Tom Geiger

Yea, we'd describe it as a restroom theme restaurant, all done in white bathroom tile. Figured there should have been 4 toilets around each table.... what a visual!

Hmmm... maybe the first time a manufacturer adapted the slang name for their product.. (oh, I know someone will post something earlier, this is just bait for that) The next time is White Castle "Sliders". The burgers became sliders in slang because they slid right through your digestive tract, often exiting unexpectedly and rapidly. I thought it was very funny when I first heard their commercial, kinda like admiting the anti-medicinal value of their product. Now "Slider" is generic slang for any small burger... beef, chicken, barbecue beef etc. no doubt accepted by folks too young or ignorant to understand the origins.

Art's comments are right on, he's very observant and personally witnessed the changes in the hobby on a professional level all through these decades. Yes, today's kit market is a tiny fraction of the number of models sold in the heyday of the 1960s. There were few toy and recreation options available in those days. The growth in consumer goods has risen dramatically decade by decade. Note that if you own a house built prior to WWII, it's likely to have no closets in the bedrooms, then very small ones a decade or so later. Why? Because people didn't have a lot of clothes back then. So there was no need to store tons of outfits and shoes. As an adult male back then you were prosperous if you had your own pocket watch and fountain pen. These were expensive possessions that you valued and took care of, not the cheap throw away consumer junk of today. Not only do kids have tons of possessions and play options today, but they don't have the spare time we had back then. Today's kids days and activities are structured. Everything from little leagues to martial arts, to music and dance classes. My kids are 30 and 26 and I remember chauffeuring them between activities, sometimes feeding them a sandwich in the car as dinner as we raced to the next activity. So today's modelers are primarily adults and ironically, the very same folks who fueled the kit market back in the 1960s! Just growed up!

My wife! Tonight I asked where my brand new package of turkey cold cuts was. She told me that it expired yesterday so she fed it to the dog. I pulled the pack out of the garbage to show her the date on cut to order cold cuts from Giant Supermarket is marked "Packed On:" date... aka the date I bought it, NOT the good until date. So she fed Ted about $8 worth of meat. I hope he's happy. I'll be buying lunch at work tomorrow.

Argh! You are right, old Beetle production didn't end until new Beetle was being produced. You just wanted company in the "doddering fool" category.

I saw something on the non-car Internet news about a Ferrari in this price range that a driver had died in? Is that this car?

I am also a convertible owner (1991 Geo Tracker, 1995 Celica GT) and agree that there's nothing like a convertible! I am determined to enjoy a top down summer, so I pulled the roof off the Tracker and put it away for the summer. I only take it out of the garage when I want to drive it for fun. I only pull it out when I want, so I'm not dealing with the "too hot for a convertible" days. So when I go to local stores the top is off. Anyone who has owned one of these knows it's a pain in the ass to take off / put back on that top. So this is my summer solution! As an aside, it gets noticed with the roof off. I never felt that way driving it around with the roof on. People wave, and compliment it, even though it is a medocre condition car. I came out of the grocery store on Saturday and found someone left a card on the wiper asking if it was for sale. Interesting! And the security of a soft top issue.. 100% no sense locking it. In fact with the Tracker, the rear window unzips, so anyone could unzip it, and crawl in without slitting the top. A year or so ago I had it in a Philadelphia parking garage and someone did enter the car and stole the stereo. The funny part? That stereo hadn't worked in years. They saved me the trouble of pulling it out.

There was an Excel / Johan promo wagon for every year from 1959 through 1966. They aren't expensive especially if damaged, which shouldn't matter much when using them as a basis for a detailed model. The 1959 is most plentiful having been issued recently as a Johan kit in the Okey Spalding era. A funny story. When Alan was here from Australia last fall, we went to a swap meet. There was a vendor there with two Rambler wagons. We only found out when we got back into the car that each of us had bought one!

Lots of resin wagons. Here's one from R&R and a conversion using a damaged one....

to add my pointless point of view... I'll give it to them IF the car was continuously in production, and evolved over time. As in Ford F150 or even the Mustang. The vehicles changed greatly, but never went out of production. Corolla counts since it's been constantly in production. Cars like the Olds Cutlass is a US market only car, so it couldn't have made the needed numbers. Although Buicks are quite the rage in China these days. What I wouldn't count is retreads. Cars like Impala that went out of production, and many years later they dusted off the name again. Add Dodge Dart and Challenger, Camaro, New Beetle, New Mini, Chrysler Town & Country and a bunch of others.

Thanks for the info Mike. I did have the phone there initially for the alarm system when I moved here 4 years ago. This past year, I am now doing consulting work from home and use that as my conference line so I don't rack up minutes on my cell, and so I can use a decent speaker phone on it. So this year I will write it off 100%.

This is a very cool build. I did check and one of those will fit on the top shelf in my display case! I'm waiting until I see one at a show at a decent price. Eventually someone who bought one new will get tired of that huge box banging around in their model collection!

