Just curious about everyone's FIRST experience

[FloridaBoy]

Hey guys, great thread!!!! I love threads like these!!! Almost as much as work in progress or finished work!!!

I am 61 and still building actively and privately, not participating in any clubs, contests or events. My modeling and styling is probably dated, and I am still building stuff in my head since I was a teenager. I like to section, chop tops, channel, open and hinge doors and trunks, make sunroofs, restyle fronts and rears, radius wheels and on and on. I also build period funny cars and street rods, and just now dabbling into rat rods.

My modeling started way back before hobby shops in the early fifties when the AMT 1/25 scale cars were obtained through real car dealerships. If you bought a new car, you got an acetate model made by AMT. My uncle Bob and I grew up in western PA, where hot rodding was inspired by Black '48 Ford Coupes with fox tails, blue lens taillights, skirts and moons.

Since we lived in Sharpsville, PA, we scored a lot of models as we were right next door to the Chevy dealer downtown, and would be given the 'excess" of model year demo's when new cars came out. We used to take masking tape and make skirts, use metal buttons and make moons, stick pins to make aerials, and heck, one time I even painted a roof to a 55 Buick with my grandma's fingernail polish. I was two years into coloring books and here I am two-toning model cars with paint LOL. Then a Lobaugh's opened up, and I was into trains and cars, and they were sort of an appliance dealer and hobby shop, so I always pressured my dad and mom to go there. My dad used to be a plumbing contractor, and purchase a lot of washing machines for the homes he built, so again, I scored a lot of freebie model cars.

Then the move to Florida in '55-'56, and my hobby pursuits were dormant for awhile. In '57, I went with mom to Sears Ft. Lauderdale and saw the original '58 AMT 3in1's and I was blown away!!!! A total aisle of them!!! I must have mowed half of Ft Lauderdale's yards to spend $1.39 plus tax ($1.42) and got every different one....wish I still had them now.

Now comes the hobby shop.........we moved to a larger home in west Ft. Lauderdale, and back then I got around on my bike. Within biking distance, three hobby shops on three corners of our busiest intersection, but one stood out. Cap'n Jacks, a classic hobby shop with models, planes hanging from the ceiling, smell of solvent in the air, and the friendliest Mom and Pop owners. I was a nice kid, and with my mowing, I always spent money on model cars, glue, and stuff. The frindship was that they would "save" new models for me because they knew it was a sure sale, and call my mom or dad on the phone to let me know they were in. They sold out everything for a couple of years, and in 61 formed the Griffins Model Car Club, and we were sponsored by a 1:1 hot rod club. We had weekly contests, because we spent considerably less time to build a car back then. That is where I became a model car builder, making modifications, using Pactra Paint, kitbashing and even filling some gaps here and there. I learned a lot. Every three months we would have a trophy award contest, and that is where I won my first trophies.

I also won 2 of my 3 Pactra trophies at that store, and the owners loaded me down with free kits, because I made the Ft Lauderdale news and gave them publicity.

I have been to a lot of hobby stores in the years since, many good and some bad, and I tend to adopt a particular hobby store of choice. I hate to see some of them down here go out of business, as I consider the hobby shop a crucial part of our cultural heritage and legacy.

It is a privilege that I have seen and participated in the entire history of our hobby evolve through the years. Even my old model car club considered me sort of a "legend" of sorts, not by talent but just because I was old enough to be there. Again, LOL.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

Edited August 14, 2008 by FloridaBoy

[FloridaBoy]

Thanks for tolerating my rather long story in the thread below. It stimulated a what I consider a humorous story which sort of defined me as a "car guy" at the age of 7. I mentioned that our family lived in a compound in downtown Sharpsville, Pa, right next to the Snyder & Freeman Chevrolet dealership. Since we were a "Mayberry" type small town, my grandma would sit on the swing in her back yard, and the employees of the dealer, along with townspeople and family members would congregate when the weather was permissable. My grandma was sort of the "Aunt Bee" of Sharpsville, PA back then.....she rocked!!!

