Shotguns: You aren't serious about them unless you have enough of them to make a picket fence. I was a gun crank sense I can remember, works of art!
I grew up in a little town between Ft Louis and McCord field. {{Spelling??}} Used to ride my bike to the back of the fort and sneak in to there range where they had a village/town made and find all kinds of cool stuff. My dad freaked when I came home with a grenade.
My buddy in crime and I would ride over to the end of the north runway at McCourd and lay down in the grass on our backs and watch the F-86 squadrons take off and land. They were only about 100 feet over us so it was a way cool view.
We finally got a TV in the mid 50s, my big thing was the Mickey Mouse show but I had an older sister and her thing was American Band Stand. They came on at the same time, it was a blood bath fighting over those two shows.
We had a season for everything, kite season, fishing season, hunting season, sledding season, and airplane season. Everything had a season. Rained most every day but I was still always outdoors. I built all my models in my bedroom until after dark then the family played board games after dinner.
I pretty much made all my own stuff. My grandmother taught me how to make kites, even my own paste from flower. My dad didn't really do anything except puts around in his flower garden so I never learned much from him.
The older boys taught us how to fly our planes and how to build and operate the engines.
My first full scale flight was in a Cub and our small local airport was full of PT 17s so I had a love affair with Bipes. As soon as I could fly Rc I built nothing but Bipes for several years. I still love them but they are a pain to haul to the field so I gave them up, only have one left, my Boeing F4B-2 or P-12. It's really a pain in the butt to haul but I refuse to take it apart so it goes in the van assembled when it goes.
I wish the kids today could have the kind of life I had, a BB gun in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. {really} Today people would freak seeing a kid with any type of gun walking down the street. Come spring there would be 10 kids setting up and flying there planes in any open field. We had several good spots in the neighbor hood. Just a really nice time in my life.