Same here, I was the 'go to guy', and had worn carpet leading to my office from all the young kids I taught. I worked all kinds of hours to get things done. Every year when they had a layoff I'd get the other guy's job on top of mine, and I figured out how to make it work. Sad fact is that it didn't keep me from layoffs at two major corporations. When my number came up, my boss said the sad fact was that there were people in the building reading newspapers right now. All my hard work didn't amount to anything. So I'm back as a consultant at company number one. I'm amazed at the do nothing Forrest Gumps who survived the last 12 years and are still there. They all made their 25 years for full pension, and are pretty much set for when they retire. I don't even want to think how much they are making with the salary compounding all those years. And still if I get there at 8am I am often the first person in the building, and if I leave at 5pm, the lot is already empty! At least with my current gig if I'm asked to work an extra hour, I bill them!

Some purist would consider that box ruined, but I think most of us think it adds to the history! Love it! And what did I get today? A final notice collections call on a car loan! They want the car dropped off or will come and repossess it. Thankfully my name isn't Mohammed and I don't have any car loans. Wrong number on the house phone that is attached to my alarm system. We had never used that phone (use cells exclusively) until I started working from home. Now I have a phone hooked to it for dial out conference calls. It rings all the time with pest calls.

Back in the days when my eldest daughter was a baby, I ran a second shift CAD operation (yea, mainframes and little green screens), so my favorite time to shop was on my way home. I got out at midnight, and I was about an hour ride home. So I'd be shopping at 1am. Great time. A few employees stocking shelves and the customers were maybe a few nurses and others who had just gotten off work too.

Many years ago I went to lunch with my daughter near her college. We were in Applebees and we both had a drink, and were having a good time until we saw two old biddies staring at us. As they left, they walked close to our table and one of them glared at me and said, "You should be ashamed of yourself!" I was so shocked that I jumped up and yelled at her, "I'm having lunch with my daughter, what the heck is wrong with you??" The two of them got out of there fast. And we laughed like idiots the rest of the meal.

My sister in law (yea, the green Chevette girl) did her college internship at Toys headquarters, which led to a decent career in their advertising department. She left when she had kids. She got my older daughter into their photo shoots for both Toys-r-Us and Babies-r-Us. Most prominently my daughter was in the big Little Tykes posters that sold play houses in every store. Instead of having all those huge playhouses and swing sets in the store, they had posters showing them. Those posters lasted something like 10 years!

The list is no doubt affected by International sales. Cars like the Passat weren't all that popular here, but probably sold very well world wide. And everyone I know who has had a modern VW tells horror tales of reliability. In fact a friend was here yesterday telling of selling theirs because it needed some $1500 repair.

My father was a Costco idiot. He had one a few minutes from his work and would go there and make a lunch of free samples. It made his day when he could eat enough to fill up. On down days he's splurge and buy the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo! He'd go there looking for bargains, which is the scam behind the place. Any savings you'd get, they'd hope you'd spend on something you didn't need. People getting those huge boxes of Cheerios, never finished them before they went stale, probably only ate enough to justify the regular size box at half what they spent! My father once handed me a strip of 5 shrink wrapped stick deodorants. He bought the 6 pack and decided he didn't like the first one... now what to do with the other 5... hmmm.. Or he'd show up at my house with "Look! it's a Hagstrum's map of our county printed on plastic!" and my response would be, "Yea, you sure saved a lot on that visit!" And the worst people to get around at Costco? The extended ethnic families that brought at least 4 generations along for the ride... everyone from week old babies up through 90 year old grand mum mum... like they were going to a fair for the day!

When I lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey there were a couple towns that gave you a giggle in a headline in the local Asbury Park Press. There is Brick Township and the city of Neptune. Nothing like the main headline being... Neptune Man Up On Charges -- is he an alien? And why wasn't the Saturn dealer on Route 35 called "Saturn of Neptune"?? -or- Brick Man Hit By Speeding Car -- I'll bet there was more damage to the car! Or is he a super hero? Brick Man, friend of Spider Man! And are the citizens of Paramus, NJ called "Parameciums"?

You are right. It's all relative as to where you stand in life. Doesn't matter if you were born rich or earned it yourself. I collect a certain series of stamps that were produced between 1903-08. Every once in a while something pops up that I haven't seen before, so I must have it. It shouldn't be expensive, but I'll pop in a $100 bid on it, which is my way of saying 'buy at any price'. Most other collectors would think I'm insane, but $100 doesn't matter to me. I just want that item. Collecting Ferarri's works the same way. A guy who has long lost count of how many billion his family has, wants that car. So it makes no matter to him that he's paid $60 million for it. Even that amount of money is meaningless to him. He just wanted the trinket. Beyond that these cars get bought by investment groups to hold a few years and put back up to auction. They can get a pretty good return on that investment when the guy who missed out last time ups his ante. Oh, and the $100 stamp that shouldn't have sold for more than a few dollars? This week someone paid $128 for it. Yea, bigger fools than me are out there.

My wife usually does. I took my rare foray into the grocery store to get the right things to barbecue this weekend.

I remember seeing this one... probably in a thread like this: Beagle Free To A Good Home- Good for working couple. Plays with self all day long.

Thanks Harry! I was getting my cheese and pastrami to make Crown Burgers! I stole some of it this morning to make egg and pastrami sandwiches for breakfast, but this afternoon it's Crown Burgers for sure! Yum!

and is that a proper RHD bike? I had to! I have a British friend I used to work with who has a Harley, and I tease him. When he was here and we took him to a Harley dealer, we asked if they had an RHD Harleys... took them by surprise!