Posted on 05/30/2006 9:20:53 PM PDT by pickrell
This is excellent.
I've always enjoyed your writing.
I think one of the reasons that engineering enrollments have collapsed is that kids don't make things anymore.
Outstanding job!
I got horribly dizzy, nauseous and head achy from doping the wing of an airplane model in 1966. Later, I found out that some people actually liked this feeling. Go figure. I spent hundreds of hours gluing-up and painting models, mostly cars, in the 60's. I even placed third in an Ed "Big Daddy" Roth contest. My winning saying was: "Do unto other Rat Finks before they do unto you!"
Timmy picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue.
Thanks. Despite the diminutive size (wingspan less than the length of a dollar bill), the cockpit features seat harnesses with buckles, full instrument panel, rudder pedals, etc.
I have marines in training. Great article.
I still think all the Testers glue fumes did me well! :)
Wonderful piece about a time when boys were actually allowed to be boys. Model kits were great, and some of us - destined in future to become particularly regressed examples of outdated gender stereotypes - even played war with our models, a handfull of toy soldiers, and cherry bombs, blowing up everything in sight in messy fashion before rushing off to the woods to play soldier.
Nothing in human nature has changed, but now that it's all culturally prohibited and politically incorrect, kids have to be furtive about it. Funny that the "do your own thing" generation became the "do my thing my way or else" generation.
Reminds me of the joke about the little girl at Christmas who's waiting in line to see Santa. When it's her turn, she climbs up on Santa's lap and Santa asks, "What would you like Santa to bring you for Christmas, little girl?"
The little girl replies, "I want a Barbie and a GI Joe."
Santa looks at the little girl for a moment and says, "I thought Barbie comes with Ken."
"No," returns the little girl. "She comes with GI Joe; she fakes it with Ken."
Seems there's a message in there somewhere; kids learn to fake it so young these days. Not to mention everything else they learn so young. What happened to innocence and childhood?
I have a neat video of an F-14A Tomcat model that flies. Trouble is I don't know how to paste it into a response.
As someone who grew-up during the cold war, my models whacked many a commie (Eat hot death, commie scum! Fox one, missile away!). Then, I built tanks and bombers with Lego and defended the free world from a wide assortment of foes. Those were the days, when boys dreamed of being strong, capable men - the hero in every struggle.
Like it was yesterday. Before long I was mainlining Guillow's kits. I think I built all of those. 6 hours a day in the shop. Since leaving the Nav, I've gotten the itch to build again, this time 1/1 scale.
um, i confess to having snatched a couple of Wildcats and Zeros off ebay last month. I am anxiously awaiting some freetime to escape back to those days of modelmaking. I even got the original Revell flying deuces series. with the F4F and A6M boxart that I remember, as about an 8 yr old, thinking was so cool. I confess. I confess!
Great attention to detail. My dad made airplane models when I was a kid, and he was the same way...attention to detail. I remember him having a paint brush with one bristle to paint the control panels.
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