What did /do you do ?

I grew up in a middle class family. Others in our town had more, some had less. My parents worked pretty hard to make sure we had what we needed. My dad drove a truck and was gone most of the week, my mom was a secretary for the business that her dad had started and my uncles took over. Growing up I wanted to hunt and fish everyday, but I had to learn about it on my own. My dad hated fishing and only hunted pheasants a few times with me. I got ahold of his old crossman BB gun and would spend hours out in the pastures, chasing rabbits, squirrels and turkeys. I got my first .22 rifle a Marlin bolt action with a tube feed mag at 12 years and my first 12 gauge a Winchester 1300 at 14 years. I bought them both with money I saved. Never killed a deer till I was college age. My dad had no use for deer hunters, he grew up at a time in Kansas when deer were almost none existant. He wasn't fond of those that killed them. I had a good buddy and Frat brother get me into shooting bows and I got hooked on it. I spent 5 years in college much to my fathers dismay and my mother pushing me to do something else with my life besides working in the oil field. After I graduated and had a real job, I got serious into guns and stayed that way till about 2 years ago when I got divorced. I still like bow hunting and still own a healthy collection of guns I don't see going anywhere, but I just haven't been into reloading and shooting like I used to be. It comes and goes now in spurts, I imagine I will get it back when my boy gets old enough to take a bigger interest. Right now most of the shooting we do is on spinning targets with .22's when we can find a good stock of ammo. Everyone says I have to many hobbies, between dirtbikes, drag cars, and rifles I tend to stay busy with something all the time when I'm not at work.
 
Like Varminter145 my folks moved from the city to the country when I was 6, They bought a cabin, 18x20 with no running water or sewer(dad did put in a drain field for the kitchen sink at least I didn't have to carry the water back out). While we lived in the city dad ran box traps for rabbits in the winter and I got to tag along. Our place in the country had a small lot but access to the river and lots of fields all around. I hunted and fished as much as I wanted mostly alone unless dad had some time off.

Mom and dad were avid fisherman and hunters and they would take their vacations camping and hunting and would pull us kids out of school for the trips(they would get all the assignments from the teachers so we wouldn't be behind when we got back)but we had to do homework around the fire at night. We lived a primitive life but we weren't poor my folks were planning/saving to build a home on the property.

Plans dashed, the county wouldn't let dad build on the lot. So after 5 years we moved back to the city, luck would have it more river access, numerous RR right of ways, and undeveloped county land, again I got to fish, hunt and trap only I had to use a bow now as you couldn't discharge a firearm.

As a freshman in HS we swapped houses with a fellow that had to be near a Hosp. and I was again in the country, pheasant, rabbit and great duck hunting. I refurbished a small duck hunting skiff and dad would drop me off miles up the river and in the summer fish my way back and in the fall hunt.

Fast forward after a stint in the Seabees 18 months in Taiwan(fabulous Duck, Dove and Snipe hunting) and 13 month's in Vietnam I settled in northern MN, fishing, hunting and running trap lines. I was on the MTA board(district director) and was a trappers ed instructor. I opened a small gun shop in my home to support my shooting habit. I did a little gunsmithing, my dad was a machinist and would make gun parts on the side and taught me how to use the tools, I also spent a couple summers in HS working in his shop hand fitting precision parts.

I took an break from steady work after my divorce and spent the next 6 years bumbing, living in a tent in trapping, hunting and fishing across northern MN and WI, designed and built a retirement home for my parents on their lake property and making ends meet doing odd construction jobs, cutting firewood. This was just too hard of a way to get through life and decided to put together a good nest egg so I could do it better next time.

I moved to WA and spent the next 25 years busting my butt, lots of 50-90 hour weeks, but still got my hunting in, trainded bird dogs and even became an AKC performance judge(spaniel hunt tests) and accomplished International Skeet shooter.

Retired at 62, moved to a place where I can get up in the morning, have my coffee and decide whether I want to grab my shotgun, fishing pole or golf clubs and walk to some pretty good bass fishing, fabulous duck hunting.

