Childhood Disappointment...

   When I was a kid I used to like to build (can you say toxic glue and paint?) plastic models such as these...








        I usually got them as Christmas or birthday gifts but occasionally I would save enough of my meager allowance to buy one at this hobby shop in Brentwood Mall. One summer night Dad had taken me there to buy a new one and as always I would try convince him on the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" or  "Frankenstein" to which he would always say, " You're just going to break it." I think he just didn't want to buy the monster models, sometimes parents can be funny that way. 

       On this particular night I noticed something up high on the wall behind the counter that would pretty much put an end to my plastic model building days forever...



    I was open- mouthed and stupefied, like Ralphy in "A Christmas Story" and his obsession with the Red Rider BB gun. There were actually airplanes that I could fly myself as opposed to just drawing or building them?!?  Asking Dad if I could get one, he immediately replied with the words every kid hates to hear,"You can if you save your money." I think the price of this particular plane was about $13 and my allowance at the time was a dollar a week (man, does that sound like the olden days)... it would take me an eternity to save that kind of money.

     I hunkered down and began to save. There were sacrifices made-bottles collected, matinees at the Dolphin Theatre missed and baseball cards not purchased but I had to have that plane. It seems funny now but I think Dad had forgotten what he had said at the time about saving my money just to keep me quiet (he didn't think I would actually do it) . When I finally announced to him with pride that I had saved the $13 he simply replied, "Your mother and I don't think it's such a good idea, you're just going to break it."(which is probably true). I was crushed, "You've got to be kidding? Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
     

       I probably took take my savings and and spent it on a week long binge of mojo's, candy cigarettes, spearmint leaves, jawbreakers, licorice pipes, Mountain Dew and a pea shooter to drown my sorrows and relieve the pain of hearing, "You're just going to break it."

       I don't recall ever making another model after that and I eventually took the ones I made up in the bush and lit them on fire, which was great fun until I dripped molten plastic on the back of my hand. It hurt like hell... and try hiding that wound from your Mom...