Memory lane, how many remember?

[RatRod]

With so many members here, and ranging in all ages, just how many here remember nickel Cokes, penny candy, PF Flyers, and when you could walk into a hobby shop, corner dept. store, or local drug store, and pick up a new kit, for this, or less?

If you do remember, then you'll remember how hard it was to scrape together that much cash too. Ahhh, the good ol' days.....lol, well....

[Matt LeBlanc]

Back then models were everywhere.

[Dragline]

Aaaahhhh, I remember well.

I bought all 3 of the Monogram 1/32 gasser kits for less than 5.00

TD stuff was 2.25.

AFX were 6.50 a car [big Money!]

My paper route was 96 papers.

Good ole days indeed.

Bob F

[Aaronw]

I think a 16oz Coke (glass bottle) was 25 cents when I was a kid. I also remember getting a 5 or 10 cent deposit back, so evey now and then you got to trade a Coke for a couple of empty Coke bottles.

[James Flowers]

I got three cents a pop bottle for turning them in. Sometimes it took me awhile to get enough to buy a model. I also ran errands for folks to get money for models. The sad part is that, me and my buddies would blow them up or burn them most of the time. We would not even bother painting them. With the price of models now days it seems it has come full circle. Still hard to spend that much on a model.

[RodneyBad]

Best I can remember is $6 and I was Gripping back then.

But then again, Models could be found in any toy section in most every store.

I had to mow lawns, wash cars, even tried a paper route for a month or two.

then figured working 7 days a week rain or shine wasn't quite my thing.

Use to pick strawberrys too.

The only good thing about my good Ole days was kits were easier to find.

I just think that at todays $24 for a kit is waaaay too much.

I have cut down my spending.

Not really, spend the same amount, just get fewer kits.

Since then, I have gone to 2 of my LHS for almost 25yrs.

But I have yet to get my hands on a Rommels Rod

[808 Nitro]

Heres another version of the kit?

I bought this one for a dollar last year from our fearless leader Gregg at a monthly meeting.

Not mint, do decals, painted body whole bunch of parts dunno if complete but buildable.

Sometimes the nostalgia factor can make us overlook a lot of short comings of a kit.

Those opening/closing doors were tricky to make them fit.

Dont forget the 2 half tires...

Laters, Chun

[Guest]

I paid $1.25 for my first kit! It was AMT's first edition of their USS Enterprise kit. It took me a entire summer of chores to earn the money for it! I was almost 8 that year. Gee, it was only 41 years ago!

[PatRedmond]

I don't go back as far as THAT pricing, but I do recall model kits and supplies in most variety stores growing up.

[samm1970]

I'm 39, so I'm not as old as some but older than others.I remember being able to go to 7 Eleven, and getting a can Coke, a pack of M&M's and a comic book w/ $1.00 and getting 3 cents change.I also picked up returnable bottles for pocket money, earning 10 cents for each one.My earliest model memory was getting a 1/32 snap tite funny car at a family XMas part/reunion circa 1978 and I was hooked.I think my next model was the MPC Blackbird kit, I'm thinking it was around $3.50 or so at Big K at the time(anybody else remember Big K?...lol).It seems like models stayed in the $4-$6 range way up into my late teens w/ the monster trucks being about $2 more.For some strange reason I seemed to have noticed them going up when AMT released the '66 ChevyII in both versions simultaneously and they've been going up ever since.Just my 2 cents .....

Sam

[charlzrocks]

WOW! PF Flyers...I had em as well as Red Ball Jets too!

Testors enamels were 29 cents, models were $5 or $6, schwinn sting ray bicycles, paper route paid for most of it, playing kick the can at night, and Saturday morning cartoons were NOT anime!

[Dragline]

Bobby Brady shirt, Pro Keds, and my Black Knight skateboard.

