Canadian Airgun Forum

So,

Today I had the opportunity to go to a private small "film house", to see a viewing of "A Christmas Story" the classic Christmas movie that many of us know of because of the featuring of the Daisy Red Ryder BB Rifle.

The scene where Ralphie finally gets the Red Ryder Rifle, and then goes out shoots it, has a ricochet that hits him in his regular glasses, etc always has me thinking a couple things:

1) Why the hell would his father have bought him the rifle, but not gotten a pair of safety glasses? I'm sure there's safety glasses that can go over regular glasses.

2) Why the hell did Ralphie think it was a good idea to shoot at a literal metal sign from a short distance?

Generally speaking air rifles can be safe and fun things even for kids, but those two oversights made a world of difference, as my own father is fond of saying "use your brain".

I know it's a movie of course, but that doesn't change that it displayed stupid and unsafe behavior.

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"Positive thinking and positive action add up to results." - Anton LaVey

"I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" - Marilyn Manson, "The Reflecting God" (1996).

Well, prior to around 1990 parents raised their kids without bubble wrap. We got skinned knees, pellets in the arse, broken glasses, and even broken bones playing real games. So Ralphie's experience was true for the time and his parent's behaviour was the normal. I would guess that safety glasses weren't even required in industrial settings at that time.
Here is a curiosity I learned the hard way, the old fashioned safety glasses (1980s versions) were chemically hardened glass lenses. They have a shelf life of a couple years at most. I had an older pair (maybe 5 yr old) fall off my nose and hit the pavement and a lens shattered into a zillion pieces. Yay for polycarbonate lenses.

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Iacio, ergo sum

Oh yes, I have heard of safety standards back in old times being lacking.

I believe football/hockey and probably other sport helmets back in the day, were not even really helmets but more similar to leather caps.

I believe that seat belts weren't made mandatory in vehicles until the later part of the 20th century.

Thankfully we have made much progress in these areas since those times.

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"Positive thinking and positive action add up to results." - Anton LaVey

"I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" - Marilyn Manson, "The Reflecting God" (1996).

Exactly!

1968. Had my first car delivered without and dealer had to install a set.

lol some one is bored..............

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VE7SHM//VE7ZJ

Moderator

Thanks goodness. I guess that is why we have far fewer injuries in contact sports and hardly anyone dies in car accidents anymore. There is far more to the "old times" than the absence of safety equipment. Respect, responsibility, considerate, .....

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

Indeed!

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Best Wishes
Daryl

This is an interesting response, I don't recall saying "everything about 'old times' was bad". We were simply focusing on one specific topic. That said I guess as an older person, you probably see that as some sort of attack on you, which in reality is not the case.

But it is important to remember that while there's good thing about each time period, there are also bad things. Of course in Europe there was literally Hitler and Nazis and all that, but even in the west there was racism and homophobia at much higher levels than today, the civil rights movement was a thing for a reason. Heck there were even American Nazi groups, and Nazi riots in f--king Toronto.

Technology in general, including medical technology is far more advanced now than it was then too, you'll likely be thankful for that when you become even older, if you aren't already.

Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with being "older", but also let's not romanticize the past too much and look at it through rose tinted glasses and ignore the negatives. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

My parents are immigrants from Poland, born in the late 50's and they fully acknowledge the negatives of the past where they lived - in a soviet satellite state on the eastern side of the wall, and do not take it personally, because there is no need to take it personally.

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"Positive thinking and positive action add up to results." - Anton LaVey

"I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" - Marilyn Manson, "The Reflecting God" (1996).

I don't think Mac took this as a personal affront or attack on him or the past, just stating facts.
When we were kids during 1960 through 63 10 through 13yrs. old, in the fall, we'd to pull the river weeds out, shake of chop off the dirt enclosing the tap root, and stack them, shoved into the ground. They had a hard, hollow stalk about 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter and would be up to 8' high. We'd pick sides, then throw these "spears" at each other. They'd be cut at 6' long and have a hard tap root - tap roots are hard & pointed. We used garbage can lids for shields. That was fun!! No one ever got seriously hurt. Boydie needed stitches in his lip once, iirc. Might have been Taylor, my brother. That spear throwing trained us to be "spear chuckers" in high school. My brother, who was 2 years ahead of me, set new records in highschool, his grade 10, then senior in grade 11 through 13 for junior than senior javelin throwing. When I followed into grade 9 then into senior in grade 11, 12, I broke his records and they stood for a number of years.
Not everything we did was dangerous, but close to it. LOL Those were the days!!

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Perhaps so,

The thing about text based communication is that a lot of the other aspects of human communication (body language, tone of voice, etc) is missing from it, so misinterpretations are common. Perhaps we both misinterpreted each other.

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"Positive thinking and positive action add up to results." - Anton LaVey

"I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" - Marilyn Manson, "The Reflecting God" (1996).

Maybe it is the word "progress". We have changed and some of it could be termed progress I suppose. For the people themselves and the way they interact physically, verbally and socially, I am not sure I can describe that as progress. That has nothing to do with age really, except maybe a wider perspective.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

I think a large part of that is to do with internet and social media. I've noticed that people tend to say things they would never say in person, over the internet because there is this sense that you will likely never meet the other person and face no real repercussions.

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"Positive thinking and positive action add up to results." - Anton LaVey

"I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" - Marilyn Manson, "The Reflecting God" (1996).

I am absolutely with you there. Except for a couple of airgun forms, I pretty much use social media to connect with family and that's it.

I think big money has definitely changed sports as well. Sportsmanship is not as much of a part of sport as it use to be. Intent to injure is more prevalent and do not even get me started on taunting and ridiculous celebrations when an individual does something they deem extraordinary. Their team can be losing badly and they celebrate one thing, they as an individual have done. Way too much me me me, look at me.

For all the people in the world, I think in general, we are more isolated than we use to be. Texting, twitter etc, emailing, facetime and zoom are not the same as face to face.

If the social interaction was not a part of field target(FT), I am quite sure I would not be a part of it. I have tried online competitions, but it just does not do it for me. After a field target match, that is social as well, it is not uncommon for a fair sized group of individuals to stand and talk in a group for a good long time. The shooting is great, but I think the face to face interaction is a very large part for most long time FT shooters. It may be the part we look forward to most.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner