Friday, August 04, 2023

Caps Then and Now

This is a symbol of my deprived childhood of the 1950s. →

You see, I didn't have caps like this. Or if I did, I most certainly had no need of rolls
like those.  →

I did have a cap gun, but it would only take a single cap at a time. I did not have a gun that could fire a whole roll of caps. How sad.

Those were the days of cowboys and Indians (don't judge, they were different times) on tv. They were the fifties with heros like Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, and Rin Tin Tin dominating our thoughts.

Indeed, they were the rootin-tootin fifties, but my single-cap weapon was unfit for battle. I yearned for a proper gun, but my longing was for naught.

I was cap-less, but, remarkably, I survived by deprived childhood. Perhaps, however, this is why I wear caps today — aa compensation of sorts. :) ;)



23 comments:

  1. life is so simple when we do not question our behavior or what is taught us, or what is left out of hte story. I do remember those caps.

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  2. I had rolls of caps, but no gun. We used to make them fire by dropping a rock on them! Yes, I played with boys. Still remember the smell of whatever the explosive was.

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  3. I had a cowgirl outfit, and bought the caps, but they were just shot with a rock on the sidewalk. Didn't have many of them, so someone probably put her foot down!

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  4. Simpler times for sure. Love the cap you are wearing today!

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  5. I liked the 50s. Bring back this era. The 60s brought nothing but chaos.

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  6. Now that's a deprived childhood. I never heard of a cap gun that only fired singles. I loved my cap gun and felt deprived because I didn't have two with a double holster. I spent several years of my childhood imagining I was a cowgirl, best friends with the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

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  7. You'll shoot your eye out! I never had a cap gun of any kind or a cowgirl outfit. Neither did I ever have (GASP!) one single Barbie doll. We had books, lots of books, and what we called iggy trolls, for whom we built houses out of cardboard boxes and scraps of material (for their wee bedspreads and curtains). I did, however, dress as a pirate one Halloween. xoxo

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  8. I remember those caps too but I mostly remember how they smelled! I don't remember whether I had a cap gun or someone else did. Perhaps we just hit them with a rock?

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  9. I had a cowgirl outfit and a cap gun and rolls of caps. Also had a Davey Crockett hat. The good old days. ;-)

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  10. I had rolls of caps but no gun, thanx Mom. Used to hit mine with a hammer. Finally my maternal G-ma got me a cap gun for Christmas and a cowgirl hat. Mom muttered but let me keep it. By next Christmas I had passed the cap gun stage.

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  11. Oh dear! Even poor as we were, we had caps and sometimes a cap gun! But with three older brothers who could earn money with paper routes, I guess that explains the guns. We collected pop bottles to get money for caps, and if no gun was available, we used a rock or a hammer to blast the caps! Thanks for reminding me. Good times!

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  12. I had the rolls of caps and went through quite a few of them. However, during my teacher days you would sometimes smell the familiar smell of caps . The trouble was to catch the beggar. The best way was to watch where the kids were looking and I could apprehend the miscreant every time.

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  13. This is such a history you have disclosed. I knew little about the caps. But it seems to carry that bit of history with you.

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  14. I had a cap gun too and treaured it!

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  15. I remember using a sharp rock and popping the caps. My little brother always had his gun, but my sister and I were all about having fun too. Tomboys, for sure!

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  16. Mu brothers had the cap guns, and I don't remember them shooting a roll, but only one cap at a time. I exploded caps on the sidewalk, with a rock or a hammer.

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  17. I had a little silver cap gun, but didn't know I could go faster with the roll. I just positioned each spot in the gun. I bet if you did a survey of our "horrid" childhood, probably few of we former capgun specialists don't have guns as adults. Linda in Kansas

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  18. As I am from a younger generation, it is no surprise to you that I have seen and played with many a cap gun albeit without a single or a roll of caps to fire in it. I suppose they had all been fired a decade or two earlier. We had to add our own verbal "bangs" to the battles.

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  19. Yours is a lovely cap!

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  20. Never had those when I was a kid.

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  21. LOL. We used the rolls in our guns. Our home was very well protected with four well armed children.

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  22. After commenting on this post, my last grandparent died. This past weekend, we went up to where she was living with my uncle and went through her things. Believe it or not, I came back with a single shot cap gun, probably owned by my grandfather. No caps though. I'll probably have to do a post on it one of these days.

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  23. Ed. I would be neat to have that relic. I hope you do post in the fulness of time.

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