just a thought

[oldhippy]

      I was sitting here tonight having a glass of spring water that my good bud Eric brought me last weekend.(Thanks Eric) My old fuzzy mind started to wander to my early days of bow shooting. First, I'm older than dirt, actuallyI'm a hell of a lot older, but I know some of you are also.  The first recollection of bows and arrows was when I was just about four years old. My mom would take me to the Cress 5 and dime and I would pick out one of the little bows that they would have in the boy toys section. Little hickory d bow about three feet long with splits sawed in the end for nocks and came with three suction ended arrows. I got my behind wore out a few times for shooting the dog, the cat, or grandma. Then as time went forward there came the fiberglass bows from Sears along with poc arrows. Sometimes one of the other kids would bring a lemonwood hunting bow that they acquired somewhere that was always 50 or 60 pound pull. We couldn't pull it back with our arms so we would lay on the ground with our feet at the handle and pull that sucker as far as we could. When the arrow was launched we would watch it go out of sight, then run like hell to the closest building we could find and get under the drip until the arrow came back to earth. We got wore out for that too, punching holes in the tin roofs. I'm 59 now and the bow is as still fascinating now as it was then.I was just wondering, what are the first memories you guys have of being a savage.

                                                                                                         Oldhippy Steve

[sonny]

There were always a couple of old recurves around and thinking back on it I really wish I had asked my dad if he hunted with 'em. Anyhow I remember showing some interest in wanting to shoot them and dad taking me somewhere to get arrows to shoot. I found a big piece of cardboard, drew a pretty decent deer pic on it and would shoot at that thing for hours.
At some point I lost interest in archery but started shooting again when a co-worker sold me an old Bear compound (one of those with steel cables and round wheels.)
 

[lowell]

I'm just a few days from 60 and you have brought back memories.... we used to shoot the arrows straight up but did not run.  We would see who could get their arrow to hit the closest to where it was shot from.  Stupid kids!!!

  I also shot at some hand rings in a school yard once and the arrow went through the roughly 6 inches circle but glanced up as it went through and I shot a hole in a BIG glass window of the school.  I claimed my "trophy" and the punishment (as I remember) was not as bad as I expected!!

[mullet]

Steve, sounds like we grew up in the same neighborhood. I started out with the same little hickory bows and suction cups. But we discovered that once you took the suction cups off and ran the end through a pencil sharpener you could do a job on squirrels and fat, ol' swamp rabbits. Then came the glass bows from Sears, also. We played the same game shooting straight up also, but we would get under a huge canopy of Live Oak trees, shoot up, and then try to find a big tree limb to stand under.

 Just about 5 years ago I tracked down and got back my first, good bow I ever had. I had bought it when I was about 10 years old and like a fool, traded it for a BB gun when I was about 15. It was a 25# Ben Pearson I had saved up lawn mowing money for two months to buy. It is now my daughters bow. And bows are addicting; I have over 40 now . And I'm 59, also.

[Rick Wallace]

I stumbled across a place called Primitive Archer a couple years ago,,,,,,he he he!  Im in the 49 age bracket,never played with bows as a kid,wasnt allowed to. I wish the old time sears stores were still around,I never seen one but from what I hear they were great places to buy sporting goods! Enjoy you old guys stories!!    

[oldhippy]

 Right on Eddie. Those little arrows were some kind of hardwood then and not plastic like the ones I have seen now days. You really could make a deadly projectile with the little suction cups taken off. I guess we are lucky to have made it this far and not have something stuck in the top of our heads. All of my little fiberglass bows are gone now but I still have my first recurve hunting bow, a Ben Pearson Gamester, 45 @ 28. Made my grandson a bow for Christmas and will have to teach him the finer points of bow shooting.           Steve

[Pat B]

I don't remember exactly when it was but we(the neighborhood kids) had bows and arrows and just like you we were stupid enough to shoot arrows straight up in the air but also like you we were lucky enough to not get an arrow stuck up in out heads.    A few roofs did suffer though.
  I'm a little bit older of a hippy(62 in July)than you "oldhippy" but what a great era to grow up in. Kids get arrested for just shooting a bow in some city limits.
  My Dad was a police court judge when I was growing up and never allowed any weapons in our home. Fortunately he did allow our neighbor to teach us the proper handling of all sorts of weapons and other outdood gear. Times sure are different today.

[ErictheViking]

Grew up next to the local athletic fields. 3 little league baseball diamonds, high school diamond, a soccer field and the high school football field.  One Christmas I got a red fiberglass "Indian" brand longbow. I was 10 and loved that thing. plenty of space to launch arrows (yes some straight up  ). Put my mark on the area though when I decided to shoot the plastic owls they had hanging in the visitors stands in the football field to keep the pigeons away. Til the day they tore the stands down there was two wooden arrows sticking out of the first owl. Don't know why it took me losing two arrows to realize I wasn't getting them back but I stopped after that. That bow broke trying to use it as a foot launched flight bow. Never shot another bow again until doing research for something I am working on about how a wooden bow is made. Found this and other sites and got completely sucked in. Not a bad addiction, just never enough time for it.

[Pat B]

Now that you are back in the fold Eric please remember not to shoot arrows straight up! 

[Sparrow]

When I was 4 or 5, all us kids and cousins and such were at grandma's for Christmas (Probly "63 or "64) all us boys got the little bow set with the suction cup arrows that morning and pretty quick,we were all outside.Wasn't long and the suction cups were off and we had our arrows properly sharpened up.Shooting at everything.Having a ball. After a bit,me and one of my cousins were shooting an arrow back and forth to each other like playing catch.Awhile into the game,I shot it to him and he caught it ! Wow !!  so of course I had to do the same (Or try) Put my hand up to catch it and it went thru the web of my hand between the thumb and the index finger.He got his whooping immediately and I got mine after I got iodined and a bandage put on. Then we were told not to shoot them at each other no more and sent back outside.(Adults were playing hearts and drinking coffee and didn't need any kids around making noise and stuff). We got back to our bows and arrows and we all went roving. We didn't shoot arrows to each other any more till we got out of site of the adults.  Ha !    '  Been a sucker for bows ever since.  '  Frank

[Lee Slikkers]

Yup, I ain't THAT old but remember having decent wooden field tipped arrows and a cheap ol red fiberglass bow, being dumb and young we used to shoot them straight up too and me being dumber than your average kid would try to catch them as they came straight down...even caught a few before they hit the ground (gawd I was really not very bright...)

Thanks for dredging up the memories 

[oldhippy]

Yea Pat times are sure different now. Shot a gun in the yard of the old homeplace a couple of years ago and in a few minutes I was laid out on the ground with five pistols drawn down on me. I have always lived here in WNC, not to far from you Pat, and things have gone from backwood country folk to strangers that never knew we existed 20 years ago. God yes it used to be good simple times here. We kids would take to the woods during squirrel season and hike the roads with our shotguns and rifles and nobody gave us a second glance. Not anymore. Not long ago the police was called to investigate a person carring a weapon near a local school. later in the day a man was picked up as he was walking down the road with a shotgun. When he was questioned he said sure he went by the school with the gun. He also told them the breech was empty and his shells were in his pocket and he didn't see what the big deal was since he had been walking by the school for the 35 years to hunt along the river.

[mullet]

Heck, I still like trying to catch arrows.

[Pat B]

Horizontal or vertical! 

[oldhippy]

 Pat, Horizontal, eating dirt with my hands behind my back. I'm 5'10'' and weigh almost 150 lbs. but that day you would have thought i was a 6'6''275 lb Billy BA