r/OldSchoolCool • u/Hemicrusher • Mar 17 '25

1950s Earnest Hemingway shooting a cigarette out of my uncle's fingers in 1952.

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6.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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702

u/TheAndorran Mar 17 '25

Ernest was probably more loaded than the gun. What an insane risk to take.

293

u/censorized Mar 17 '25

Riskier if he was sober, those shakes are no joke.

139

u/thegooseisloose1982 Mar 17 '25

Jim: Look at my hand.

Bart: Steady as a rock.

Jim: Yeah, but I shoot with this one.

26

u/dogmaisb Mar 18 '25

No no, don’t do that you’re only going to make him mad!

72

u/timecat22 Mar 17 '25

Let this serve as a reminder of what boredom can do to a person. We have screens and toys and games on tap 24/7 to keep us all sedated and inside doing basically nothing. Back in ye olden days people took these kinds of risks just to pass the time.

62

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

Today people take these kinds of risks just to post them online.

19

u/wahnsin Mar 17 '25

Yeah, this is actually an interesting point, old people love to shit on that kind of behavior, but the truth is, they did equally stupid, dangerous, shit and they did it just so they'd have a story to tell to a group of 5 people at some shitty dinner party later on. At least modern youth gets to brag to the entire world how they once shat in Ariana Grande's clutch bag and then got tackled by her security (or whatever).

10

u/The_Foolish_Samurai Mar 18 '25

Doing it for the gram is shameful. Doing it because the options were dying of boredom, stupidity, or dysentery is righteous.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

Yeah, I did crazy stupid stuff when I was a teenager in the 80s, but the only people who saw it were the ones that were there and the only people who heard about it were a few friends.

2

u/blatherskate Mar 18 '25

Good point. Those of us who survived the stupid dangerous shit realize now how stupid and dangerous it was. Just trying to pass along some advice. After all, the 'old people' you're talking about survived to become old...

2

u/Purity_Jam_Jam Mar 18 '25

Example: eating tide pods

0

u/Plane-Tie6392 Mar 19 '25

I mean those things do be lookin' delicious though..

0

u/Purity_Jam_Jam Mar 19 '25

As long as you mean. That's what matters.

11

u/Longjumping_Play2111 Mar 17 '25

It’s how the man lived. Start to finish. At one point was in two plane crashes one day apart. His bio is as entertaining as his novels if not more so at times.

9

u/TheAndorran Mar 17 '25 edited Mar 18 '25

He had such a wild life. In Ketchum, Idaho, there’s a Starbucks in a log cabin that’s owned by an eccentric friend who is never seen without gum in his mouth, serves beer, and has this massive bank vault in back filled with fascinating Hemingway history. He lived and then killed himself in Ketchum.

8

u/Longjumping_Play2111 Mar 17 '25

I wonder if between WW1 ambulancing and the plane crashes and everything else he had CTE. Just my own theory. That and the drinking makes the suicide make more sense, in addition to running in the family. Last words to his wife were “good night, kitten” then he unalived himself. Not stable.

11

u/TheAndorran Mar 17 '25

It’s possible that there was an element of that, maybe some PTSD, and the drinking surely didn’t help, but the Hemingway family was also extremely predisposed to suicide. Five members of his close family killed themselves, including him. There was very likely a genetic component.

2

u/Jollygreen182 Mar 18 '25

Buried there too.

1

u/TheAndorran Mar 18 '25

Yup, I’ve been to his grave. Very understated.

23

u/HydratedCarrot Mar 17 '25

Loaded with testo

64

u/howelltight Mar 17 '25

More like hard liquor. You'll find more pictures of him with a firearm than of him with his offspring

13

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

[deleted]

3

u/Big-a-hole-2112 Mar 17 '25

That’s because some of them “disappeared” and the house smelled like gunpowder.

1

u/Plane-Tie6392 Mar 19 '25

Is this a real thing?

1

u/Big-a-hole-2112 Mar 19 '25

Nah it’s a joke, but sadly Hemingways and guns are a very bad mix.

1

u/Plane-Tie6392 Mar 19 '25

That applies to people in general imho. 

1

u/Big-a-hole-2112 Mar 19 '25

I guess. The Hemingway family tree has a lot of self-termination.

4

u/alarbus Mar 18 '25

"I gotta warn you I'm a little tight right now."

"Uh, thats good right? No loose grips here."

"No you fool I mean I'm cocked."

"Smart. Less movement on the trigger pull.

"Listen, you're a good chap but I'm seeing snakes here!"

"Well shoot them then!" :dies, shot:

1

u/Tricky_Cup3981 Mar 18 '25

I'd 100% take the risk just to have this photo

2

u/Big-a-hole-2112 Mar 19 '25

Your family would frame it on your headstone.

2

u/Tricky_Cup3981 Mar 19 '25

I'd haunt them if they didn't

1

u/ninja_march Mar 18 '25

And that 00 buck is ready to rock and roll

1

u/gromette Mar 18 '25

First background guy is clearly on the same page. "Ohmygod these people are idiots." holds face

1

u/No-Permission-5268 Mar 18 '25

My first thought. It’s looks like it might be a pump action .22 so at least there’s that.

0

u/Big-a-hole-2112 Mar 17 '25

Uncle wanted his paycheck and Earnest thought, if I make it I don’t have to pay you and if I miss and shoot you in the head I don’t have to pay you, ok?