I remember very well my exposure to the fishing & hunting. I was raised in a tenement in a big east coast city. My dad was stretched to the limit in keeping everything together & working but took some time to take me fishing at nearby ponds for tiny bluegills & perches on weekends. My uncle did fish saltwater for stripers & bluefishes and finally I got to go fishing in salt water for something that weighed over 6 ounces. Can't describe the thrill of a 2 foot long striper hitting my yellow Atom Plug. Hunting was the next adventure but firearms were discouraged in the big city. A 6 foot length of 5/8 ID aluminum tubing and darts made from 1/4 inch dowels drilled to accept sharpened steel coat hanger wire with wrapped conical paper ends made blow gun darts that would easily penetrate 1/4 ply wood. Blunt shock darts were made using dowels fitted with cap nuts & other scrap metal. The usual quarry were squirrels in a near-by private school 100 acre property. Sling shots followed, made from laminated 1/4 plywood & surgical tubing with pouches cut from discarded leather purses. Ammo was from discarded ball bearings from a near by auto repair garage & 1/4 inch lead split shot sinkers. Finally, a Mossberg bolt action tube magazine .22, used occasionally on rats at a private industrial dump site. Work was started on a cross bow using an auto leaf spring section, to be cocked with a auto jack, but that project was ended by supervisory safety concerns. Sort of wish I grew up in rural America but I made out OK.
