When I was a kid, I loved playing army with my friends in the
neighborhood woods. We would run down to K Mart,
buy all of the
caps they had for our cap guns (Edisonmatics were the top of
the line cap guns in the 80s, realistic looking, and some of them
would eject the spent cap like a real gun ejects a spent casing)
and spend all day stalking each other around the neighborhood and
the woods, hiding in trash cans, under cars, and in the bushes. We
all wore camouflage, and would divide into teams. The whole
neighborhood was our war zone. Today, the thought of seeing kids
with realistic guns and camouflage running around the neighborhood would
result in the police being called out and have people running
scared. Back then; no one even gave us a second look. It was
definitely a more innocent time.
I first heard of paintball while I was watching a TV show called
Sledge Hammer. This was a police comedy back in the mid-late 80s.
The characters were
investigating some crime on a paintball field. The characters used
old Sheridan's and wore shop goggles and camo's. I remember
thinking how cool it would be to play it. I didn’t know of any
fields in my area, but I was still interested in playing. Also,
around this same time, Laser Tag was coming out, so besides the
cap gun wars, we had a local Photon Center to go play laser tag at
on the weekends.
A few years later, while I was traveling to Tae Kwon Do
tournament, we stopped off at a gas station in Alabama, and I
found a magazine called Action Pursuit Games. It was an October
issue, and the cover showed a player holding a plastic
jack-o-lantern full of ten round tubes of paint, and a converted
Gotcha Gun. I bought it and read it cover to cover for the rest of
the trip. I remember looking at the pictures of the guns. PGP's,
KP2s, Tippmann SMG 60s, man, were those things cool! And
expensive! Pretty ,much everything was pump, with the exception of
the
SMG. There was nothing electronic at that time. I think constant
air was the new big thing. Most of those set ups had a knob like a
water valve on the side of a house. I wanted a PGP so bad I could
taste it. I imagined running around the woods, stalking my prey,
and taking his flag. Everything was in the woods. There was no
speedball at that time. Everyone wore camo's, with the elite teams
wearing Tiger Stripes. I still had no place to play, but I still
read my magazine, and I had found a few others. Also, for the
record, A Gotcha gun was a quasi-paintball gun that you could buy
at Toys R Us. They were spring powered and all plastic, and they
shot little rubber pellets coated in paint. A few of us bought
some on clearance, but they weren't much fun, and the ammo as
becoming hard to find.
One day, while I was working part
time
at the local Army Navy Store and trying to save up enough money to
buy a car, one of the regular customers told me he had a paintball
gun for sale. It was a Palmer modified PMI-1. I saved a couple
paychecks ($4 and hour sure wasn’t much) and got it. It was great!
It had a direct stock feed that held 25 rounds, a silencer, a
Crossman stock, and a quick change cut out for the 12-gram. I was
excited to finally have my own paintball gun, but was shot down
before I could even start, when I called the local field and found
out that I wasn’t old enough to play at the only field in my area
(I was 15). I had gotten a box of Splat Master brand orange
paintballs from a sports store and was content to shoot at cans
and trees. Since I had no place to play, I sold the gun to a co-worker for money
for my first car.
A few years later, when I was out with my grand parents, they stopped
off in a local town to visit a family friend. Low and behold, behind
the building that this guy worked at, was an indoor paintball field
called Strike Force in Concord NC. I went in and talked to the owner.
I got the information that I needed, and came back the next Friday for
my first game. Most everybody used pumps. Semis were very expensive
and still a rarity. The few that I saw were VM-68s and F1
Illustrators. I was issued my rental equipment, a JT Crossfire mask
and goggles, and a wore out Tippmann SL-68. The ref explained the
rules to me, and we were divided up into teams. Pretty much everyone
else was renting like me. My heart was thumping in my chest as the
whistle blew to start the game, and I darted to the bunker I had
chosen as cover. It was a couple of bails of hay with some tires
stacked on the side of it. Shots impacted around me as I came up and
searched for a target, just itching to fire the SL-68 in my hands. I
see one kid duck behind cover and I fire 3 shots. To my amazement, my
third shot had gone right over the edge of his bunker and popped him
right in the goggles, leaving a huge white splat on his lens.
amazingly enough, everything after that for the rest of the game is a
blur. I don't remember what else happened. I do remember the
sweet/sour smell of the field. I think it was from the Hay bails, the
paint, and the water that was sprayed occasionally to keep the dust
down. No matter what I had felt or thought of the game before that
moment, from then on, I was hooked.
Occasionally, I find my self flashing back to those first times. Maybe
its from watching a newbie get his first elimination, maybe its just
the smell of the field (Man, I miss smoke grenades). I still get a
thrill out of hunting my prey and taking their flag. Things have
changed allot since I first started, but I guess something's still
remain the same. After going through all of the trends, semis,
tourneys, scenarios, cockers, mags, etc. I have realized that for me,
keeping and honoring the old ways are the way to go. I will wear my
camo's, keep my well worn equipment maintained, and still eliminate my
opponent, one shot at a time. Just like I learned when I started.
