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Barefoot Commando!


siege1863
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New image to add to the WWII toy collection...

 

The boy is playing with a Victory "Ranger" machinegun and wearing a reject liner sold as a toy helmet.

 

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post-211-1271287069.jpg

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This little guy got started around the same age I did, and in the same activity :) Like you other guys have said, what fond memories.

 

Seige, do you know the date of this photo? That SMG is the bomb; looks sturdier than my old Mattel "Dick Tracy Tommy Gun" ( may it rest in peace).

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No date on the photo. However, the toy gun and helmet liner place it at wartime. I have similar wooden guns and identical "helmets" in my collection.

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Boy, does that top photo bring back memories? I had a liner when I was about that age and wore the thing all the time (except when I was playing cowboys and Indians). I had a plastic Tommy Gun and seems like a web belt too. That and a pair of shorts was my summertime combat uniform. Like a LOT of other neat stuff from childhood, it all disappeared over the years. Dang it sure was fun! :thumbsup:

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Summertime in the mid 60s,when you lit out the door right after breakfast and got back

in just enough time to get in the tub,maybe a little TV, and then in the bed. When beer and

Marlboros and horsepower was advertised. And WAY before children came up missing and

before Amber Alerts and pictures on milk on milk cartons became somewhat and sadly the norm.

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I fondly recall my formative years (late 1960s early 1970s) when me and my friends would ride our bikes (Schwinn Stingrays!) miles from home and be out until nightfall. We would have enough change in our pockets to stop at the "pop store" and get something to eat and drink. Our funds came from the return deposits on drink bottles we collected from the roadside.

 

As for playing "war," we did not have a lot of money so most of our toys were improvised or handmade. Now that I look back, I can appreciate how many broom handles were conveniently broken so that us kids could re-arm ourselves. What I wouldn't give to have back the three paper grocery bags of plastic Army men, tanks, cannons, and fortifications. I spent countless hours playing with them in the dirt spot under my favorite shade tree. Many remain where they fell. Caught a lot of hell from my father for using the gravel from the walk as incoming fire. Sadly, few children today will ever experience such great times.

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I fondly recall my formative years (late 1960s early 1970s) when me and my friends would ride our bikes (Schwinn Stingrays!) miles from home and be out until nightfall. We would have enough change in our pockets to stop at the "pop store" and get something to eat and drink. Our funds came from the return deposits on drink bottles we collected from the roadside.

 

As for playing "war," we did not have a lot of money so most of our toys were improvised or handmade. Now that I look back, I can appreciate how many broom handles were conveniently broken so that us kids could re-arm ourselves. What I wouldn't give to have back the three paper grocery bags of plastic Army men, tanks, cannons, and fortifications. I spent countless hours playing with them in the dirt spot under my favorite shade tree. Many remain where they fell. Caught a lot of hell from my father for using the gravel from the walk as incoming fire. Sadly, few children today will ever experience such great times.

When I was in the Navy 1964-68 Prime Time Vietnam, I often thought of all the kid stuff I was doing just a few short years before.Pony.

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Nobody had any money in the south in the sixties. Didn't have neighborhoods or suburbs,

didn't even live in a house that looked something from MY THREE SONS. My momma didn't

look like Laura Petre but she could sure make biscuits and milk gravey.Your neighbors had

names and nine times outa ten was probably a relative or so close a friend that they were

considered family.Momma baked in a pan and fried in a skillet.Sundays were for bein in

church AND sunday school.No police sirens or fire trucks in the middle of the night or for that

matter during the day.No shooting,No jackin,No bullies,No planes crashin every other day,No

hijacking planes,except to Cuba and everybody was automatically sent back anyway.No layoffs,

No closin the doors forever.No wondering who was gonna be left to work on the Impala. Most of

all as best as I can remember no real worries about anything much,everybody just got up and went

out and did it the same way the next day.

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Sorry ya'll,got way off the subject,but they came and got me,put the

leash back around my collar and chained me back in the yard.

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I fondly recall my formative years (late 1960s early 1970s) when me and my friends would ride our bikes (Schwinn Stingrays!) miles from home and be out until nightfall. We would have enough change in our pockets to stop at the "pop store" and get something to eat and drink. Our funds came from the return deposits on drink bottles we collected from the roadside.

