a lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

Mario Puzo

Does anyone else suspect their pets of working for secret agencies?I don't have any hard evidence,but I suspect my cat of working for the CIA.....

There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy

George Washington

This a cavalry stetson-to be a bit more precise,a model 1876 campaign hat-worn by the old time cavalrymen on the western frontier-the one you see in all the old westerns.It is the longest serving uniform item in the army inventory,having never TOTALLY been discontinued as an issue item,although it did go dormant for several decades between WW1 and Viet nam.During the viet nam conflict,a young warrant officer in the 17th air cav started ordering them from the Stetson company,for chopper pilots in his unit-well,the idea caught on,and virtually ALL cavalrymen in the army now wear them-its our badge of honor,it sets us apart from the rest of the herd,and we wear it with pride.All cav guys are authorized to wear one,once they are inducted into the order of the spur,and recieve either their silver or gold spurs.Silver is for attending a "spur ride"-a rite of passage we all go through-72 hours of getting totally messed with and introduced to all sorts of exquisite forms of misery and humiliation by the spur holders in the unit.Lots of fun-and builds a lot of pride and esprit within the unit.After all,after you've had to run an obstacle course in the mud,then put on a pink dress and sing "I'm a little teapot",then go on a 15 mile ruckmarch...and all the other misery the spur holders can come up with-by god,you've EARNED it.....then theres the spur induction ceremony-which requires LOTS of designated drivers....gotta wet down those new spurs and stetsons PROPERLY,ya know

Then there are the gold spurs,which are awarded after completing a combat tour with a cavalry unit.I've got both.

Everyone customizes theirs to some degree-generally you'll put on a set of sabers,and your rank-I've got those on mine,along with regimental crests,from every unit I've ever served with.

As I said,its our badge of honor-and the best thing about our stetsons-they TOTALLY piss off every other soldier in the army when we wear them

It was payday friday,so we were out doing errands,and had to take a trip to the local mall,for some bunny food(refer back to post about the bunnies ).Anywho,as long as we were at the mall,there was a coin and collectible shop there I like to go to-they sell coins,silver and gold bullion,NFL memorabilia,jewelry and other stuff.Pretty cool little shop,all in all.I usually have good experiences there-I've purchased numerous silver bars there-but passed up the packer helmet signed by Brett Favre-for 500 clams.....anyway,I was just stopping in to get an ounce of silver,as we were there anyway,and I was waited on by some young gal,who I had'nt seen in there before.Normally I was waited on by one of two older gals,who were very professional,and knowledgable about coins and bullion.Not this kid.She bordered on insolence and snottiness,and really did'nt know what she was talking about.She was basically arguing with me about about the size of the silver rounds and bars.Now,silver bullion is available in 1 OZ.,10 OZ, and 100 OZ. "rounds" or "bars",which are precisely what they sound like.Well,this gal was pretty much arguing with me about the size of the rounds-and that set me RIGHT off

I've been collecting coins since age 10,and have been buying silver bullion off and on since 1998-so,I'm reasonably familiar with it.Well,this girl obviously WAS'NT-and was quite surly,to boot.I had to SHOW her where it said " 1 troy ounce, .999 fine"She grudgingly accepted this from me-but she HAD to-Ray Charles could have seen it....Contrast this with a small hole in the wall coin shop I used to frequent in Grand Rapids,Michigan several years ago-the guy always had a good word for me,knew the industry,and was always very helpful.As a result,he got plenty of business from me.and to be fair to the shop here that I go to,NORMALLY I do get very good service-if not,I'd order my silver online,from a dealer in Arizona I've dealt with before,and always gotten good results from,but I prefer not to buy stuff online,if theres a brick and mortar store I can go to instead.I guess I'll get over it,and I'll probably buy another ounce or two from them before I go,but it DID stick in my craw.Maybe its just the decline in our society of the way salespeople act toward customers-and maybe the girl just did'nt KNOW any better.Hard telling,but if I were to go in there again,and she was to wait on me,I'd leave-I'm a firm believer in "my money spends just as good up the road"-MANY merchants have found that out over the years.