Whipped Cream Difficulties

Tam has a post up at her site that leaves me with a small sadness. I’m not entirely sure I can, but I’ll see if I can explain it.

When I was in high school, I bought every gun magazine I could find on the newsstands (note to my younger readers: “newsstands” were places where you could buy magazines and newspapers), at the bookstores, and in the grocery stores. Grocery stores, in particular, had large magazine sections, and many of those magazines were gun magazines. (Also, people were shorter, and lived near the water. But I digress.)

I grew up reading Elmer Keith (in Guns and Ammo, towards the end of his career) and Skeeter Skelton. I remember visiting my Uncle Dick in Pennsylvania, and him letting me read his just purchased copy of Hell, I Was There. I liked Cooper a lot, but I don’t recall him writing with great regularity for any of the gun magazines I could find.

These days? I read American Handgunner. I get a kick out of John Connor, I like Ayoob’s work and Clint Smith a whole lot, and Venturino and Taffin are usually good for a smile. Also, the editor of AH at one point did me a great personal favor, so I have pretty strong feelings about the magazine.

I also pick up SWAT when I can find it. And that’s pretty much it.

What are the gun-crazy kids of America doing for reading material these days? Do they know how good we had it back then? Did we? At least Keith has been collected (though those books are pricey). Has anyone collected Skeeter’s writings? (Answer: yes, and if you thought Elmer Keith books were pricy…wow.) When those kids go to read Pale Horse Coming, are they going to get the meta-joke?

I don’t know where I’m going with this, and I’m not sure I have answers. It just seems like a shame to me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Clippings, Guns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.