3--2-1 .

Shakethetrees · 6th November 2015, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Thank you Raf!

I live in a nation of wooses.

I really do hope we never have to fight a serious war.

Thank you Raf for reminding me of the Good Times.

You ain't alone!

Twenty years ago my cousin brought her kids down from Boston, MA to Louisiana. While visiting with the old folks, they had a look of boredom that only ten year olds can have, so I suggested we go outside ( in the suburbs, mind you!) so we could engage in a little target practice with a BB gun. Their eyes popped open, and the first words were, " What about the police?" Not to worry, this is OK here!

The boy AND girl almost knocked me over, running past their overprotective Mom, my very liberal cousin, and had the time of their lives after five minutes ov instruction and the basic ground rules.

This wouldn't even have gotten a smirk in my day.

And, to think, neither one shot their eyes out, became serial killers or even damaged any of the neighbors property!
Probably one of their fondest childhood memories of life down south.

VANDOO · 6th November 2015, 07:24 AM

WE ALL ENJOYED OUR FIRECRACKERS/ FIREWORKS. THE THREE MOST READILY AVAILABLE IN MY EARLY YEARS WERE THE CHERRY BOMB, M-80 AND SILVER SALUTE THEN THEY WERE BANNED. ALL THREE OF THEM HAD THE GREEN WATERPROOF FUSSES AND WOULD EXPLODE UNDER WATER. THE FIRST ONE I REMEMBERED BEING BANNED WAS THE GIANT AND AFTER THAT THE TORPEDO ( A CHERRY BOMB SIZED BALL THAT EXPLODED WHEN THROWN AGAINST SOMETHING. IT WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS AS IT COULD GO OFF ACCIDENTALLY BY SITTING ON IT OR BUMPING AGAINST SOMETHING WHILE IT WAS IN A SACK OR POCKET. THE BABY GIANT WAS BANNED NEXT AND LATER THE CHERRY BOMBS AND THE M-80. WE GREW UP BLOWING UP STUMPS AND BIG ROCKS WITH DYNAMITE SO FIRECRACKERS JUST SEEMED LIKE TOYS TO US BUT WE STILL KNEW WHAT THEY COULD DO SO WERE CAREFUL AND NO ONE EVER GOT SERIOUSLY HURT.
WHILE DRIVING AROUND IN OZ IN THE 1980'S I USED TO LISTEN TO JOHN WILLIAMSON AND ONE OF HIS SONGS WAS "CRACKER NIGHT" THIS REMINDED ME OF THAT.

Rick · 6th November 2015, 04:13 PM

Speaking of things that go boom! Anyone else here have a Big Bang Carbide Cannon in their youth?

I started shooting when I was 8 with my Mother's match grade .22; she was a competitive shooter at Wellesley College (imagine that)!
My first firearm was an Iver Johnson 12 ga. that I 'found' in the trunk of an old rustbucket in a junkyard. It made a great sawed-off shotgun.

First pistol I shot was a Walther ppk at about age ten; one of my older brother's pals had one and he rode his bike over to the house with it in his jacket pocket.
I bought my first shotgun (Remington Wingmaster pump) at the age of 14; all I had to show the guy in the gun shop was the $$$.
Good old days and a different world back then.

Anyway, we used to launch old golf balls skyward from a heavy pipe with M80's; those green fuses were great weren't they Barry?

I couldn't help but think of Michael while I was writing this.

fernando · 6th November 2015, 04:49 PM

Great personal records, guys.
Eventually i was also ten years old in the (late) fifties, but in this part of the world, actually Alan's antipodes, life was not so thrilling and the fire cracks offer was not so diverse; which turned out to be a good thing, as i was born so poor i couldn't afford to buy them; only by Carnival some cheap microscopic 'snaps', almost soundless, composed of a sphere the size of small buck shot involved in fire powder, wrapped in thin paper, all the size of a fingernail.
Whereas in the bone area i am not behind competition; a couple broken ones showed me how fun it was. Until i grew up and had another couple sawed off, to remind me that real fun was yet to come. The only odd part is that i couldn't tie my shoe laces any longer; but having changed to the velcro soultion, problems ended

.
I will skip the animal chasing part; will leave it for the tough guys

.
But i don't find it hard to understand that Authorities currently restrict the use of manual fireworks; statistics show that the number of guitar players has decreased; you need all fingers to play the thing

.

.

