I was in a town of 5,000 when I started building model planes.  I didn't know that enough people were interested in models to have a store just for hobby stuff until I was almost 11, I think.  All of my early supplies were purchased at a variety store that didn't offer much selection.  Then, a couple of teenagers began bringing their CL glow planes to the football practice field below the Junior High, that was just across some vacant lots from where I lived, and before they decided to ignore me any time I didn't have money in hand for their castoffs, I learned that their hardware came from one or another of two stores some 30 miles away in the nearest city. 

I further never realized that model building was of interest to adults as well as to kids, or that entire monthly magazines about the hobby were being published until I actually was inside my first hobby shop, Jefferson Hobbies, after we moved to Texas. 

I don't like to use the word addiction, but I knew I had to fly more, right after my first flight on my cousin's Li'l Jumpin' Bean. I crashed the plane after about 3 turns, but was thrilled by the experience. We went to the local hobby shop later that day. My family was visiting my cousin's family in Florida, so I don't remember the name of that hobby shop. I built the wing while we were still in Florida, and finished the plane when I got back home in Pennsylvania. After that, I flew a lot, and also started a local club. Believe it or not, the best palce I found to buy plane kits and engines in my area was at the local J.C. Penney's store. Babe Bee engines were $2.99.

The first hobby shop that I really liked, a few years later, was the Penn Valley Hobby Center in Lansdale, PA. It is still in business.

Dave

The 1st place I remember was a SS Kresge's in Beloit WI, the box display of 5, 10, 15, and 25 cent gliders and rubber powered planes, kites and plastic kits.

Then a few shops in the Wilmington NC area my dad took me to but they were too far to ride my bike, so mostly it was plastic kits from the 7-11 ( imagine a 7-11 with models!).

My first Hobby Store hangout was a little place on Main St in Roswell NM. I went there 3-5 time a week to thumb the magazines, drool over the kits and wait until I had a $1.95 for a Sterling 1/2 A profile warbird.

Finally- Benners Bike and Hobby, downtown Grand Forks ND. They had it all, bikes, model kits of all types, science stuff, a huge  slot car track and rental cars, plus a whole annex just for balsa kits FF / CL / RC, engines of all types, Aero - Gloss Dope, Ambroid, Sig-ment, Silk-Span you name it. The guys working the annex would let me open kits and look at the plans, put props on engines and flip them over, read the magazines, pretty much anything to keep me from asking them another 20 questions. It was a sad day when I saw the Gong out of Business Sale sign.

Good times back then- but good times are still around , just gotta look a bit harder.

Ah yes, Charley's. I remember his shop well. Not been in one I liked half as much since I moved from KCK to Arkansas. Hey, Doc. Do you remember Mr. Brooks's first name? I wondered if might have been my dad?

Mike

Hmmmm. I was thoroughly addicted to model airplanes long before I ever saw a real hobby shop. Many hobby visits were to the base PX, wherever we were. Many others to the hobby department of some local store, the last of those I recall being "The Empire Dept. Store" in Pullman, WA. Didn't have much except the basics, but they were pretty good about getting what you wanted. Can't say that for our LHS, these days. Last week, I was in the LHS, and the guy (that flat lied to me before) was busy flying an electric toy helicopter up & down the aisles. I was looking for all the hardware twirly display thingys, and they're gone. But I digress.

The first really astounding hobby shop I encountered was Barney Snyder's Model Craft, somewhere in LA. We got by there once every month or two, while we lived at Edwards AFB. There were some good ones in the Seattle area, but none of them lasted all that long. Easy to understand why, if you have any business schoolin' at all. Too much inventory, expensive to display twiddly stuff that sells for pennies, persnickety customers, high rent, inventory taxes...  Steve

It was during ww2 and there were a lot of military planes at Gieger field in Spokane. One day I went into town and ended up at the hobby shop there. There was a beatiful New Ruler free flight hanging there with a Motor on it. Boy was I a watent person then. But alas, I could not afford such a plane so I bought a stick Model. I built a lot of them during the war with thier pressed paper formers and basswood stringers, but I learned how to build them and I used to set them on fire and toss them off the Garage roof. I been sort of goofy every since.

Originally enough, it was The Hobby Shop in Lexington, KY. On Main Street down near Broadway. Of course, 8 or 10 years later, I discovered Joyner's Bike Shop, which was 10x as good!

Ralph

State Line Hobby Shop, Kansas City Mo. 1955.  I got a Ringmaster, K & B 35 Greenhead, lines, weird handle, dope,etc.

I built the plane and the owner took me to Swope Park and taught me to fly.  Bought  a McCoy 36, and more

Rings.

Hothandle

Jim Easton's Hobby Shop s.e. 92nd and Division in Portland Or. There is a freeway exit there now.

Don

Arn't you retired now? Have you flown your Actic Fox Yet? Welcome aboard!

I remember a lot of places but the one that was always a treat because it was close enough to ride my bike to was Sumner's Trading Post. It was a nice old fashioned hardware store that also did model airplanes. I can still see the firebaby hanging in the front window and especially the Fox Black head Combat Special sitting in the display case. I bought a lot of Fox Super Fuel and Testor's 39 there. We burned it up 2oz at a time in Fox 15's and TD Baby Bees. Dawn to dusk.......

 I grew up in hobby shops.
Ed

Don's Hobbies on Front Street in Mankato, Minnesota.  The airplane kits were leaning on one end up high on the left wall as you'd walk in.  I still remember how HUGE those kit boxes looked after all the 1/2As I had built. 

