***Recently I wrote about my boyhood experiences at the Hamer School c. 1934-41. `At the time I did not realize how fortunate I was to live in such a community when life was simpler and freedoms were more prevalent. I thought about this when I saw a news report recently about a first grader who got in trouble because he violated the “zero tolerance” rule about having any weapon in his school. That would be somewhat understandable even though he was less than 7 years old, but what caught my attention and outrage was that he did not actually have a weapon but rather he had DRAWN one in class, a knife he has seen on a cartoon TV program. The teacher, in my opinion, overacted and it, as they say, became a ‘federal’ case. I assume wiser heads handled the case using common sense.
All boys I knew during my youth almost always carried a knife in their overall’s pocket. It was a rite of passage to own your own Barlow a popular brand perhaps one with two blades and a fancy handle. It was hardly ever used for anything except to show off to friends. I never heard of anyone using it to threaten another although there was the possibility although remote. My mother did not like for me to own one since it had a tendency to wear out the carrying pocket but back then it was a status symbol with not any really useful purpose kind of like why I always carry a comb in the pocket today.
My father, a farmer, also shared with his brother the operation of a country store, LEE&LEE, established in 1911. One of the items I remember the store had in stock was a glass display case of a variety of knives, different sizes and of course different prices. That’s how I remember the Barlow brand. Back then it was THE brand highly desired by any boy or adult. When you said Barlow, everyone knew you were talking about a real knife.
Today, one would be imprudent to carry around a pocket knife not that it would likely be a threat to anyone but because of the laws now in place outlawing them in most public places. While I understand the potential harm a knife could cause, still I think the ‘zero tolerance’ ruling is extreme. Isn’t there something about intent that should be considered?
***Another boyhood possession that is now practically verboten is the cap pistol. If you were a boy and born in the immediate pre/post WWII era, you surely owned several. Then too, most boys I knew were very familiar with western movies and later television programs very popular back then. Any boy could identify Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and a host of other stars.
One of my most prized Christmas presents was a complete set of cowboy gear. The outfit consisted of a vest with a badge, chaps with fringe and of course the most important part was the gun and holster set “just like in the movies.” I don’t recall if the ensemble included a hat which I probably would not have been worn anyhow.
The cap pistols I knew held a roll of cap that you placed in the cylinder part of the pistol and when you pulled the trigger, a noise was made and a puff of smoke, just like for real. I remember when I opened my gift I saw that there was included with the pistol 1000 caps. I could only image the fun that would be had with that many shots. But in reality, while there might have been the potential of 1000 shots, actually when the cap exploded, sadly the explosion would damage several of the adjoining caps.
Of course it was little fun unless you had someone to play with, someone who could appreciate the seriousness of the confrontation. Today, there are those who equate such play as fostering antisocial behavior but back then, it was just a game. I never heard of anything growing up to be a mass murderer like today with all the rules in place to avoid such. One of the favorite games was to see which ‘gun slinger’ had the fastest draw, that is which boy could remove his weapon from his cowboy holster and fire it first.
Now if’ big brother’ can figure out a way to control thoughts.
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Bill Lee
PO Box 128
Hamer, SC 29547
