screwed to the wall . . .

[jda3rd]

I mentioned in another thread that I'd seen a trapdoor rifle screwed to the wall in a restaurant. Another poster reported seeing one also. This reminded me of a bar in New Orleans that has, or had, numerous antique weapons hanging from the ceiling. I seem to remember seeing a couple of enfields, but it's been so long ago, I have no idea what model or pattern they were. Anyone else have any idea if these are still there, or if I'm mis-remembering what I thought I saw?

Also, a popular family restaurant chain often has an old firearm above the fireplace. Anyone here ever run across a unique or valuable piece on display in this fashion?

Frank Brower

[Spinster]

Frank,

Not a firearm but there was a fine stocking knitting frame screwed to the wall at a Cracker Barrel up east of here. If I'd been younger, taller, and faster, it would be at my house......

[jda3rd]

Cracker Barrel does have neat junk, don't they? I understand they have a warehouse full of that stuff. How'd you like to plunder it sometime?

Frank

[Spinster]

I went so far as to write several letters beseeching to purchase that knitter.

Unless you don the blue, and arrange for a march to route through Tennessee, we don't have a chance.

[jda3rd]

I can see it now: News reports of a somewhat organized gang of apparently Amish thieves, armed with swords and other antique weapons, target Cracker Barrel restaurants across the country. Sort of a "Flash-in-the-pan Mob"

Frank

[Spinster]

Alas, given the well-post-war vintage of most of the things hanging around in Cracker Barrel, our stealth and greed would only do harm to our hobby.

As Nicky Hughes says on occassion "Our camps, more often than not, do an excellent job of portraying 1930's Dust Bowl Okies on their way to California"

Sadly that's the truth---we tend to latch on to 'olde timey stuff' and think its correct for the CW period, when only a modicum of research would show us that the Great War folks need it more. And given the fact that I'm seeing things in antique malls that I received as wedding presents, Vietnam War era material culture is the next "olde timely stuff"

[jda3rd]

I don't try to limit my stuff at home to ACW-era items, which just means I have to be careful when packing for an event.

You're right that a lot of folks think it's antique if it's dusty/rusty. It may be just junk, not even old.

Frank

[D.W. Scalf]

Yeah, just like nearly everybody who has any sort of socket bayonet for sale on ebay tries to pass it off as "Civil War".

D.W. Scalf

[ryantownsend23]

At one time another I recall seeing an old Kentucky rifle and US Springfield in a cracker barrel in Tennessee, I was up looking at it and the manager came up to me and looked at me funny and said " Tryin to ask that rifle on a date?" I guess because I was so close to it hahaha.

[31stWisconsin]

I remember that bar with the muskets! It is right outside a piano bar on Bourbon Street, next to the Preservation Hall Music Club. It was a collection of about 2 dozen old weapons. The majority of them were civilian shotgun types if I remember correctly, and trapdoor Springfields. There were only a few civil war era muskets, and a few more modern ones. I think I remember a sporterized Arisaka. Of course, I was fully enjoying Bourbon Street at the time so I might be off on a few details. The weapons were in very bad condition as one would expect being in a humid New Orleans bar.