I've put together a great little hunting van with a bunk in the back, solar panel and furnace that I go on long hunting and fishing trips and plan to for quite a while to come.

 
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Ironworker, you should think about moving back here to So Dakota as Nevada is starting to see to many Ca nut cases and it is great here very friendly and tons of jobs if you want to work and great pheasant hunting
 
Life is a little on the tough side sometimes isn't it? My parents moved around a bunch when I was a kid for jobs in the construction field. Never really settled until I was in my teens. I guess my dad figured it would be better if he traveled and had a stable place for my mom and I. He never owned a gun in his life but could see that hunting and shooting were in my genes from my mothers side so he made it possible for me to go with other men who could take me. A heck of a man.
They didn't know much about career choices and I had to figure that out for myself. It took a few years of fishing, hunting and chasing girls to get that figured out by the way. I've spent the last 28 years managing cardiac surgery patients while they are on the life support equipment in the operating room. It's a place where you are tough minded or you don't stay in it for long. I've managed to help a lot of people who were at the most desperate time of their lives but my biggest contribution to society is my daughter. She's a pediatric anesthesiologist and will care for patients for another 30 or more years.
Killed quite a few coyotes along the way as well. That and prairie dog hate me with a passion.
 
Well you asked so here goes the sob story! LOL.

I grey up with dad passing at 9yo and mom raising me and for the most part i had a decent roof over my head, clothes, etc. I was always the kid that really didn't want a whole lot because i knew we couldn't afford it so i made due. At 12-13yo me and a buddy were dragging his dads lawn mover, weed whacker and leaf blower all over town knocking on every door that needed grass cut and would mostly blow it on candy, junk food, etc. When i turned 15yo we live in a mobile home park and the maintenance guy asked if i wanted a summer job and i raked straw, planted grass, sprayed weed killer, etc and worked 8-10hrs a day. When i turned 16yo it was time to run the riding mower, front end loader/tractor lifting cinder blocks, mulch, dirt, pulling weeds, etc. I thought i was hot [beeep] with my 80hr check of $600. I always wanted to hunt so at 14yo took a hunter safety class and at 15yo mom bought me a compound bow which i still have 15yrs later. I spent a lot of money on arrows, field tips, etc hiding in the weeds in the back of the trailer park hoping to shoot a deer. (i was dumb) 16yo came and my BIL gave me an old beat up pump to hunt with and i killed a lot of pheasants and stuff with that gun until i turned 18yo i wanted a new Mossberg 500 combo and paid for it with money from working mcdonalds and the landscaping job. At 16yo i talked mom into using my money for a cva optima too. Most my money went for hunting and fishing gadgets until i purchased my first car when i was 160yo and then all my money went for that truck and more hunting and fishing crap that fell apart.

I got myself in a little mess after college they would send me extra money along with paying the college incase i needed extra stuff so i thought i was smart in paying off the 24% interest rate truck and now have an extra $8k or so that i just pissed away. cheap tree stands, guns, bows, gear, etc. I got a job after my trade/high school working for a security company and they put me in the projects and i blew a lot of money on belts, batons, mace, uniforms, boots, handcuffs, etc cause once again i was young 18yo and thought a bunch of crap was cool. College was finished and i took a job with the worlds largest private security firm full time watching bank cameras and vaults, worked part time at the projects now armed so then came the pistol, magazines, vest, more crap for the belt and now 3 jobs at once. Tue-Sat at the bank Fri-sun night at the projects and anything in between i could find. I almost went cheap on the handgun but glad i didn't cause it was there to god forbid save my life.

