Showing posts with label model kits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label model kits. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Candy Apply Red (Soundtrack of my Life)
Oh, to be a kid again! Though that would present the other challenges of adolescence and adulthood. Would I really want to live my life over again? Perhaps if I could edit out all the bad parts and just leave in the good. But then what kind of life would that be? I've had a pretty darn great life as far as I'm concerned so maybe those bad parts were necessary to appreciate the good parts. Still, it's fun to think back on the good times.
In this post I offer another in my Soundtrack of My Life series. Robin at Your Daily Dose has been doing the Soundtrack of my Life posts on her blog for a while now. I had done a few of my own "life soundtracks" on my Tossing It Out blog as well as the song series (starting at this post) I did for my 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on Wrote By Rote. Be sure to visit and follow Your Daily Dose for more Life Soundtrack info. For my current back to the past post, I'm using the song "Candy Apple Red" by Robbin Thompson as my inspiration. If you like you can listen as you read the story that follows...
Candy Apple Red
When my family moved from San Diego, California to Crown Point in the northwestern corner of Indiana, I was just entering junior high as they called it back then. Going into seventh grade was a huge transition as now instead of one teacher all day as we had in elementary school, now we had a teacher for each class and we would move around from room to room throughout the day. It was almost like being in high school except that we were still like little kids in many ways. I guess that's why they called it junior high school. We were kids getting ready for those last few years before graduation and then on to college or whatever life was holding in store for us.
The biggest change about moving to Indiana was the weather. In San Diego the year round moderate weather made being outdoors a kid lifestyle. So much time was spent riding bikes, playing games, prowling the neighborhoods, and roaming the still wild canyons that surrounded our neighborhoods. Maybe there was some kind of law that said that kids had to spend at least eight hours a day outdoors--well it might have seemed like it, but perhaps it was just a natural law. Not often did I as a kid want to stay cooped up in the house all day when there were so many amazing things to do outside.
Of course I had my indoor activities that I liked to do sometimes. We played cards and board games. We might amuse ourselves making prank phones calls. It seemed like I watched several movies on television each week in addition to some of my favorite programs. I spent hours reading--I loved to read back then perhaps more so than I do now. And there was my stamp collection. My sister, some friends, and I all collected stamps and that activity could keep us entertained for hours. Looking back on everything we did back then I'm thinking that days must have been longer back then. I don't think the Earth was spinning more slowly, but I guess a kid's perception of time sees minutes, hours, and days from a far different perspective than an adult does.
The relocation to Crown Point didn't alter my desire to be outside and about my environment, but sometimes the weather curtailed such activities. Those heavy northern Indiana snows were fun to play in for a while, but after a while the cold would become unbearable causing us to seek the warmth and comfort of indoors. Books, games, stamp collections, and television were still on the agenda, Then came another interest for me--model building.
Being older I could do certain things better like reading and following instructions and being more intricately creative. I was ready to take on the challenge of those boxed models I would find in the variety store. Initially I was drawn by the allure of the classic monster models made by Aurora. The selection was limited so soon I had them all. I had done a pretty decent job assembling and painting these models and displayed them proudly throughout my bedroom. Eventually I was ready to move on with other model kits, starting first with inexpensive simple airplanes and ships. Then came car models.
Those car models presented a very different and new challenge for me. They were detailed and far more complex than the other models that I had been building. I began buying car model magazines for tips on creating better models and inspiration. Actually in the long run those magazines probably discouraged more than inspired me. Those professional and more experienced builders apparently had not only far more knowledge than I had, but also far greater patience.
I was particularly impressed and envious of the paint jobs on those car models shown in the magazines. These builders were putting on multiple coats of paints and coats and buffing them and treating them until they came out with glossy sheens. My paint jobs were so much less perfect with streaks, bubbles, and, well, to put it bluntly--sloppiness. I make it sound horrible I suppose. Actually some of my finished products did look pretty nice and I was proud of them. At least proud enough to display them in my bedroom.
None of my work would have won awards at car model shows. Not like the car models in the magazines. I was an amateur at building car models and so I remained during my short career as a car model builder. After a couple of years having those models on display some fiendish impulse within me caused me to burn all of those models to which I devoted so much time and care. Watching them burn, melt, and vanish into toxic residue fascinated me much to my dismay years later. I would have liked to have had them after I reached adulthood, but then again it just would have been more stuff for me to store or move like so much other stuff that I have now.
What were your favorite solitary activities of childhood? Do you still pursue any of the same interests you had as a kid? Did you ever willfully destroy any of the things you owned as a child?...
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Norwegian Wood #atozchallenge
The Beatles "Norwegian Wood" (1965)
Norwegian Wood
During the time when I was in 8th and 9th grade I became passionate about building model kits. I started out with the Aurora monster series--the classic monsters such as Godzilla, the Mummy, Dracula, and a number of others. Later I built some of the Big Daddy Roth "Rat Fink" series, eventually continuing on to airplanes, ships, and car models. I began buying magazines about monsters and model building. I was consumed by this hobby.
My best friend Dan also joined me in this interest. Previously we had both been avid stamp collectors, but the model building seemed like the more teen-like past time to which to graduate. Dan was a grade ahead of me, but since he lived nearby and we shared similar interests he took up whatever interests I had. He liked hanging around my house like my friends always seemed to do when I was growing up. I guess my house was always cooler than anybody elses and my mother always welcomed any of my friends.
Another interest Dan and I shared was a love of the pop music of the day. We'd sit on the floor of my bedroom working with our model kits listening to the likes of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles. While we worked on our model-building we'd listen to my albums on a portable record player I had in my room and we talk about whatever came to mind--mostly girls.
Neither of us had ever had an actual girlfriend relationship yet, but we were curious and had great longing. Dan would tell me about things that he'd heard some of the older boys talking about or things that he had read. This was the mid-60's and the topic of sex was still mostly a mystery to us. We wanted to know more, there was so much that we didn't understand.
After I acquired the Beatles Rubber Soul album we played that record over and over. My favorite songs were "Michelle" and "I've Just Seen a Face". Dan's favorite song was "Norwegian Wood". In a classic example of misheard lyrics, Dan insisted that one of lines said "She showed me her womb". He was taken by that line. We both were aware that this had a sexual connotation, but we were misunderstanding what exactly womb meant. What Dan was convinced of was that the lady of the song showed the singer her womb.
I didn't hear that lyric in that way myself--I was hearing "room" not "womb". But Dan stayed with his hearing of the line. In later years I read or heard something about the phrase "Norwegian Wood" was really code for "knowing she would". That sounds logical if you think back on the line "she showed me her room isn't it good knowing she would". But then again "womb" was a code for young teenagers such as we were.
That was a word made fodder for imagination. The best visual for two young guys dreaming about the mysteries of women was the cover of Whipped Cream and other Delights by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. This was the album worth staring at and letting fantasies run amok. The words of "Norwegian Wood" had nothing on that album cover. And from all appearances the woman on that album cover had nothing on except a lot of whipped cream.
Ah, the fantasies of youth!
At what age did you begin thinking of the mysteries of the opposite sex? Is there a favorite lyric that you've misheard? Did you have a hobby that kept you busy when you were a child or teenager?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)