A very interesting article John. My corner of the world, not being any kind of sporting destination, was pretty much devoid of such gun stores inside fifty miles or so, but boys anywhere can be smitten by the written word and images. There has to be a genetic component — though, strangely, I’m the only one in my family — to all of this; for example, the strange fascination for cartridges and spent cases and their aroma; being drawn to guns like a moth to light.
Our little town had a small barbershop replete with the creaking, stained, wooden floor and two small gun racks of mostly used guns with a few new ones. How do you describe the admixture of after-shave lotion and Hoppes No. 9, along with fishing reel oil? The proprietor and barber was a sportsman, wrote a weekly outdoor fishing column in the local newspaper and tolerated a kid who never got his haircut there, but who constantly came in to admire those guns and ask questions.