I then got a decent paying job working for an armored truck company and still worked the projects and then one day a week at the bank and saved a lot of money until i decided i wanted a brand new truck. Truck took all my money, eating out with friends, taking girls out, lots and lots of bullets for the range, more hunting gear and cheap guns and scopes only to eventually be replaced cause of failure. I am single so no real responsibilities other then normal bills. I found myself wanting expensive rifles, shotguns, tree stands, clothes, etc but could never swallow the pill for a $600 rifle so i settled for a $300 rifle and shotgun always saying i only use it a few times a year what's the point. well the point was the cheap guns would malfunction, lock up, misfire, etc. I was always a sucker for a deal when i got a stoeger 20ga U/O for like $200 and took it rabbit hunting one day and fired at a rabbit only to blow its back legs off cause stoeger doesn't mark chokes to see what your firing. I tried shooting again through the thick mess as it screamed and attempted to run off but the gun wouldn't fire. I cracked it open and closed and nothing so loaded another shell and nothing meanwhile this rabbits screaming and crawling away i was so pissed i almost smashed the gun against a tree!

Now I work one job and hate cheap crap! I've upgraded tree stands, clothes, etc by just saving. Ditched the old cheap Muzzleloader and got a better one, ditched the cheap single shot deer rifle and now have a nice marlin, ditched anything that's not vortex, Nikon or leupold. I now save up for it until i can afford it and if i need it right away to replace something that failed i will put it on a credit card and each payday pay some on it. I have hit homeruns with things such as the savage axis. I would take it over a rem 700. Money still sucks but ill put away $20 until i can afford something better. I think the growing up piss poor keeps me from buying higher end stuff unless its for work, etc. Im still in the if it gets the job done class but its gotta be at least middle of the road getting the job done not lower class.
 
I guess I grew up middle class, my dad was an executive for a paper company, mom was a stay at home mom. We were always low on money or so I was told. Mom and dad split up when I was 10, and for the 25 years after that I still talked to her all she did was complain about what a horrible person my dad was. But, when I was 28 I found out the real story. We lived in a town of about 20,000 she had been cheating on him and everyone in town apparently knew but him. She was bitter, and did everything she could to make him out to be a bad person, and it usually revolved around how she thought she deserved some of his money. As a result my dad and I were never very close, I was the youngest of 4. We worked in the woods on weekends, he ran the chainsaw and I skid pulp logs, or split and stacked firewood that I could sell.
I started framing houses when I was 14, making $3.50 and hour. At the age of 16 I went to Colorado for the summer and got a job as a masons laborer, hauling cinder blocks and buckets of mud. At 17 I chose to switch high schools and go live with my dad. That didn't always go so well, I was more of an independent minded person and did not take well to rules, and had always been told how bad of a person he was anyway so I didn't like to follow his rules.
I went to colorado again summer of being 17 and worked for my uncle framing houses. Summer of 18 years old I spent the summer in colorado again framing houses for other people, making really good money. It was 1989 and I was taking home $600 per week. Went back to wisconsin for college, which I hated. Spring of 1990 I packed up everything I had and moved to colorado to the property that my brother and I had bought.
I still frame houses, I am very good at it and have done well. I frame in the Aspen area, the last house I did sold for $15,000,000.
I learned a long time ago that cheap guns were just that. Fortunately I never bought too many junkers, and have since sold all of them. I still have and use my first center fire rifle, a Winchester ranger in 270. Killed my first whitetail with a gun with it as well as mountain goat, mule deer, elk, antelope, and bear. I still have my first pistol, a smith and wesson 422 with a 6 inch barrel, I got it when I was 17 and shot many thousands of rounds through it in high school. In the last few years I have tried to move toward higher end guns instead of average guns. I like quality in everything, guns, tools, and toys. But, I drive an old POS car to save money for things that are more important like airplanes and guns.
I still live in the house I built at the age of 25, now 22 years later. I still frame houses but I think 2018 will be my last year. Framing houses, sometimes by myself, and working as hard as I could all those years, my wrists are used up. Now for every few weeks I work I need a month or longer to recover. I am not a contractor that drives around giving orders, I set the pace and lead by example. I like working hard and looking back at the end of the day and seeing what I have accomplished.
I started flying airplanes a year and a half ago, I built a plane 10 years ago and finally flew it last new years. Then this last summer I bought a real airplane. I had always wanted to fly and wish I had done it 10 or even 20 years earlier. Now I spend my money on airplane parts and hangar fees and less on guns. I am thinking I will learn to fly helicopters this year, and may make aviation my new career.
 
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