1974

[george 53]

You guy ARE STILL kids!!! 10oz Coke was 8cents 2 cent return, Toilet paper was 2 cents a roll, my dads Lucky Strikes(LSMFT) were 25cents an penny candy was 2 for a penny! My first model cost my Big Brudder Art,a WHOLE 79 CENTS!! The first one I remember buyin with some Biirthday money was a 61 Ford Falcon Ranchero "Styline" kit. It had REALLY COOL custom parts ,Front an rear custom parts,no engine an them good ol metal axles I would come to LOVE! My Dad NEVER bought Dog food! " If it's good enough for ME the dam dog can eat it TOO!!!!" We'd go picking fruit up north during summer vacation, an since my Ma ALWAYS drove Lincolns, we'd hear the migrant workers say stuff like" They GOTTA pick in order to support all them kids,AND that car!" We had 6 kids in our family, an I NEVER had ta find someone ta play with me, my much older sister Mary,was a year annna half older'n me! POPEYE, an his host,Capt'n Jolly an POOPDECK Paul were my HERO'S! I remember when they shot the President like it was YESTERDAY! It really messed up Thanksgiving that year. My Dad was REAL upset. I felt bad for him,although I din't understand why someone he never met meant so much to him. Yeah, thinks sure are different, an they'll NEVER be the same again. Some of you guys missed the GREATEST times in AMERICAN History! And some of us got memories to last the REST of our lives.

[Cornpatch]

I am probley not as old as Harry or George53 but I can remember 10 cent cokes and 27 cent a pack for cigaretts. You could put a quarter and a nickle in a cigarette machine and get a pack of smokes with 3 pennies taped to the back of the pack.

In those days models cost anywhere from 25 cents to a dollar and the little bottles of Testors enamels cost 10 cents at almost any store you went into. Of course the selections in those days weren't what they are today but we got along with what we had.

In the late 50s, When I was 12 and 13, I worked for my uncle on one of his pop trucks to earn spending money. We had a LHS on one of the routes, it was owned by a really nice lady, who would let me trade a case of pop for any model I wanted in those days, which was really nice.

###### life was so much simpler and stress free, and people so much nicer, back in the late 50s and early 60s compared to now. Sometimes I just wish I could turn the clock back and relive those times.

Jeff

[Scott Colmer]

Those were the days! Every allowance was taken to Sprouse Ritz where I could stand for hours while I picked a model. Every, Birthday and Christmas was more car models! Every model was built in one day. Here's my 7th birthday. I made a mess of that Barnabus Van. I've got a repop now, in an original box.

Scott

Hosted on Fotki

[Eshaver]

Like George 53, I'm nearly 60 myself....... I mowed yards , delivered the newspaper , topped a little Tobacco on the farm , ( HEY NICHOLAS ) and pretty much did what a kid of twelve could do. George , I too had that 61 Ranchero. In fact it's the only model that survived the hurricane that came through Richmond Va in 1973. It was painted in Testors Red. Drug stores , every toy store , Murphys, Woolworths , Roses, Peoples drug- C V S , Walgreens - shoot 7-11 even had models ! I bought gas at 19cents a gallon for the mower and yes , I smoked too, Phillip Morris Comanders - .30 cents a pack . Ed Shaver

[Foxer]

I bought AMT's first 58 TBird ... and those awesome car kits made me retire my Hopalong Cassidy guns....

well, they were still needed to persuade my Dad to get me another kit...

Edited August 29, 2009 by Foxer

[roadhawg]

Oh, wow! Lots of cool stories! I'm a product of the 60's too. I did chores around the house, cut my grandmothers grass, and did other things to earn a few bucks. Tried a bunch of "get rich quick" schemes.....I sold Christmas cards (from some ad in the back of a comic book....I think my mom still has 4 boxes of those things left!), and delivered Grit newspaper....anybody remember Grit? All the old-timers HAD to have it! I never got rich sellin' it, though.

My dad ran a service station/garage. Gas was 29.9 (sometimes, the Hess station and Globe Oil Co. would get in a price war...gas would go down to 15-16 cents a gallon. My dad would complain that they were gonna run him out of business...they never did.), oil was 25 cents a quart, and new tires were $12 each. An oil and filter change was $4.98. I also remember my dad complaining when admission at Athens Speedway went up from $2.50 to $3.00...."Ain't nobody but rich folks can afford to go to the races anymore!"

