The Growing Years

[22-rimfire]

People here often refer to when they were growing up and and some cases as they get older, they begin to move back in the direction of their youth. My question is during what age period do you consider your growing years and how have things changed as you grew up? Have your interests really changed?

My age of awareness began when I was 9-10 years old when I was big enough to do many adult things and start my journey. By 13 or the beginning of high school, I was hunting, trapping, fishing, hiking, and doing many things on my own. I bought knives to use. You know, to cut stuff. My parents did not provide "toys". We had to work and find a way to buy our own whether it be a knife or a firearm. It was just the way it was when you are one of 7 brothers and sisters with blue collar parents.

Flash lights.....oh my gosh, I like them, but refuse to spend the big bucks on them. I consider myself a trinket person and an accumulator of trinkets. Love to play around with stuff and learn or just do it for the fun of it. I have never really gotten into the video game craze although I understand perfectly why people enjoy them.

I think for regular people, by the time they get into their 40's, life has settled down a lot and often there is more money available for hobbies. That was my experience. The hobbies changed as life's circumstances changed. For example, I hunted much less than my younger days and fished more. Hunting began to become a pain in the butt in terms of finding places to hunt. It still is, but I would still like to get out. Hunting leases and leased club lands was becoming more and more common outside of places like Texas.

So, what's your story? I will probably add more detail about myself as the thread continues assuming some take an interest.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

I became aware in the late 60s just about 7 or so, I had already had a minibike since 5, I was hunting and backpackin' with the Old Man since about 8 also the time I got my first real motorcycle. I started realizin' I had a knack for takin' things apart, it wasn't until about 15 that I realized I could fix them and put 'em back together again.

When I was between the age of 7-15, (when the Old Man died in a plane crash, which coincidently will be goin' on over 40 years next week) I learned and did a lot. I helped build a 9 mile road through the woods in the Adirondacks to a hunting lodge a friend of the family owned. The only way in till then was by boat, after we took 29 days with a crew of about 12-18 people, backhoes, bulldozers, lots of chainsaws and axes we were able to build a half mile long runway to enable Doc Gosselin to take his plane up cuttin' 7- 9 hours off the trip. The plane we built the runway for was the one that crashed back in the 70s killin' him, the Doc and 4 other close friends and extended family.

I learned a lot from my Old Man about outdoor/survival skills and he taught me how to be a mechanic, he nurtured the mechanical aptitude he saw in me and by the time he died I was building, rebuilding and fixin' anything with a motor or any moving parts but that phase ended when he died. I was forced to grow up quickly so that began my second phase of learning. I knew a lot because I had to bein' the oldest kid in the family but I also had that teenage smartness which was left unchecked makin' me a very self assured cocky kid. It was here I began to learn my social skills and how to deal with people. It was a hard lesson too because I was a kid lookin' for the respect of an adult and I expected to be treated accordingly. Funny how the world don't really work that way.

When I turned 17 I got my own studio apt. and was workin' full time durin' the day and goin' to school at night to get my HS diploma and graduate with my class. I was 17 and responsible for myself and my little brother till he moved out at 17 so here I was again a kid expctin' to be treated like an adult. Funny thing was that as people got to know me and my situation they began to that me more like an adult and I found myself hangin' out with the older guys, the mechanics who were already in the trades for 20+ years instead of the younger upstart kids who were still wet behind the ears so to speak. My work career was my next biggest education, I tried everything, every jib just added to my skill set for not only the various trades but also the intricacies and politics of the different trades, I learned how to run a crew and eventually my own department.

Still it all just added to my resume and in no way prepared me for fallin' in love and gettin' married in my early 20s, before long I was a family man with more to worry about than just myself. I'm still learnin' to take care of a family and my daughter's all grown up already but here's where I turn to the simpler life. My work and career has allowed me to travel around the world, I've been fortunate enough to have been to a lot of places and done a lot of things with the crowning glory bein' our daughter but now it's time to downsize, my mom is in her late 70s along with her bf and is startin' to slow down a little so this will bring me back to my youth and bein' there for my mom again like I was when the Old Man died but this time I've learned a lot more than I knew back then some 40+ years ago when I first became aware .

 

[taldesta]

Mind blowing and challenging thread ... and very inviting all the same. Given time to prep for imminent freeze (start the snowblower, chuck some brush, stack some wood for the burner) and to mull some thoughts on the topic ... I hope to add at least an insignificant something. Thoughtful idea.

 

[seeverscpa]

Growing years? My childhood sucked. So dark and devoid of love that I don't really have any memories before the age of 9. I'm not kidding. I've never met my Father. From 9 on through my late teens I was being a step-child to a number of men my mother married and then eventually divorced. I basically grew up late and just barely. I guess I could say in college I somewhat turned adult. I got a professional degree and work in that field now. All and all I don't have much to show for being on this planet for 45 years, not compared to my peers or friends. Its an embarrassment really. It is what it is.