorhead for about $15. Wish I had the hunting knowledge back then!  :D

[joebuck]

Man ya'll are old!  
I remember when I could fill my Honda Trail 70 up for 64cents and comb the bayous and shoot turtles all day.

I remember buying my first real hunting bow the day i got my driver's license, Bear Grizley II..The owner let me take a practice shot at a bag stuffed with socks down a wall in the boot dept. Missed the bag and shot a pair of size 12 Herman Survivors gum boots. He made me buy them too. Damn boots still don't fit.

[Eric Krewson]

This hasn't been all that long ago but in the early 90s Bowhunter Warehouse would would have a sale on last years Martin Hunter recurves, $90 each. I bought several as did my friends. Mine are long gone but my friend still has all of his in different poundages.

I have to add I was a bow snob at that time with my custom Bighorn as my primary bow. I never told anyone that my $90 Martin Hunter was a much better shooting bow than the Bighorn.

[Jeff Strubberg]

I remember when hitting the high beams involved your left foot....

[Flesner]

Originally posted by Jeff Strubberg:
I remember when hitting the high bemas involved your left foot....

And everyone waved when you met them on the road.

[John Nail]

I remember working for $1 hr, nobody locked their houses, everyone left the keys in their cars, we had party-line telephone, I was 7 when we got our first TV-black and white and as big as a refrigerator,gas was $.27 as a normal price, round steak was $.36/lb a coke was a nickel. A model 12 Winchester was $69
We Had no sales tax, very little excise tax, Loan interest rates were around 2%, and most wives stayed home and reared their children.
Divorce was rare, unwed mothers were Extremely rare, welfare was looked down upon.
Sorry, I guess I got off of archery.

[Paul/KS]

I remember the high beam button on the floor too and the starter button as well...first "car" was a 51 Chevy truck with a 6 volt system.Paid 200 bucks for it...
Paid 20 bucks for my first serious bow a Bear Tigercat,50#...and I still have it    
Wish I'd kept that truck too...  :(

[Jeff Strubberg]

Back to hunting anyway, I remember gun racks in the back of every pickup at the local high school and school closing during the first week of gun season and hay season every year.

Good stuff.  Good stuff today too, we just have to look a little harder for it.

[Bill Carlsen]

I used to send for archery catalogs with penny ($.01)) post cards!