Our Time

Good Morning,

Facebook has turned out to be a great way to connect with old (and new) friends.  Few are so special as the friends from our high school days when balancing on the edge of adulthood and adolescence.  We were young enough to believe we would live forever, yet old enough to experiment with new experiences while protected by the judicial laws of adolescence. (under 18)

One of my close High School friends at the time was Don Sutter.  We shared many of the inquisitive antics of that time.  Reflecting on “Our Time” in Modesto, California, Don sent this email note, which caused me to pause and reflect on some of the things we did back then.

“It’s a sad commentary on the times we live in today, but by today’s standards we both undoubtedly would have ended up in federal prison for all the stunts we pulled back in the 60’s. It’s too bad kids today will never experience the freedoms we enjoyed at their age.”

Many of our “freedoms” back then, I believe came from tolerance and a deeper understanding of motive by the authority of the time.  Sure, we got it trouble, but we were mostly remanded to our parents for discipline who were “involved” in shaping our development.  And which was harsher than say, going to “Juvie”. (Juvenile Hall)

I have said it before, that my parents gave me enough room to experience life and make mistakes that didn’t kill or maim me, and then…this is important…to suffer the consequences of my actions.  They were wise that way, as they understood that you couldn’t develop common sense without experiencing life and the results of your decisions.  It required getting “out there” in the world and actually doing things.

First of all, you have to realize that my adolescence was in the mid 50s and my coming of age in the early 60s.  Interesting times for our country as well.  It was the time between two wars, Korea and Viet Nam. A transition time for music as “Rock & Roll” saw it’s genesis and would forever change how we experience music.  The early 60s were a time of change as Civil Rights movements gained momentum while Hippies and “free love” permeated the social scene.

Back then there weren’t all the laws and rules that we see now.  For now, there are so many restrictions that protect us either from ourselves, others or bad choices.  Not to mention people that will sue for the littlest of things.

Some memories:

• I played with Mercury.  Not only did I play with it, I actually bought a pound from the local drug store.  Try that today.  Spill some and you have to call a Hazmat Team.  Oh and I still have the bottle.
• While working a Trains & Planes a local toy store, I would clean the Slot Track with Carbon Tetrachloride without using gloves and then clean my hands with it when I was done.  Sure, it caused fulminant necrosis, and was banned in 1970, but who knew?
• You could buy firecrackers back then.  Not this woosie stuff they sell today but the kind that when used properly could flatten a 5 gal can filled with water or remove fingers from your hand if you disrespected them.  M80s were great for fishing since they had a waterproof fuse.  You could tape on a weight, light and toss them into the canal, then watch the fish come floating to the top.  I heard they worked good on mailboxes too, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.
• We would make our own Pipe Bombs if we wanted a real explosion.  Of course you learned pretty quick that the farther away from it you were, the better to avoid the flying debris and metal end caps.  With dynamite fuse they became waterproof and would find there way into the main canal.  Of course that would have made National News today and chances are we would have been incarcerated.
• It was a time before Estes and manufactured model rocket engines, so when we wanted a rocket, we had to make it ourselves. Aluminum tube, nozzle, fins and nose cone.  The fuel was experimental, but mostly some form of gunpowder, which we purchased at a local gun shop.  We were happy when they actually got off the ground and 10 feet into the air before exploding.  Much smaller rockets were made with crushed match heads to get the phosphorus and stuffed in a tube made from aluminum pie tins.  A friends wasn’t too cautious and lost his eyebrows for a while when a can full of match heads went off in his face.  Little batches at a time were the way to go.
• I made my own guns back then and shells.  It was never to harm anyone, but more for the fun of it.  Early ones were not much more than a hand cannon, where a ladyfinger firecracker was used for the charge and a marble for the projectile.  Later they evolved into using a cartridge made from a shotgun shell primer, brass tubing, black powder and a lead shot.
• It wasn’t all pyro stuff.  We made tree forts (houses) high in Eucalyptus Trees.  High enough that if you fell, well lets just say it would have left a mark.  Forts were a big thing back then.  We would spend days gathering wood scraps from around the neighborhood and looking for nails long enough to secure it to the tree.  This was engineering at its basic level with trial and error teaching us physics in the process.
• We dug tunnels under ground to connect forts and shored the tunnel up with wood along the way.  I’m pretty sure mom & dad would have pulled the plug on that one had they known more about it.  We used candles for light and took turns digging.  Never worked that hard at home.
• There was the spelunking of the irrigation conduits that ran under the road and through the fields.  I suppose that had some danger to it as one never knew when the water would come.  Added to the excitement.
• We swam in the irrigation canals when the water came in.  They were small and only about 4ft deep, but since we didn’t have a pool, it worked just fine to cool off some kids.  Besides paramecium is protein. 
• After the orchards had been flooded by irrigation, it was great fun to go trudging through the mud.  Pulling a friend through the orchard in a peach box sled.  Eventually, it would lead to mud fights and rolling around in it like a bunch of piglets.  Mom would hose off the crusted mud when we got home.  I think mud was good for the skin.
• After the orchard had dried up there would be cracks between the mud and when things were just right you could grab a block and pull it up.  With a large rasp file from dad’s shop, I would fashion blocks and build castles and such from the custom formed dirt blocks.  I think there was a lot of clay in the soil as it was slippery when wet and hard when dry.
• Building airplanes out of scrap wood and tossing them from the hayloft of a friend’s barn just to see them drop like rocks, we learned about flight and what doesn’t work.  Mostly what doesn’t work.
• The barns were also great for sliding down the hay and throwing rocks at the bats that lived high in the barns.  We broke out more shingles than hit bats.  Still fun though.
• When it came time for the peaches to be picked, a truck would drop off a huge load of wood boxes and stack them 8ft high by 10ft wide and 30ft long.  We would climb up and carefully stack another row around the top while digging them out of the middle to make another fort.  We 
  were big on forts back then.  By propping up the boxes we were able to make a doorway from the orchard side that wasn’t obvious.

• An old stripped down baby carriage was used as a car and one would push while another would pull.  The lucky one would ride.
  

• We made bicycles built-for-two by removing the front tire of one and attaching it to the back tire of another.  A trick to ride.
• I always liked glider airplane models and much preferred them over the powered kind.  I actually lost one of my gliders, a Thermic 20 when it got into a thermal and eventually disappeared from sight.  That was exciting to see it fly away.  It would have been better if I had my name and address on it.  Hindsight is 20/20.
• We made our own kites back then out of newspaper or tissue and if we did manage buy a Hi-Flyer, we patched it when it got damaged.  I didn’t own a nylon kite until I was well into my 20s.

Growing up on a rural road, surrounded by farms, vineyards, orchards and cow pastures, offered many opportunities for a young man to explore and innovate.  Something that “city kids” would never experience.

I will be forever grateful for where I grew up and for having parents that loved and guided me with a tolerant hand.

As Don stated… many kids of today will never have the chance to experience the things we did, for the times have indeed changed as well as society and the virtual world is more enticing than getting dirty in some irrigation ditch or stomping around in the mud of an orchard.

I don’t regret a minute of it, for it is what has helped make me what I am today.  Hopefully still a kid at heart.

Love, Dad

PS: The preceding was just a small fraction of some of the things we did.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the many definitions.