Corrupt youth

[ottodog8]

Ran across this old photo of yours truly, taken around 1967. Even at a young age, I was on the path to pickelhaube addiction. The helmets were kicking around my grandparents'
house, there was a cardboard box with about a dozen of them in various stages of condition. There were also stahlhelms, doughboy helmets, gasmasks, bayonets, etc.. Brought back by various family members after the First War. Very cool toys to play with . I remember sitting on the floor listening to the old timers talk about the Argonne Forest, the gas, mud and misery. They referred to going to France as "going across". There were a lot of WW1 vets in my small town.
Steve

 

[stuka f]

Lucky you!!
I was deep down in Afrika at that time, feeding the wild life!
Not much of militaria over there.
However I played in a old Kaiserlich German fortress in Kitega, met (old!)black African's who still spoke some German words .
I drove (in duo!)a old BMW bike left behind by some Afrika korps men who fled to South Afrika. A Kübel was found at the same place. I sadly have no pictures of them.

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

Steve- great photo, do you still ahve any of those helmets?

James

 

[ottodog8]

Steve- great photo, do you still ahve any of those helmets?

James

Sadly, when the old folks passed in the 70's, I was pretty low on the totem pole when it came to splitting things up. Didn't get any at the time, they were scattered to the four winds. A couple of years ago I did manage to track down and get a few, both stahlhelm and pickelhaubes. Unfortunately, some of them were in very neglected condition. The kugelhelm I am holding had a cross type base, Hessian I presume. Others I remember were a tin uhlan helmet and felt helmets, plus the usual ones.
Steve