Every friday evening, my mom would go to the grocery store, and I would go too....because Woolworths was next to the grocery store. They had an entire aisle of models and paint! The regular kits were $1.50 and the fancy ones were $1.98. Testors "Pla" (why did they call it "Pla"?) was 25 cents a bottle and I believe the spray cans were 98 cents. Woolworths would also sponsor model car contests about 3 or 3 times a year. The first model contest I ever won was at Woolworths....with an AMT (I think) '69 Chevelle, painted metalflake lime green....doesn't THAT sound tasty! Lol! I used an engine from a Corvette kit, and named my creation "The Chevette...."CHE" from CHEvelle, and "VETTE" from corVETTE.....I shoulda trademarked that name so GM wouldn't have ruined it later, huh? Anyway, I got my picture in the local paper and everything! My mom still has that clipping....if I can find it, I'll post it!

While Woolworths was my favorite model store, I also got kits from Kress's, Millers Dept Store, and Bob's Newstand in downtown Athens (GA).

And George....Popeye was my hero too! I actually got ticked off when my mom wouldn't name my baby sister Olive Oyl! Lol!

Yep....those were some good ol' days for sure!

[Eshaver]

Mike, that picture of you and your father are absolutely priceless ! Hop-a - Long Cassidy would even be proud if ya pardner ! I love it when fond memories are shared ! Ed Shaver

[samm1970]

Like George 53, I'm nearly 60 myself....... I mowed yards , delivered the newspaper , topped a little Tobacco on the farm , ( HEY NICHOLAS ) and pretty much did what a kid of twelve could do. George , I too had that 61 Ranchero. In fact it's the only model that survived the hurricane that came through Richmond Va in 1973. It was painted in Testors Red. Drug stores , every toy store , Murphys, Woolworths , Roses, Peoples drug- C V S , Walgreens - shoot 7-11 even had models ! I bought gas at 19cents a gallon for the mower and yes , I smoked too, Phillip Morris Comanders - .30 cents a pack . Ed Shaver

Ed, when you mentioned Murphy's it brought back a flood of memories...thank's they were all good ones.I vividly remember being 7 or 8 and going to Murphy's before I got into models, but was already into cars and digging thru huge bins looking for "Hot Wheels"( I used this term generically similar too everyone calling a tissue a Kleenex).The real Mattel Hot Wheels were 88 cents,and the Matchbox and Corgi were 78 cents or so.I had about $10 in birthday money and I got several Hot Wheels that day including the infamous Poison Pinto, A Hulk van, a Thor van( you could look thru the back glass and see an "action scene", and a Caption America red, white and blue '77/78 Trans Am.I also got what to this day is the "Holy Grail" of my "Hot Wheels" collection the Corgi combination Batmobile with Batboat on a trailer. I picked out my bounty, my mom put them into her basket and we went to the lunch counter and I got my favorite at the time......an open face roast beef sandwich and a Dr. Pepper.

Just curious does anyone else remember Gibson's Dept stores?They always had a nice selection of model kits.

Sam

[old low&slo]

I'm 52 and I remember you could leave your house with the front door wide open just the screen door closed

all day and come home and nothing touched try that now lol.

10 cent cokes , and 10 cents would get you a big bag of penny candy. I remember when cigs were 45 cents in a machine.

I did not really build models back then but my brother did alot and then after awhile he would get tired of one he probably had 20 of them built and either blow it up with a firecracker or set it on fire and roll it down the hill.

back then most married women were housewives and the husband went to work and a family could actually survive on

one salary !!! and a family had just one car. ours was always a rambler station wagon. we could ride all over the neighborhood on our bikes with either baseball cards in the spokes or if you were real lucky you had a varoom motor on it.and nobody would bother us. remember when all the stores would be closed on sundays.

my favorite candy was a nickel . it was called turkish taffy. it came in many flavors and was hard as a rock and you would smash it on the sidewalk to break it. we had a 3 bedroom rancher and my older brother and I shared a room for years.

nowadays it seems every kid has to have their own bedroom. so people buy these big 4 bedroom houses. I guess bunk beds are a thing of the past. at least around here anyways. oh and it was ok for kids to play with toy guns then too.

