Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Way We Were Brought Up.

Like it or not, things change. I graduated in 1980. Dad was a carpenter by trade, and while he was an excellent tradesman, work wasn't always good. We lived outside of Youngstown, Ohio, and the steel industry down there was on it's last legs as mills closed up one after another. If I wanted money for anything, I had to earn it on my own, as Mom and Dad struggled just to keep the bills paid and food on the table. From the time I was 10 years old I worked to earn money for my self and to help the family. We raked leaves, shoveled snow, and did whatever else we could scrape up through the neighbors. I ran a trap line, even at that young age. My brother would set the traps at home, as I wasn't strong enough to set a 110 Connibear, or a 1 1/2 longspring yet. He'd wire the jaws open and once I had the trap set, I'd cut the wires. We were doing stuff to earn money all the time, and if we weren't doing that we were hunting or fishing to put meat on the table. While the other kids were out running around having fun, I was filleting crappies, or skinning squirrels. We used to save up our squirrel tails and sell them to Mepps every couple years.

I don't know that many kids come up this way any more. When you are doing this mainly for the good of the whole family, it takes on a different kind of significance. We never had much, but we never went hungry, and Mom and Dad always managed to make the house payment. I well remember the mortgage burning. That was a big day for Mom and Dad.

Nowadays, its seems like all the kids focus on is their "need" to have the latest cell phone or gaming system. My how times have changed.