No. My dad was the last of six Depression era farm kids of poor Dutch immigrants. He was a bookworm child who became an Econ and history prof later on the GI Bill after WWll.. He was wounded in the Philippines with two other brothers, one a POW in North Africa, and the other on a bombed out ship in the South Pacific; this was before the Sullivan brothers event. Only one of his brothers came to hunt casually after that. He did bring a Japanese 6.5 Carcano with an obstructed barrel home with him.
My sibs and I (the oldest), are all professionals, but with me being the only true conservative, hunter, and semi-loony ( I pale next to some here). It could have been a gene mutation I guess, or adoption except that I do favor my folks physically. I could accurately say that there is a liberal bent in the rest and their attitudes toward guns, no doubt from our dad’s and other post-grad influences (even then). I have always been different politically.
I was enamored at a young age of cartridges and the odor of burnt shotgun powder from the H&R 410 my father did buy me at age 12 or so. And the gun magazines at that time. My first couple of other guns were purchased through the local Sears & Roebuck catalog store or from a local combination barber-gun shop with a stained, creaky wooden floor — it was a much different time in America as we all know.
And so it began, primarily as an Iowa pheasant hunter in the days of abundant Government Acres (now CRP). That habitat and a fresh snow competed heavily with my college classes at the time.