[roadhawg]

Just curious does anyone else remember Gibson's Dept stores?They always had a nice selection of model kits.

Sam

yes, I do. The Gibson's in Athens GA started out as Millers Dept Store, across from Beechwood Shopping Center, where Woolworths was. They opened a second Gibsons over on Hawthorne Ave. They carried LOTS of JoHan kits. They later changed the name to Big G.

[Art Anderson]

I turned 8 in the summer of 1952, and along with that Dad started bringing home Revell's Gowland & Gowland Highway Pioneers kits. Now Dad never built a model of any sort in his life, but having been born in 1903, he not only could proudly claim to being just 6 days younger than the airplane, but also to have seen examples of nearly every HWP model car in 1:1 in his younger days. Those kits started out (and stayed at) a mere 39-cents.

Cokes were in 8-oz bottles only in those days, cost a whole nickel, with a 2-cent deposit, a quarter pound hamburger (Pre-McDonald's if you please!) were a whopping quarter at any drugstore lunchcounter or drive in restaurant, which with an order of fries at 15-cents and a frosted mug of root beer a meal for a kid did make! In the middle of the 6th grade (early 1956) I acquired a rather large morning Indianapolis Star paper route (150 dailies was a LOAD for an 80lb, 57" tall eleven yr old, bicycle or not!), and discovered Levi's at the same time. Now Mom would spring for all the JC Penney plain pockets jeans I could wear out, but if I wanted Levi's, then I had to come up with the extra cost out of my pocket, or about $1.50 additional for the privilege of that dark blue seam placket that showed when they were rolled up at the bottom, and the obligatory little red tag sewn into the edge of the left back pocket! Same with shoes: Parents declared they would keep me in leather shoes, but if I wanted sneakers to wear for play in the summer, they came out of my paper route and lawnmowing earnings--US Keds cost me about $2.50 a pair, and would last just one summer, before a combination of wear on the concrete sidewalks and my big toe growing through the tip ended their useful life. Our next door neighbor bought a new color television at Christmastime in 1955 (we didn't even have a black and white TV for another 4 years) and invited us to come over on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Parade in NBC's Living Color.

Living where I do, in Greater Lafayette IN, we are underneath that aerial Interstate route from Chicago to Florida, and those old prop driven airliners (you know, the ones that had round piston engines, with dozens of sparkplugs all firing off) would drive our TV's nuts constantly during prime time. Enter the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880--by comparison they were whisper quiet from down here looking up, and better yet, they didn't bother TV reception! By 1957, and just out of 7th grade, we kids played daredevil games after dark in the summer on our bikes (living on a straight, side street had its advantages!) and learned to spot a police cruiser 3 blocks away, by the spacing of its headlights--those '57 Plymouths sure had WIDELY spaced headlights!!!!

My first 1/25 scale model car kits came as a 3in1 package of AMT Corporation knocked down promo's, in July 1954, on my 10th birthday. Mom and Dad were out of town with my older brother, so I spent that week as the houseguest of my homebound teacher (3rd grade, 1952-53, due to a serious bout with Rheumatic Fever) and her husband, me becoming for a week the son they never had. That kit was a total surprise, and I was told for years that I had the broadest smile when I tore the wrappings off it, as if the corners of my mouth were stapled to the back of my neck--Coral pink 1954 Ford Crestline Convertible, dark blue 1954 Pontiac Star Chief Catalina HT, and a '54 Buick Roadsmasher! I was in heaven!! Later that month, at a family summer get together, three aunts each gave me the exact same model car kit--PMC's 1953-54 Corvette. Dad found me some acetone to glue the taillight bezels to the Vette bodies, and I must have polished and waxed those ivory white beauties danged near daily all summer long!