Raf · 9th November 2015, 10:29 AM

I chose the words romantic and kinaesthetic with some care. The classic definition of romanticism being action contemplated in repose. That is a reflection on an experience containing an element of danger, but one of which you are no longer a part. It started in the late eighteenth century with the pursuit of the sublime in nature; wild, uncultivated and terrifying and ends up in the nineteenth century with the gothic novel and a confused aesthetic based on experiences that were often entirely imaginary. Hence the century is shot through with revivalist styles of one kind or another. Not unique to this century as we see a similar thing happening in the sixteenth century with the revival of chivalry. Romantic reflection on the past is thing that occurs at the point at which something is about to become lost.
Kinaesthetic, as in aesthetic as referring to the senses, but also kinetic, as referring to movement which taken together describe the sensation of the pleasure in handling things and things that move. Implying an aesthetic that is developed or understood through an actual tactile experience as opposed to simply looking at something. One based on real experience of materials, process and activity. Things that I would have thought relevant to a study of ancient arms and amour and also say something about why we like the things we do. Which of course is also described by the reflections of contributors whose personal history becomes part of the how they understand the subject and how an aesthetic is formed. Whether they are acceptable or desirable from a modern standpoint is entirely irrelevant. But it does explain why I think a debate about ancient arms and amour can never be wholly academic.

fernando · 9th November 2015, 08:00 PM

Thank you for your post, Raf.
Perhaps i wasn't sensitive to the point of considering your original post as relative to the theme of ancient arms and armour ... notwithstanding the romantic and kinaesthetic introductions. In any case, as a topic in itself, with its contents, is better placed in the Ethno Miscelania section, once we have one available.
On the other hand, it is more than visible that, the majority of discussions that take place in these fora, is far from being locked into an academic ambiance.
It is however interesting to notice that, your last post may hardly be found distant from an academic one; however naturally worth to appreciate.
All the best.

.

Raf · 10th November 2015, 04:45 PM

Thanks for that . I will try to be less oblique in future.

ariel · 16th November 2015, 01:34 PM

Political correctness goes amok these days. I just read that a 9 yo boy who wrote a love letter to a 9 yo girl was officially accused of being a sexual harasser. In one of my ( purely medical) papers I referred to a 5 yo patient as a girl. A highly respected medical journal demanded changing it to "a 5 yo woman".
My kids grew around all things sharp and pointy, thank Heavens, and I took them to the Gun and Knife shows when they were 6 or 7. They are likely to be the only human beings in our university ivory tower town to know the meaning of such words as shamshir, panabas and shibria. Tofu steaks are the next step....

I think that the Y-chromosome is slowly but surely vanishes from the genetic composition of the so-called "industrialized" societies.......

No wonder that pharmaceutical companies are so successful in promoting the diagnosis of " low testosterone syndrome": they are undoubtedly correct in identifying its epidemics.

6th November 2015, 07:24 AM	#2
VANDOO (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: OKLAHOMA, USA Posts: 3,138	WE ALL ENJOYED OUR FIRECRACKERS/ FIREWORKS. THE THREE MOST READILY AVAILABLE IN MY EARLY YEARS WERE THE CHERRY BOMB, M-80 AND SILVER SALUTE THEN THEY WERE BANNED. ALL THREE OF THEM HAD THE GREEN WATERPROOF FUSSES AND WOULD EXPLODE UNDER WATER. THE FIRST ONE I REMEMBERED BEING BANNED WAS THE GIANT AND AFTER THAT THE TORPEDO ( A CHERRY BOMB SIZED BALL THAT EXPLODED WHEN THROWN AGAINST SOMETHING. IT WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS AS IT COULD GO OFF ACCIDENTALLY BY SITTING ON IT OR BUMPING AGAINST SOMETHING WHILE IT WAS IN A SACK OR POCKET. THE BABY GIANT WAS BANNED NEXT AND LATER THE CHERRY BOMBS AND THE M-80. WE GREW UP BLOWING UP STUMPS AND BIG ROCKS WITH DYNAMITE SO FIRECRACKERS JUST SEEMED LIKE TOYS TO US BUT WE STILL KNEW WHAT THEY COULD DO SO WERE CAREFUL AND NO ONE EVER GOT SERIOUSLY HURT. WHILE DRIVING AROUND IN OZ IN THE 1980'S I USED TO LISTEN TO JOHN WILLIAMSON AND ONE OF HIS SONGS WAS "CRACKER NIGHT" THIS REMINDED ME OF THAT. Attached Images

