A Little Story about a small part of my life.

[branxchar&charx]

'87 here....i swear some days im feeling it but always hear, its going to get worse!

I remember being gone for hours at a time and no one batting an eye. As some have already stated, no way are their kids going into the woods at all, supervised or not.

 

[hurleyjd]

Oh, I sure do and did! I would climb the tree. Sometimes, I would stand on the back of my horse when we lived in Mesquite, Tx.

You was a little daredevil weren't you. I like you more and more let us keep something civil going on and forget about all of the rest.

 

[hurleyjd]

Another thing I learned when younger was to not every try to catch alive squirrel.

 

[Travlr]

WOW @Hereford2 is a YOUNGin'... I'm a 1953 model....

Me too...

A little story from long ago. Me and another kid were messing around chopping branches on a big tree that had blown down. We'd trade off to use the hand axe and we were happily chipping away at the branches and trunk. I don't remember which of us took the swing, but one of us took a wack at the trunk close to the roots... and opened a tiny hole into a cavity in the trunk. We saw movement inside and with a little careful work we opened up the hole big enough to draw a full grown frog from the cavity in the tree. The chamber was round and smooth, and so small that the frog was almost filling the space. The frog was very sluggish, and it hardly moved. We were curious about a frog trapped inside the trunk of a tree so we stretched it out and fumbled around with it, trying to get it to wake up. I guess it was weak rather than tired because it died within a few minutes.

 

[kenny thomas]

I have grandchildren older than that.

I have socks older than that

 

[Caustic Burno]

Another thing I learned when younger was to not every try to catch alive squirrel.

I never failed that test, cause I have had one comeback to life.
I thought he was going to amputate my little finger.

 

[MurraysMutts]

'87 here....i swear some days im feeling it but always hear, its going to get worse!

I remember being gone for hours at a time and no one batting an eye. As some have already stated, no way are their kids going into the woods at all, supervised or not.

Add 10 yrs and get back to me...

A lil something to look forward to here.

Never trust a fart

 

[Backbone Ranch]

I was born in '99 and my best memories are of the time I spent on our family ranch. I can remember, starting at 6 or 7, that the only rule was to be back home at sundown. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent fishing the stock ponds, running through the creeks, and wandering game trails. My dad still has a photo of my sister and I, back when we were in elementary school, throwing cow manure at each other on Valentine's day. Most of the people I went to school with did not have that upbringing, but I am grateful for it. We started raising Murray Greys when I was 12, and my involvement with that ultimately lead me to vet school. I do not know where I would be if I had not grown up the way that I did.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

So you are only 23 yrs young? OMG, you have a lifetime ahead of you. Enjoy each day. They are precious.

 

[greybeard]

Grandkids can't comprehend that our first phone was on the wall and the operator had to connect you with the other party. Now we have a computer in our shirt pocket
Speaking with an old friend of mine last week and we both agreed that we lived thru the best times and the children of the future will have nothing to compare it with. We were fortunate!

Indeed we were!

 

[greybeard]

The frog was very sluggish, and it hardly moved. We were curious about a frog trapped inside the trunk of a tree so we stretched it out and fumbled around with it, trying to get it to wake up. I guess it was weak rather than tired because it died within a few minutes.

If that had been where I and JD and CB grew up, it would have been a horned frog. Those and stripped lizards used to be everywhere, along with roadrunners.
((I have only seen one horned frog in the last 20 years) but I did read just last Sunday that a bunch of of people from Waco and from Austin have ran headlong into a bunch of them and came away pretty scarred up )

 

[Rafter S]

If that had been where I and JD and CB grew up, it would have been a horned frog. Those and stripped lizards used to be everywhere, along with roadrunners.
((I have only seen one horned frog in the last 20 years) but I did read just last Sunday that a bunch of of people from Waco and from Austin have ran headlong into a bunch of them and came away pretty scarred up View attachment 23086)

Roadrunners were pretty common when I was a child also. I imagine fire ants are responsible for their decline (along with quail).

I can also well remember seeing fireflies (but we called them lightning bugs) so thick you could barely walk without stepping on one. Though they've made a small comeback, my children never got to see that. Hopefully my grandchildren will.

 

[Caustic Burno]

If that had been where I and JD and CB grew up, it would have been a horned frog. Those and stripped lizards used to be everywhere, along with roadrunners.
((I have only seen one horned frog in the last 20 years) but I did read just last Sunday that a bunch of of people from Waco and from Austin have ran headlong into a bunch of them and came away pretty scarred up View attachment 23086)

Can't remember the last time I saw a horn toad!
Still have a few road runners, the quail are gone as well.

 

[Kentcal]

1940 model here. Split my formative years between the family farm in SW Michigan and NYC. learned to shoot with a Mossberg octagon barrel. 22 single shot at 5. My Uncle would give me one bullet and tell me to bring home squirrel... Taught me patience. Used to travel between the two places by train-alone. Mom would pin a $10 bill inside my jacket and tell me not to get off until I got to Kalamazoo. First trip out there in summer '45. My cousins and I would spend the days driving tractors to haul hay, using them for trips to town for afternoon malts, going to the lake for evening bath... Life was simple. In NYC I'd be out with friends on the block till dark... No one supervising us... We rode our bikes all over Queens and Brooklyn. Hanging on to the backs of buses. Not one of us, in either venue, ended up in jail.... Quite to opposite. All were very successful in life... Sadly, I'm almost the only one left. We had good lifetimes; just too short.
The kids today...? Parents should let them be kids... They're smarter than most think.

 

[TexasRancher]

@hurleyjd , wonderful story I could feel it and the fishing...we found our bait under rocks and used deer flies killed over our heads or in our hair. We didn't make our own poles, bobbers or weights...but we darn sure cleaned every one of those trout for eating. From a tiny 4" trout to a nice big 14" food never went back in the stream.

 

[Ky hills]

I saw a horn toad in southeast Oklahoma 2-3 years ago only one I'd ever seen

 

[MurraysMutts]

I saw a horn toad in southeast Oklahoma 2-3 years ago only one I'd ever seen

They used to be plentiful 'round here. Not sure what happened. The striped lizards as well.
Late July 2018

 

[Travlr]

The meadowlarks around here have disappeared...

 

[greybeard]

I've seen some of those striped lizards impaled on a fence barb. Bugs too and I'm pretty sure sumthin put them there ... for later.
nnyum nnyum

 

[Buck Randall]

I've seen some of those striped lizards impaled on a fence barb. Bugs too and I'm pretty sure sumthin put them there ... for later.
nnyum nnyum

Shrikes hang their prey on fences and thorns to eat later. I'm not sure if other species do it.