Bicycles were obligatory for a kid back then, but the big debate (not brand, Schwinn was where it was at around here), heavyweight, middleweight, or lightweight "English" bike with hand brakes and a gearshift--I held out for the latter, and I wasn't disappointed. I think that bright blue Schwinn World Traveler set Dad back about $60 or so down at Mulhaupt's.

Model car kits were everywhere by 1958-59, not only my favorite store, Bell Auto Supply (which morphed into Weber's Hobby Shop in 1963, and for whom I worked through most of my college years), but Cridercraft Hobbies, Lafayette Hobby Shop, Lafayette Toy Center, Turkin Toys, Kleinheim Toys, and the likes of Deckers Office Supplies, Kresge's, McLellan's 5 & 10, Woolworth's, Walgreen Drug Store, Strobel's Variety Store, Dillon's Hardware Store, even a Texaco Gas Station here. But lest modern model car builders think that $50-$2.00 was cheap--it took a hellava lotta work to come up with those dollar bills back then--a kid with a $10 bill in his wallet thought of himself as FILTHY RICH! But the biggest thing then, as compared to now was: We kids could get to stores that sold model kits independent of parents, no pleading with Mom or Dad to drive us there, we just hopped on our bikes, and were there in minutes, and in complete safety. Once in the store, and having gained the trust of the clerks there that we were gonna buy, not steal, we made momentous buying decisions all on our own, no disapproving looks from parents. How many 10-12yr old kids can truly say that today?

Group model car builds were the thing then, the rule rather than the exception. Need a part? No problem, because with 3 or 4 buddies huddled over an old table in somebody's basement rumpus room, there was sure to be a part that could be made to work. The smell of paint or glue? No problem either--mothers seemed to tolerate it, put up with it. The laughing, the jokes that went around those tables, those were the thing of bonding between playmates, as we became fast friends, most of the friendships becoming life long. We kids didn't need Mom to make play dates for us, we were quite capable of taking care of that on our own, thank you very much! Some of those relationships graduated into working on buddy's cars in the driveway, their's or ours, it never much mattered, and on to double dates, cruising the drive in restaurants in HS, a couple in front, a couple in back, complete with two-headed drivers.

In three more years, my HS graduating class will reassemble for a 50th Anniversary Class Reunion (1962-2012) and among all the stuff that will happen, will be some reminiscing by a few of us, of those halycon days of the late 1950's, when we former model car buddies sit down over a case of brew and remember, by armchair modeling, what it was that we had such great fun doing as kids.

Art

[RatRod]

WOW!!! Thanks for so many great memories!!! This was fun, and thanks Art for such a great story. In my small town in Oregon, we had stores like Woolworths, the 88 cent store, and Payless drug. They all had a great selection of models too, but Payless had an isle that was 25 feet long, and had kits stacked higher than I could reach. My parents always knew where I was at when we went there. They had so many models that it was so dang hard to pick just one, and those big scale kits were a whopping 3 bucks, so no way was I gonna even ask. I never had a paper route, but I did odd jobs, and mowed more lawns then I care to remember, and taking back all the household pop bottles was always a good way to make some cash. Going for a drive out of town was always an exciting adventure too, as back then models were everywhere, and who knew, maybe you'd find that one model you seen in an add that wasn't in your town yet!!! I know things have changed over the years, but it sure is good to go back, and reminisce about how simple things were back then.

[70elcamino]

I wish everyone could experience being a kid the way it used to be. It sounds like we all did just about the same things. I also mowed lawns in the spring and summer and shoveled ice and snow from driveways when we got snow, not a whole lot here in Texas. I lived less than a mile from Gibsons, TG & Y's and a kmart, And 2 hobby shops that had models, gas cars and planes. It really didnt matter how far away anything was though, cause we rode our bikes everywhere.

I also picked up coke bottles, and aluminum cans .I even lived close to the local teen hangout area when I was a kid and would sell cokes for a profit on the corner.

I think the only time we were in the house is if we were grounded or sleeping, the rest of the time was spent playing something. The way my models looked, blowing them up or shooting them with a BB gun was the the highlight of the build.

Thanks for the memories.

Russell

Edited August 29, 2009 by 70elcamino