Behold it's beauty. The 68 GTO. I love that car for some reason. But what I didn't like was doing models. My dad tried to get me into building model airplanes because he did them when he was younger but I didn't have the patience.
I guess I was about seven or eight which is way too young for putting together a complicated model. But he would sit me at the kitchen table and lay all the pieces out. I would pick up a piece and take a look at it and he would say, "Don't touch it Jimmy. You need to follow the instructions!"
And follow the instructions he would. He would read through the instructions then pull off all the pieces and put them in piles. I would help. Then he would attempt to put it together using that airplane glue. It always made a mess. He would let me try to put together the larger pieces. Glue dripping all over. I would usually lose patience and leave the room and let him finish. I would hear him yelling, "God Damn it!" because he would break a piece or glue it into the wrong spot. I'd come back in when he was putting the decals on over the bumpy dried glue areas.
A few years later I tried to do them myself. But I'd get frustrated and leave lots of the parts off. Like an engine of a car? No need for that when the hood is shut. Right?
Not sure what ever happened to my models? A few of the planes were hung from my ceiling till I was about eleven. I don't remember where they went but I bet I blew some up with firecrackers.
I LOVE this post.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby is just like that, or was. Blow stuff up with firecrackers. Since then he's moved on to target practice in the woods, no animals, stop judging.
ReplyDeleteMy dad had a thing about trains, I never got it.
Suze thanks. Why do you like it?
ReplyDeleteand Diane - yeah model were big like that back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because it just makes for a really clear scene. Both you and your dad make me smile. Then, the fact that you blew the models up later was just weirdly endearing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I just liked it.
Suze - Well good. I like to mix childhood memories in here so they'll be documented.
ReplyDeletehey, give yourself some credit. no kids have patience to put together anything.
ReplyDeleteDr Kenneth - Good point.
ReplyDeleteI didn't build models (though the fire cracker thing is intriguing...)
ReplyDeletebut I can super glue my fingers together, then get them stuck in my hair like an Olympian gluer.
:) robelyn
Red neck - You get a gold metal.
ReplyDeleteI remember throwing a load out when I left home to get married (at 22!) then again when Mum moved out of the old family home (when I was 27)...
ReplyDeleteMy sons (he is now 21 nearly 22) are all on a shelf that my wife tries to dust and swears when she breaks something off one of them!