"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Misplaced Hillbilly said:
I loved Mister Rogers as a kid, and Seseme Street, but part of the fascination to me was the environment they were set. Cities and suburbs were totally foreign to me! Closest I came to a "neighborhood" was staying with my cousins or grandmother in "coal camp" communities. I grew up on a dirt road 4 miles from the nearest pavement, we had 2 close neighbors, neither of which you could see their house directly from ours. When they showed clips of kids playing in the city I felt bad for them, told my Mom " those poor kids gotta play in the road, they ain't got no yard" (some scene of some kids playing ball in the street, I think). Probably if those kids could have seen me, and my sister and cousins playing in the dirt by our log barn with a cow in the background they would have thought " those poor mountain kids, ain't got nothing but dirt to play with" lol
Click to expand...

You don't know how right you are!

I had a foot in each world growing up. Since my dad's job was in Washington D.C. that's where I spent the bulk part of my time in childhood. We had family over on the eastern shore of Maryland, so summers I got too spend time in a rural place on the water with some very interesting characters. If I had to put a number on it, I was 75/25. That's 75% city kid growing up, and 25% country time.

Even when dad moved us out to the Maryland suburbs of D.C., there were busses and we kids went right back "downtown" every chance we got. There was the National zoo, the Smithsonian, and stuff we were supposed to stay away from. Once we discovered girls and the internal combustion engine, they couldn't keep us away from "Downtown".

I've loved the back packing and canoe camping and hiking we did in the boonies like the Shenandoah National forest, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the like, but I've always been a city guy at heart. Just so much to do and get into. Okay, sometimes we got into stuff we should not have, but most of us survived and the memories are priceless. Even to this day, I love the museums and art galleries and ethnic restaurants and music venues. Even in retirement, when we abandoned ship in D.C. and moved to Texas, we picked a small city that was an easy 40 minutes from Austin and all it offers.

I like the country, and it's a great place to visit, but I will always live in or very near the big city. I viewed my 'country' cousins as kind of disadvantage in some way.
 
My Dad ( who lived all over, including Germany in the 60's,as a army brat) tells a story about his time in D.C. in the early 70's. He went there straight outta high school, and got a job as a taxi mechanic( there's a WHOLE other funny story about getting the job) where most of the drivers was black guys. He says he kept hearing them talk about "soul food" and a new place opened near his apartment building that was really good. Now my Dad had never heard of "soul food", to be honest not allot of black people in the area we're from. So he says, he was sick of hamburgers, Chinese food had lost it newness, and sick of whatever he could fix on the hotplate he snuck into his apartment. So he figures he will go try this "soul food" . Dad said when he seen what was on the menu he was never so happy. Fried chicken,pork chops, fried taters,mustard greens,collards with ham hocks, pinto beans and cornbread,biscuits'n'gravy, fried oakra, catfish. In other words the kinda stuff we grew up eating, just good 'ol country cook'n. Says it became his favorite place to eat.
Its great to experience other cultures and foods, but to someone away from home, familiar foods goes a long way to making you feel good.
 
I remember as a kid listening to an older gentleman telling how poor and “back-woods” he remembers feeling as a child growing up. Walking to school from the “sticks”. He said he was most embarrassed at lunch time when the rich kids pulled out their baloney sandwiches and potato chips. He said he would try to hide the fact that he was forced to eat big thick slabs of country cured ham between home-made biscuits, fresh blackberry jam on buttered biscuits washed down with ice cold buttermilk in a mason jar….:(
 
For those of you with fruit trees, is there a proper or "easy" way to apply bird netting? The birds have been going after our apple tree recently. (The fruit won't be ready for picking until early November.) None of our normal scare tactics have worked this year so we resorted this year to the netting. Tree is covered, and it's working, but it was a hassle to get the netting up. Any suggestions for next year?
 
jackknife said:
You don't know how right you are!

I had a foot in each world growing up. Since my dad's job was in Washington D.C. that's where I spent the bulk part of my time in childhood. We had family over on the eastern shore of Maryland, so summers I got too spend time in a rural place on the water with some very interesting characters. If I had to put a number on it, I was 75/25. That's 75% city kid growing up, and 25% country time.

Even when dad moved us out to the Maryland suburbs of D.C., there were busses and we kids went right back "downtown" every chance we got. There was the National zoo, the Smithsonian, and stuff we were supposed to stay away from. Once we discovered girls and the internal combustion engine, they couldn't keep us away from "Downtown".

I've loved the back packing and canoe camping and hiking we did in the boonies like the Shenandoah National forest, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the like, but I've always been a city guy at heart. Just so much to do and get into. Okay, sometimes we got into stuff we should not have, but most of us survived and the memories are priceless. Even to this day, I love the museums and art galleries and ethnic restaurants and music venues. Even in retirement, when we abandoned ship in D.C. and moved to Texas, we picked a small city that was an easy 40 minutes from Austin and all it offers.