 

As for playing "war," we did not have a lot of money so most of our toys were improvised or handmade. Now that I look back, I can appreciate how many broom handles were conveniently broken so that us kids could re-arm ourselves. What I wouldn't give to have back the three paper grocery bags of plastic Army men, tanks, cannons, and fortifications. I spent countless hours playing with them in the dirt spot under my favorite shade tree. Many remain where they fell. Caught a lot of hell from my father for using the gravel from the walk as incoming fire. Sadly, few children today will ever experience such great times.

You just described my childhood to a T !!!!!... :thumbsup: ...mike

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craig_pickrall

My time was 10 or 20 years earlier than most of you but it was pretty much the same. It was the late 40's and early 50's. We had lead soldiers and tin tanks rather than plastic. We were using up the things our parents brought home from WW2 plus what you could buy for pennies at the local surplus stores. I remember for years I wore USMC P41 pattern HBT trousers because they were cheaper than jeans. We got them at the surplus store for 50 cent a pair (I think). We had the Roadmaster bikes not all that fancy stuff. We lived out doors all summer playing ball or war or cowboys and indians, biking trips, camping and generally having a great time. The only time you were in doors was to eat and sleep or if you were sick. You sure didn't waste daylight for watching TV or playing games.

 

The kids today really don't know what they have missed.

 

I remember to when the whole town turned out to see the local USMC Reserve unit ship off to Korea and they were proud of the troops.

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pwmiraldi67

wow too cool!! sadley, I grew up in the late 60s early 70s when the anti-gun Nazi liberals, hippies and NOW bitches outlawed toy guns!!!!! I had an old chair leg as my STEN sub-machine gun, oh simpler times!!! damn Hippies!!!

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during the summer I use to get up at 0300 to go on missions and get back home before dawn, I wore my M1 helmet , web gear, canteen, fanny pack, jungle boots [made in korea] pellet gun , flash light, rations, M80's and my binoculars.

 

I practiced stealth by trying to get to the river bottoms and through the sand company gravel pit and through the alleys without being seen and sneak back home before anybody even knew I was gone.

 

kind of like recon sneak & peek missions :lol:

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I still had this kind of childhood and I grew up in the 90's. Some kids still do this. Not too many however. I think I still liked to play outside like this till 7th grade???

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I still had this kind of childhood and I grew up in the 90's. Some kids still do this. Not too many however. I think I still liked to play outside like this till 7th grade???

You were very lucky and very fortunate to be able to have had that.

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The grandson of Mom and Dad's next-door neighbors has been a fierce War Player for a good while now (Helmet Liner, wooden '03 and all), and he's only about 11- and, as was the case in our family, his sisters are in the game as well. It's still possible to have a healthy, creative boyhood, but now the parents must take extra steps to counteract the various cultural sicknesses (boys need to stop trying to be "macho", guns are "bad", playing "shoot-em-up" will make boys violent sociopaths, etc.) that are bombarding the kids at every turn, like Pwmiraldi67 mentioned.

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The grandson of Mom and Dad's next-door neighbors has been a fierce War Player for a good while now (Helmet Liner, wooden '03 and all), and he's only about 11- and, as was the case in our family, his sisters are in the game as well. It's still possible to have a healthy, creative boyhood, but now the parents must take extra steps to counteract the various cultural sicknesses (boys need to stop trying to be "macho", guns are "bad", playing "shoot-em-up" will make boys violent sociopaths, etc.) that are bombarding the kids at every turn, like Pwmiraldi67 mentioned.

Why can't people just let kids be kids without all the babble and B S

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My son (10) sees ALL of these pics and 'lives 'em'. We have 10 acres (and another 40 behind it that's my families) with woods, 'crick' and hills. He plays 'war' darned near every day, with various and sundry guns. AND 'surplus' gear.

 

And I did the same.

 

Sometimes, I'm not sure if he realizes how lucky he is....but I sure try to give him the same things I had. That's my old 'Wake Island' t shirt.

 

 

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He has more than this, but this is the 'rig' he normally wears.

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Jason, that pic shows another young man off to a great start because his parents are doing it right, instead of heeding the word of the "experts" :thumbsup:

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Thanks, everyone!

 

Yeah, he's all about blousing his trousers. I've got pics of him wearing his 'Civil War' uniform (complete with kepi and a tail coat, old riding gear I found), and other gear, too.

 

Will try to get a pic tomorrow if possible....it's his first Boy Scout 'overnighter' by himself, and the old man is a tad...worried LOL. But, I've done all I can do.

 

He's got an ALICE w/frame, snivel gear, flashlight, tent, 782 gear....and ready to go.

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Ready to GO! 0900 hours today. At the moment, I'm at work....and I hope he's dry! Got enough snivel gear.....

 

 

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