This morning I woke up to seemingly subarctic weather. The breeze coming in my bedroom window was amazingly cold for this time of year, especially after the last few days in the high 70s and low to mid-80s.
Then when I got online to check email, I saw where one of my friends had posted a picture on Facebook, captioned, “Sadly none of the youth of today will know what this is.” It was a picture of a model car kit in plastic with the parts still hooked to the sprues that keep them from being lost.
Now my mind began to work. After the “pony”-starting motor kicked in and got my memory working, It took me back to late grade school, middle school and the first couple of years of high school. During that time, if it was storming in the winter, I usually spent my evening in my room listening to the radio or records. Yes, we had vinyl record albums back then. All the while listening, I would be putting a model car or model airplane together. It seemed that some of the guys my age couldn’t wait to go to WT Grant’s or Newberry’s or Woolworth’s or Zayre’s department stores, better known as the five-and-dime stores, to see what the newest kit would be.
Since my service in the Navy, I have developed a passion for collecting model ships and lighthouses. I bought my first kit from a lady in England and it was a scale model of the RMS Titanic. It took me all of a week to build and it sits on a windowsill in my den. The next kit I purchased, and certainly not the last, was of the USS Missouri, BB-63. Now these two ships are similar only in that they are two of the most famous ships ever built. The Titanic’s claim to fame was her sinking in the North Atlantic in April of 1912. The Missouri is the famed platform on which American and Japanese diplomats and military officers stood to sign Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. She also holds a place of honor in my den.
In the future I will likely do a kit of the Arizona, and a Gato class submarine, and a huge B-52 that I can hang from the ceiling. The thing is, I can almost still smell the new plastic smells and the model cement and the paints used in modeling.
It is amazing the memories that a cold breeze can provoke when one is destined to Remember When . . .
Dear readers, we are approaching the Fourth of July holiday. Please, if not for yourselves, for your families: remember to use your safety belts and be responsible with adult beverages. Either have a designated driver or stay at home with another adult in charge of the car keys. Make this a weekend that you can say was the best because it was done responsibly. Best of all, enjoy the barbecues. Until next time, “remember when.”
Guy Woodworth of Presque Isle is a 1973 graduate of Presque Isle High School and a four-year Navy veteran. He and his wife Theresa have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He may be contacted at lightning117_1999@yahoo.com.
