WHAT MAKES OUR HOBBY SO SPECIAL 

Over the years I have often wondered what it is about this hobby that makes it so special to me. I guess that, above all other reasons, it helps me to connect with my childhood and the many things that were so special about being a kid.  It all started when my Dad took me along for a ride one warm summer day in 1964 and we visited a place called Vince's Hobby Shop in Clifton, New Jersey.  I will never forget the impression it left on me.  The store was a wonderland of electric trains, gas powered airplanes and plastic and balsa  models. On that special day we bought a ship model which we built and floated in the tiny pool that my Dad had set up. I cannot remember how many times I broke and repaired that model, but it made me hunger for more. 

Sometime after my first model I discovered that the local hardware and repair store, which was within biking distance, carried model airplanes and within a few years the ceiling of my room was cluttered with Aurora, Revell, Hawk and Monogram kits of every type.  I spent every dime of my paper route money on models and long hours in the basement building them. I can vividly remember those warm summer days as I rode my bike to the store while I fantasized about what it must be like to actually fly the airplane I had picked out the previous week to buy.   

 As I look back on those years I have come to understand that building all those models served many purpose, besides keeping me out of trouble.  Building models gave me an outlet to express my creativity. It honed my skills at following instructions to assemble things, which translated into following machinery diagrams and blueprints in my later years.  It has allowed me to become very adept at discerning spacial relationships of equipment, buildings and site plans which comes in handy as a practicing field engineer.  It developed my common sense problem solving skills

and instilled in me a sense of symmetry and organization.   

All of these attributes that I now have and which serve me well in life, I can attribute in some measure to quite a few 98 cent models and 5 cent tubes of Testors glue.

What a great hobby this is and I am very proud to be a part of it.