First off a big thank you to all for the birthday posts. How old am I ??...... I will give you a time line. The year I was born Henry Ford patented a method of constructing plastic auto body's, Battle of Midway ends and the Japanese loose, Kellogg's Raisin Bran is introduced, St.Louis wins the World Series, President of the U.S. is Franklin Roosevelt, Miss America was Jo-Carroll Dennison (Tyler TX).
Some prices in affect were..... new house $3775.00, New car $920.00, Gasoline 15 cents a gallon..... 15 cents a gallon? I don't remember that, but I bought alot of 17 cents a gallon gas for my 46 Ford coupe that was painted 55 Dodge Regal Burgandy. No door handles, No hood,with chrome radiator hoses and engine. It also had Burgandy wheels with whitesidewalls which was a big thing back then. It took every dime I made to keep me in tires and gas because the Mustang rebuilt engine 100 horse flat head with a Strongberg Carb was a goer.
I had just turned 13 when my first center fire rifle was a Winchester Model 43 218 Bee. I still have it today. I remember like it was yesterday. When it came by UPS I was home and signed for it. I knew what it was but dared not to open it. I quick ran down to the shop where Dad was working and asked if I could open it. He said yes, I ran home again (8 blocks) I remember cause I counted them both ways. The 43 Sold for $66.00 back then and the Deluxe model sold for $72.00. The only difference was the deluxe model was checkered. After opening up and drooling for hours and seeing how things worked I could only think of how I was going to get rich shooting it. After all Jack rabbits were selling for 75 cents each and the bounty on Fox was $4.00. There were some sightings of fox around. Why I could make money and have fun. Shells were $5.75 for 50 rounds and my new Ideal 310 Tong tool would work just fine. 13 grains of 4198 would send it out around 2800 FPS and that was around factory ballistics.
When Dad came home that night I gulped down my supper and kept pestering him until we went out to the shop and removed the cosmoline and got it ready for tomorrow because it was Saturday and I was going hunting. Well, first thing dad took it out of the stock while I washed the bolt. He polished and honed the sears until it was a nice crisp trigger and I could just see the Jacks piling up. Well, my plans got changed big time. He then decided that he would make it a Deluxe model and checker it..... Checker it ?!!! But dad I don't need it checkered.....I want to go hunting tomorrow. Well, it wasn't until the next winter that I was able to go hunting with it. I can still see my dad sitting by the south bedroom window in the house where the light was the best with his magnifiers on checkering. When I did get to go hunting the following winter it was all sighted in and would print in a half inch hole all day long at 100 yards and supported a new J-4 Weaver scope. I shot many Jacks that winter.... somehow I never became as rich as I thought I would but did manage to keep components ahead anyway. I saw one fox that winter and shot him at about 175 yards running. You talk about proud. I carried him all the way home...about 4 miles from where we lived which was about 2 blocks from the Des Moines river and every Sat. I would strike out and walk anywhere from 1 to 5 miles.
That year Wayne Newton was born along with Muhammad Ali, Tammy Wynette. Johnny Cash was up and coming and some time later I would go to see him for the first time in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Casablanca was a big hit. How old am I ?? ...........well Jack Benny said it best... I am 39