I like the country, and it's a great place to visit, but I will always live in or very near the big city. I viewed my 'country' cousins as kind of disadvantage in some way.
Click to expand...
Kids don't play outside anymore... now they just play on the information superhighway :confused:
 
veitsi_poika said:
Kids don't play outside anymore... now they just play on the information superhighway :confused:
Click to expand...
Ain't that the truth, we HATED to be inside, we used to walk 4 miles to go play with our friends or go to my Great Grandparents house, and walk back by the moon, only time we was inside was at night, especially in winter, then we'd sit and play endless games of 500 rummy. Or go with my Dad to a friends house, where someone would pull out a guitar. Next thing you know someone would call somebody else, say " Hey Rogers got his guitar out, grab ya banjo and come on". Then there's 15 guys sit'n around pick'n bluegrass and old country songs, pass'n a jar of liquid corn around. Once when we was bout 12 my cousin announced HE wanted a pull outta that jar, to our surprise someone handed to him, not to be out did, I then announced if he gets a pull I get a pull. Well he pulled his, bout choked to death but I couldn't back out then so I took mine. Same result much choking coughing and sputtering. Everyone had a good laugh, and the music continued into the night. No real harm done, just part of mountain life. Most kids now, well I actually feel sorry for them sometimes. Sorry to ramble, got a bit nostalgic...
 
It might not be as prevalent these days but kids still play outside. My sister took my oldest to lake lure this weekend with her friends and their similarly aged kids (6-8 y/o). By the state of his feet and toe nails, he must have spent the whole weekend barefoot in the mud. After getting home late from picking him up from Asheville, the neighbors granddaughter came over and they spent 3-4 hours runing around barefoot, catching grasshoppers and rolling down our freshly cut field. Must have been a game of baseball somewhere in there as they hit half a dozen and just left them out in the field.

We enjoy watching expedition unknown together so I had to designate a part of the property for him to dig holes in to find treasure. He found a nice piece of quartz last weekend (swore to me it was a diamond).

Another favorite activity is mushroom hunting....we don't eat them as I don't know how to identify them but he enjoys showing them to his momma.
 
There's an old Yorkshire expression, which is rarely heard these days. It doesn't really mean that someone is stupid, but rather naive, gullible, or just looking through the world through rose-tinted glasses. "Eee, tha'd foller a muck cart 'n' think it wer a wedding!" Which could be translated as "Hmm, you'd follow the garbage truck and think it was a wedding procession ;)
 
On the monday following the launch and sudden disapearance of the Dead skunk 14, I expressed my disappointment of seeing them going so fast (# that so few had been made) and following that, was kindly contacted by Barrett @btb, who had foreseen such a case and had got a pair just in case he could help someone. By luck it was me! This could have been just an helping hand, except he never accepted to be refunded of his expenses.
Today, at lunchtime I checked under my door mat to find a very well protected parcel - soft as a cushion in fact:) - with a DS inside!
Usually I prefer more "noble" materials or micarta, and so far I have only two acrylic handled knives, the Tortoise shell Beer Scout and a hazy blue Parapluie. But the Dead Skunk attracted me and is really something else, I showed it to a lot of persons and all loved it, even those with no interest in knives. Plus the 14 pattern is so slim and cute.
I sincerely thank you very much Barrett, this makes my my day (and much more) and won't be forgotten.:thumbsup:
And to GEC, please let us have more of those fancy acrylic, DS, Patriot, Tiger Eye, etc. The next Oyster Pearl 85 is already on my list - hopefully there will be a plentiful batch.;)
Now, let's keep on with round tubes to celebrate! :D
14DS_whisky.jpg
 
Very gratifying to hear that JP :thumbsup: Barrett is a very decent type and altruistic, an admirable quality in the boorish competitive everyday world :cool:

I like GEC's Acrys a great deal, they give an amusing buzz and moreover, you are right, even non knife types express great interest in them. Quite a few women have been oohing and aahhing over a Pheasant Feathers 56 I have, and they seem really struck on the Kryptonite White Owl:) Maybe I should flash them about more...:D

When you said you'd received a DS through the post, I thought Goddess...another type of DS shown here c.1965 with Lino Ventura at the wheel (and sans windscreen/pare-brise) I believe ;):cool:

GePGHv4.jpg
 
Last edited:
Jolipapa said:
On the monday following the launch and sudden disapearance of the Dead skunk 14, I expressed my disappointment of seeing them going so fast (# that so few had been made) and following that, was kindly contacted by Barrett @btb, who had foreseen such a case and had got a pair just in case he could help someone. By luck it was me! This could have been just an helping hand, except he never accepted to be refunded of his expenses.
Today, at lunchtime I checked under my door mat to find a very well protected parcel - soft as a cushion in fact:) - with a DS inside!
Usually I prefer more "noble" materials or micarta, and so far I have only two acrylic handled knives, the Tortoise shell Beer Scout and a hazy blue Parapluie. But the Dead Skunk attracted me and is really something else, I showed it to a lot of persons and all loved it, even those with no interest in knives. Plus the 14 pattern is so slim and cute.
I sincerely thank you very much Barrett, this makes my my day (and much more) and won't be forgotten.:thumbsup:
And to GEC, please let us have more of those fancy acrylic, DS, Patriot, Tiger Eye, etc. The next Oyster Pearl 85 is already on my list - hopefully there will be a plentiful batch.;)
Now, let's keep on with round tubes to celebrate! :D
View attachment 996041
Click to expand...
I like to hear of dilemmas with happy endings. Thanks Barrett for taking care of JP. He's a swell guy and a deserving recipient for sure. Congratulations JP! :)
 
Wurrwulf said:
Thanks, GT. I made a post in the Your newest addition:traditionals of course! thread showing off exactly what was waiting for me.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, Shawn. :cool: I try to limit my exposure to knives by sticking with traditional folders - no modern knives, no fixed blades (well, I do have one Mora, and I fear someday I'll get a puukko). But congrats on your fixed blades, one of which looks very similar to a big Joker folder I enjoy! ;):thumbsup::thumbsup:

- GT
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top