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1957 really was a great year. I turned 16, got my driver's license, and bought a beat-up old 1937 Mercury for $20. Once repaired and on the road, the car enabled me to expand my summer lawn-mowing business. I already had a Stevens double-barrelled 16 gauge shotgun. With the lawn-mowing money, I purchased two additional guns that fall - a pre-transfer bar Ruger Single Six revolver and an older Winchester model 62A gallery gun. (OK, OK, I know that the really authentic gallery guns only fired .22 shorts while mine could handle shorts, longs or long rifles. But still... : )
Alas, in 1958 I enlisted in the Navy and, in a moment of reckless idiocy, sold my guns to a friend. When my enlistment was up and I offered to buy the guns back for a significantly higher price, my friend just grinned and shook his head. I think every gun I have purchased since then has been an attempt to recapture the pride and pleasure I felt in those first three guns.
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