my dad was military, but I wasn't exposed to firearms until I was 10 or so. he took me out to shoot a 12 gauge with no working up to it, at 10 y/o.
One the other end, my mom was anti gun... I still hear her to this day.... You don't need that. It won't hurt you. you don't need to go out hunting, you have work around the house that needs to get done instead. you can do that some other time.
yet when her dad died, she wanted each of my brothers and me to have one of his firearms.... she wouldn't let us go shoot them, but she wanted us to have them because they were his.
I hunted a couple of seasons at Ft Bragg with my dad in 1966 and 1967. then he went overseas to Vietnam and that ended that... he was over there several years.
at 28 I started hunting with my in laws in Northern MN in 1980 after I got married. had no guns during college or after I got out and went into the military.
so I was close to 30 y/o before I got to be around any firearms at all, much less hunt.
even then, when ever my mom visited, she'd always go thru my closet and then ask me what in the hell do I need those for., yet she would get into the freezer and find, venison Squirrel etc.... and eat all I had while there..... my first wife hated wild game, but she would always want me to go hunting with her dad, which allowed her to go home and spend the weekend with her mom... but she was happy when my mom would come and eat all the wild game in the freezer.
only as I got older and got away from my first wife, and my mom... was I able to freely enjoy the things I was interested in since my childhood... so my child hood fantasies started when I was almost 40.....
