Perhaps that is because WWII veterans were my mentors.
There were also an older group of men who lived and worked as best they could during the depression. One of the depression-era gentlemen, a part time gunsmith once told me, "During the depression all the deer were "shot out" (of my native Potter County, deer capitol of Pennsylvania) after the first year. Then, if you got a woodchuck (groundhog for my southern friends) you had a feast!"
"A woodchuck, a feast, why?" I asked?
He responded, "Woodchucks taste fine in a stew. They also have a lot of fat. Put em on a spit and the fat drips down. When it cools, it becomes lard. You could hardly buy lard to grease a frying pan. The same in World War II. They used lard (and other fats) in the manufacture of explosives."
View attachment 641934
Butter, fats and oils were rationed in the US in World War II. To help produce the glycerin needed by the military, housewives collected kitchen waste fats.
www.sarahsundin.com
That same gunsmith also schooled me on how much better a Mauser 98 action was than a 1970's Remington or WInchester. When I was 14, I had enough money saved to and from him I bought a new Parker Hale 1200 Super in 30-06. Remingtons and Winchesters were and are fine, accurate rifles but I think the majority of AH'ers appreciate controlled round feed of a Mauser or later design rifles.
Fifthteen years later I was shooting a 50 yard smallbore match outside of Prescott Arizona. If fact, I was shooting a Anschutz .22 I bought from the gunsmith. Anyway, my unit as taged to deploy to Desert Shield the next month. A couple of my competitors were WWII veterans. Between relays we talked quite a bit. When saying goodbye they looked me in the eye as if they were the Lord Almighty and said, "I hope you don't go. If you do, keep your head down." As I think back, I wonder what those two old soldiers had been through.
There is a lot of logic in the hard learned wisdom of others...
