Flashback Friday #211

Models


Hello. Welcome back (unless you're here for the first time, then technically you're not back, but here for the first time). Today, I'm discussing what I did in my spare time. When I was in High School, there was no Internet (was that an audible gasp I just heard from the younger members of the audience?). When I had some extra cash, and it was in between baseball & football seasons, I spent it on models. Not the type that walk down a catwalk at a fashion show, the plastic kind (come to think of it, some of the models that walk down the catwalk have quite a bit of plastic in them too).

My brother, Sir Gattabout, got me started. I remember that we were at a store and he saw a model that he wanted. Mom said she'd get it for him. Well, if he was going to get something, I wanted in on the action. He bought a Pinto, since we had one in real life. I got a Gremlin (what was it with us liking cars that were bad?) Mom said he had to share his supplies until I got enough money to buy some of my own (HA!). Grumble, grumble, oh all right.

He painted his chassis yellow and the hood & hatch black. He also had a black strip along the side. I  painted mine red with a white strip running from the rear roof to the front wheel well. I thought it looked like the car on "Starsky & Hutch". When Gattabout moved out, he was working on a semi from the show "Moving On". I finished it plus about three or four dozen more.He left all his supplies, which I gleefully added to mine.

I displayed them on a shelf on my desk that once belonged to a kitchen hutch that was downstairs. It was supposed to hold plates. Our plates went into the cupboard, and I got the shelf.

I not only has car models. I had trucks, vans, tanks, airplanes and was working on a large ship untilsomeone lost or took several key pieces from it. As soon as I finished one, I'd want to start another. I know it wasn't because I was getting off on the glue fumes. At that time, they had such a difficult time with kids sniffing the glue, they made it kid friendly. It was lemon scented and had no harmful side effects.

The models found a different home after I was grown. Our house had become a glorified storage unit after the house trailer was moved onto our lot (more about that in the future). My brother was showing his son around when he spotted the models. "Cool. Who did all those?" the youngster asked. "I did", said my brother. "Can I have them?", his son asked. "Sure. Lets see if your grandma has some boxes or bags to put them in. "Mom, do you have any boxes or bags we can put my models in to take home?", my brother asked. "Your models? You didn't put those together, your brother did. Those are his.", she told him. I got a call asking if his son could have them. I let him.