38 special that my Dad used in a job as a security guard. I remember my grandfather having hunting rifles, but I don't remember what they were. I do remember he had a double barrel shotgun.
The other gun I remember and have came after WWII, a mauser my Dad brought back from Germany, all puttied up where all the nazi insignia were dug out and I have the 30-06 he bought when he got back, since he had trained and carried that over there.
My parents told me lots of stories from the depression. Mom still going strong at 94. Certainly a different time and the skills needed to live well were very different. Everything was hard work, effort and will. Just going to school was unbelievably difficult. My mother getting up at 3 so she could ride into town on the milkman's wagon in the winter with only a blanket on her and a neighbor girl in single digit temperatures. Getting to school and helping the janitor stoke the coal burner.
But you do the youth of the country an injustice, my newphews and nieces and cousins all get up early to milk and feed cows and help out with whatever the can. Then clean up, grab breakfast and go to school. It's the examples that they have that matter.
