[aarondhgraham]

When I was 11 we moved to the far south-side of Oklahoma City,,,
There was an ancient garbage dump about 2 miles south of us.

Me and my buddies used to make a day of it,,,
We would trek out there and shoot rats all day long.

My Mom said we looked like an old west posse headed out after the bad guys.

I wore my Mom's Colt Frontier Scout in a raggedy old leather holster,,,
My long gun was either a Mossberg bolt action 410 shotgun,,,
Or my J. C. Penny's single-shot bolt action .22 rifle.

Silas had a new fangled Nylon 66 and was the king of our crowd,,,
His sidearm was a Crossman pump pellet pistol.

Bill had an Ancient Winchester pump .22 rifle with an octagonal barrel,,,
He didn't have a pistol but he did wear a Bowie knife.

Jimmy had a bolt action .22 of some ilk,,,
He had an older break-open .22 pistol that was probably an H&R.

We would pack a bunch of sandwiches,,,
And carry water in those quart sized Coke bottles,,,
On a good day we would kill 30-40 of those humongous dump rats.

We would all try and fire at the same time after picking our target rats,,,
The report from our guns would send the rats to ground,,,
It took 10-15 minutes for them to come back out.

Silas was well on his way to being an Eagle Scout,,,
On the rare occasion we saw a rabbit out there,,,
He knew how to skin and cook it over a fire.

I was the youngest at 11 and Bill was the oldest at 13,,,
I honestly don't recall anyone ever giving us anything more than a glance.

Old Doc did tell us to lean our rifles on the outside wall before coming into his gas station/store,,,
The pistols were ok by him as long as we didn't take them out of the holsters.

That summer (1962) was the best summer of my childhood,,,
And miraculously, we still have all of our fingers, toes, and eyes.

Aarond

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