Wonder about the price difference

[Alpo]

Reading Rocket Ship Galileo (I've started rereading Heinlein).

 

The burglar alarm goes off and Don goes to check. He was thinking that he wished he had a gun - a 45 would have felt real nice right then.

 

The next day they make a run into town and buy two Garands and "a 38 police special on a 45 frame". That would either be a Colt New Service or a Smith & Wesson Heavy Duty. Did they make a New Service in 38? I know they made a 357.

 

And I thought, IF HE WANTED A 45 LAST NIGHT, WHY DID HE BUY A 38?

 

Only things I could come up with were that either there were no 45s in town, or the 38 was cheaper. Thus, my wonder.

 

 

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

As I recall the funds were getting very short at that point.   Doesn't he also,  in that same scene make a comment that there was a rifle he really wanted but settled for some surplus Garands to save money?  

 

I'm a huge fan of his juvenile fiction. 

[Alpo]

Good memory.

 

>Cargraves selected two Garand rifles, Army surplus stock at a cheap price, and added a police thirty-eight special, on a forty-five frame. His mouth watered at a fancy sporting rifle with telescopic sights, but money was getting short; a few more emergency purchases or any great delay in starting would bankrupt the firm.<

[Alpo]

I, also, am a huge fan.

 

It's funny. Guy I used to work with was a fan of "serious" science fiction - Herbert, Nivan, like that. When he saw the title of the book I was reading - SPACE CADET - he was laughing at it. Until he saw it said Robert Heinlein. He told me when he first saw the title he thought it was about Tom Corbin.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

Good memory.

 

Well, this was one of my "go to " reads.  I  haven't read it for 4 or 5 years,  but I  know I've read it at least 25 times.   Along with Space Cadet and Podkayne of Mars.  All lovely little morality plays.

[Alpo]

May maledictions pursue this nameless thing to the uttermost depths of world slime.

[Subdeacon Joe]

He did have a way with words,  didn't he?

[Alpo]

I started making a list. Firearms used in Heinlein books.

 

Not needelers, blasters or burners - firearms. Like Hamilton Felix wearing a 1911 while the whole rest of the world used laser guns.

[Noz]

15 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

As I recall the funds were getting very short at that point.   Doesn't he also,  in that same scene make a comment that there was a rifle he really wanted but settled for some surplus Garands to save money?  

 

I'm a huge fan of his juvenile fiction. 

My first SF novel,   STAR BEAST

[Alpo]

I liked how Lummox had been raising John Thomases.

[Charlie Plasters, SASS#60943]

My first Sci Fi novel "Stranger in a Strange Land". My favorite "Glory Road"

[Alpo]

16 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

settled for some surplus Garands to save money?   

My first Hardy Boys. Christmas present, 1965. Mystery at Devil's Paw. They went to Alaska, and for bear protection they go to an Army Surplus store, where 16- and 17-year-old Frank and Joe buy two Springfield rifles.

 

Ahhh, the good old days.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

My first Hardy Boys were found in an attic. The boys were repairing a flivver before WW I.

[Alpo]

After getting that first one, I went looking for them in the library. The ones in there were thicker, green covered books. First editions. They were a lot better stories than the revised ones that they started doing in the late 50s.

 

But even the revisions, to take out the "racial stereotyping", didn't do much. In Devil's Paw they meet an Indian boy named Fleetfoot. He talks like Tonto.

[Smoken D]

The 45 was by the bed and the 38 was lighter for conceal carry.

[Pat Riot]

I was also a big Science Fiction fan. Loved Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury...loved all their writings. Years later I discovered Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. My very favorite Sci-Fi book of them all is Lucifer’s Hammer, by Niven and Pournelle. I have read it several times.

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

15 hours ago, Alpo said:

I, also, am a huge fan.

 

It's funny. Guy I used to work with was a fan of "serious" science fiction - Herbert, Nivan, like that. When he saw the title of the book I was reading - SPACE CADET - he was laughing at it. Until he saw it said Robert Heinlein. He told me when he first saw the title he thought it was about Tom Corbin.

Close, but it's Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

[Trailrider #896]

1 hour ago, Tex Jones, SASS 2263 said:

Close, but it's Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

"Relax, Junior, I'll handle it!" - Roger Manning

BTW, with everybody worried about uranium being used in rockets, why not just use thorium?  I mean, it was good enough for use in the "Galileo"!  Nowadays, I doubt they'd run into any Nazi's on the Moon...but Chinese...? Maybe time for an updated story.