6th November 2015, 04:49 PM	#4
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Great personal records, guys. Eventually i was also ten years old in the (late) fifties, but in this part of the world, actually Alan's antipodes, life was not so thrilling and the fire cracks offer was not so diverse; which turned out to be a good thing, as i was born so poor i couldn't afford to buy them; only by Carnival some cheap microscopic 'snaps', almost soundless, composed of a sphere the size of small buck shot involved in fire powder, wrapped in thin paper, all the size of a fingernail. Whereas in the bone area i am not behind competition; a couple broken ones showed me how fun it was. Until i grew up and had another couple sawed off, to remind me that real fun was yet to come. The only odd part is that i couldn't tie my shoe laces any longer; but having changed to the velcro soultion, problems ended . I will skip the animal chasing part; will leave it for the tough guys . But i don't find it hard to understand that Authorities currently restrict the use of manual fireworks; statistics show that the number of guitar players has decreased; you need all fingers to play the thing . . Attached Images

9th November 2015, 08:00 PM	#6
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Thank you for your post, Raf. Perhaps i wasn't sensitive to the point of considering your original post as relative to the theme of ancient arms and armour ... notwithstanding the romantic and kinaesthetic introductions. In any case, as a topic in itself, with its contents, is better placed in the Ethno Miscelania section, once we have one available. On the other hand, it is more than visible that, the majority of discussions that take place in these fora, is far from being locked into an academic ambiance. It is however interesting to notice that, your last post may hardly be found distant from an academic one; however naturally worth to appreciate. All the best. . Last edited by fernando; 9th November 2015 at 08:13 PM.

6th November 2015, 04:13 PM	#3
Rick Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,339	Speaking of things that go boom! Anyone else here have a Big Bang Carbide Cannon in their youth? I started shooting when I was 8 with my Mother's match grade .22; she was a competitive shooter at Wellesley College (imagine that)! My first firearm was an Iver Johnson 12 ga. that I 'found' in the trunk of an old rustbucket in a junkyard. It made a great sawed-off shotgun. First pistol I shot was a Walther ppk at about age ten; one of my older brother's pals had one and he rode his bike over to the house with it in his jacket pocket. I bought my first shotgun (Remington Wingmaster pump) at the age of 14; all I had to show the guy in the gun shop was the $$$. Good old days and a different world back then. Anyway, we used to launch old golf balls skyward from a heavy pipe with M80's; those green fuses were great weren't they Barry? I couldn't help but think of Michael while I was writing this.

9th November 2015, 10:29 AM	#5
Raf Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 252	I chose the words romantic and kinaesthetic with some care. The classic definition of romanticism being action contemplated in repose. That is a reflection on an experience containing an element of danger, but one of which you are no longer a part. It started in the late eighteenth century with the pursuit of the sublime in nature; wild, uncultivated and terrifying and ends up in the nineteenth century with the gothic novel and a confused aesthetic based on experiences that were often entirely imaginary. Hence the century is shot through with revivalist styles of one kind or another. Not unique to this century as we see a similar thing happening in the sixteenth century with the revival of chivalry. Romantic reflection on the past is thing that occurs at the point at which something is about to become lost. Kinaesthetic, as in aesthetic as referring to the senses, but also kinetic, as referring to movement which taken together describe the sensation of the pleasure in handling things and things that move. Implying an aesthetic that is developed or understood through an actual tactile experience as opposed to simply looking at something. One based on real experience of materials, process and activity. Things that I would have thought relevant to a study of ancient arms and amour and also say something about why we like the things we do. Which of course is also described by the reflections of contributors whose personal history becomes part of the how they understand the subject and how an aesthetic is formed. Whether they are acceptable or desirable from a modern standpoint is entirely irrelevant. But it does explain why I think a debate about ancient arms and amour can never be wholly academic.

10th November 2015, 04:45 PM	#7
Raf Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 252	Thanks for that . I will try to be less oblique in future.

16th November 2015, 01:34 PM	#8
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Political correctness goes amok these days. I just read that a 9 yo boy who wrote a love letter to a 9 yo girl was officially accused of being a sexual harasser. In one of my ( purely medical) papers I referred to a 5 yo patient as a girl. A highly respected medical journal demanded changing it to "a 5 yo woman". My kids grew around all things sharp and pointy, thank Heavens, and I took them to the Gun and Knife shows when they were 6 or 7. They are likely to be the only human beings in our university ivory tower town to know the meaning of such words as shamshir, panabas and shibria. Tofu steaks are the next step.... I think that the Y-chromosome is slowly but surely vanishes from the genetic composition of the so-called "industrialized" societies....... No wonder that pharmaceutical companies are so successful in promoting the diagnosis of " low testosterone syndrome": they are undoubtedly correct in identifying its epidemics.