She watched me while my parents were building up the family business in the compound, my dad's construction business, and while I saw a lot of mom and dad, it was grandma who tended to me during the day, and back then you could wander. I did, along with my Uncle Bob, five years older.

In '55, I was 7, and we snuck into the family compound garage where cars, and items were stored, and saw the new line of '56 Chevies. Not only were there the great stovebolt couples and sedans, but Cameo pickups, and Sharpsivlle's first allocated Corvette. I couldn't let that opportunity alone!!!! I would sneak in every day just to smell the fibreglass resin, and the new smell of this wild looking new car.

Back then new car debut dates were big news in almost any town, drawing pre-TV crowds to each dealership to see the new model year cars unwrapped....great secrecy was maintained by every dealership to conceal every car. Not for Ken.

I charged every kid in my 2nd grade class a nickel for a sneak in and peek at the new cars. Well, when the time came, the excitement level was way down, as kids had already told the parents where the cars were, and parents sneaked peek in holes and cracks in the garage walls. Needless to say, I got righteously busted. And to make matters worse, Mr. Snyder, one of the owners, was our neighbor and "stopped by" to have a talk with mom and dad, and scare the pants out of me. I didn't get spanked, but I did get grounded, and when I realized what I did, I took it upon myself to go to Mr. Snyder and apologize. He was quick to forgive, and I got my first Cameo Pickup model as a nice gesture and acceptance of my act. I think my grandma used up some chips to go lenient on me....they knew I learned my lesson.

The real guy perturbed was that my bust also busted my Uncle Bob, who was charing High School students a quarter!!!!

I lost Uncle Bob a couple of years ago, and he was a car guy, too, as a Service Manager to the Dodge dealership in Sharon Pa. I miss you Bob, every time I work on a car, I think of those times we spent in the old days taping the real wheels and dolling the cars up.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[gasman]

when I was younger I got most of my kits at Wal-Mart, Hills (later Ames) and KMart (BTW. all there kits are currently on clearence, I guess there dropping kits again). I also got alot of kits at KB Toys. the one in my local mall (LONG closed), stocked everything. including Tamiya kits. I remember getting a Tamiya 300ZX kit there. I don't remember any local Grocery Stores having kits. There a small family owned hardware store near me that still stocks some kits. but not much. going to the Hobby shop was a rare occurance. and I never really got the full LHS expierience until I got my licence and started driving out to them myself.

by the time I was born (September 1984). it was'nt a big thing anymore when new cars came out. alot of the dealers around me are all closed. Brant Oldsmobile closed in the late 80's. There was a Pontiac, Dodge, and an American Motors (who's sign is still there today) dealer right up the road which closed long before I was born (all three buildings are still there. The Pontiac dealers VFW, which will be town down soon to make way for a Wallgreen's, and the Dodge dealer is an Arcade Game store (Pinball and such), and the American motors dealer is a rug store) about 4 miles away there was another Dodge dealer that closed. a Ford dealer that closed in 2006. and another American Motors dealer that closed in the late 80's.

[kk916]

Mine was riverside hobbies in Sacramento. I went in there when I was like 10 for a pinewood derby car kit (cub scouts) and my step dad couldn't get me out of there! I've been going there for years now, I bet I've paid the couple that owns it's retirement :lol:

[Olle F]

My dad took me to a really neat hobby store when I was a kid. This must have been about 40+ years ago, but there are two things I remember very well: Tons of model kits stacked on shelves from the floor to the ceiling, and a very rude store owner who seemed to think that just walking into the store meant that you had already agreed to buy something. He was anxiously watching every move we made and for each and every model I picked up to look at, he rolled his eyes like I was wearing him out and asked: "OK, so that's the one you want?" I can still remember him hollering as we walked out without buying anything: "WELL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH THEN!" John Cleese couldn't have done it better.