That is probably why you don't build half "a'S now.That's a good thing. My moto, Nothin smaller than a 15.

You can't find a shop like that now, but, now we have the big credit card people to help us out when we don't have the cash.   Charley at Charley's Hobby Shop would let me make payments on an engine I really wanted.  Stipulation was that family came first, in other words as he would always state, "Don't rob Peter to pay Paul".  It is still with me and I guess why I worked so much over time when I could get it.  Having fun,  DOC Holliday

My first was Stantons in Chicago.  The entire ceiling was covered with hanging models both FF and C/L

Nice story, Chris.....
Hey CHRIS AND GRUNTS...this favorite and great photo of Chris and is Dad....pretty much says it all!!!

My uncle owned a slot car track in the sixties in National City, Ca. I used to like going to the distributor with him to check out the models and stuff on the shelves, not one or two but cases worth, the smell of the balsa storage was worth the trip. Engines were in another spot stacked by the hundreds or it seemed that way to a young kid at the time and occasionally I would be able to leave with something to build or fly but it was never the ones that I really lusted after. There was another hobby shop in town that catered to model planes and that was where I bought my stuff after the slot car business was closed, still remember the owner telling me not to handle the balsa  , but he did sell 1/2a kits in a deal where you bought the kit and got a babe bee for half or free depending on the sale and/or his mood or you could opt for dope and glue. All gone now but there are still a few stores in San Diego but you have to hit the freeway to get there. I now live in PA and Penn Valley is only a couple miles away so I have a good shop locally.

There were only two local hobby shops in my area when I was a kid. One was Roscoe's and it was located in Hillside, New Jersey. Roscoe had a limited stock, but for some reason we went there fairly often just to check it out. The better of the two was Clito's, and it was located on Morris Avenue in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Ironically it was situated almost directly across the street from the hospital in which I was born (Might be a connection there...). That hospital, by the way, was nothing more than a large home that was converted. It no longer exists...

Can't remember exactly when my dad started taking me to Clito's, but I know I was very young. The thing I remember most - and what is still vivid in my mind to this day - was the smell of the place, Actually I prefer to think of it as an "aroma." The strong scent of model dope always filled the air, but it was blended with the aroma of acetone, and various other liquids that must have been spilled on the floor of the shop over the years.

The other thing that remains vivid in my mind were the exquisite rubber powered models that were hanging all over the place from the ceiling. These were all made from early stick and tissue kits I'm sure, but they just looked amazingly perfect to me.

This was the hobby shop that all the UMAC (Union Model Airplane Club) members frequented, and that included the legendary Red Reinhardt and Larry Scarinzi. Going there when they were present was a delight, as they would be telling stories about building and flying and everyone in attendance would be hanging on every word. Red eventually was banned from the shop for a few weeks after he pulled a prank. He selected a piece of 1/8 inch diameter music wire from the wire rack and placed it atop the glass-topped main cabinet at the back of the shop. He then placed one finger on the wire to hold it. Only the very end of the wire was actually on the cabinet; the rest of it was hanging off the edge. He "twanged" the wire so that it was moving up and down as it was cantlivered off the edge, and then he began to slowly draw the wire towards the cabinet, still holding it under his finger. As the end hanging over the edge got shorter, the oscillations of the wire became more frequent until, when the wire was almost totally drawn onto the cabinet, the resonance frequency of the glass was reached, and then POW! The wire broke the glass in a clean line from front to back! Clito was enraged and threw Red out of the shop, That didn't last too long, as the story goes, because Red was such a draw. If Red (and Larry) shopped there, then it was the place to buy modeling supplies!

I also remember the bin of balsa behind the main cabinet (which, to my knowledge was never repaired...). Clito carried Testors brand balsa mainly, but I also remember seeing Sig balsa there when it first became available. The prices on the balsa were amazing. I remember a piece of 1.16 x 3 x 36 inch balsa costing 10 cents!

In the mid 1950s my dad was very busy just trying to make ends meet. He didn't have too much time or money to spend on modeling. I was a very lucky young man as my step-grandfather was quite wealthy. He was the owner of E.J. Handler and Sons, a concern that made virtually all of the then used dental office equipment. He was actually retired from daily work, but still kept his hand in the business. He had lots of spare time and he loved me like a son. He would lavish all sorts of attention (and dollars) on my interests. He bought me my first really good drafting tool set (which I still have to this day!) and loads of balsa, modeling tools and glue so that I could practice building. We made very frequent trips to Clito's hobby Shop. Until "Poppy" (as my step-grandfather was known to me) started taking me to that shop, Clito hardly ever acknowledged that I was alive. Funny how increased revenue will change a man's perspective. When Poppy and I came through the door, Clito always had a smile on his face and something good to say! He was normally a very grumpy individual as I recall from my earlier visits without Poppy... 

Clito also sold stamps for collectors and some train stuff as well. I guess that the hobby business started to suffer even then from competition from early mail order houses. America's Hobby Center, or AHC as it became known, was advertising heavily in the model magazines of the time and they offered many attractively priced package deals as well as great pricing on individual items. The President of our Union Model Airplane Club was a man named Vernon Davies, and he worked in New York City - where AHC was located. He arranged a great 40 percent discount deal for the club and began taking weekly (yes, we met weekly in those days!) orders from the members for hobby supplies. He would purchase the merchandise at AHC on his lunch hour and then bring it to the meetings for dispersal. I remember helping him -along with other junior club members - bring in the mountains of Ringmaster kits, Fox .35 engines, and all sorts of other neat stuff week after week after week... I think that is what really killed Clito's business.

Ah memories...

Bob Hunt     

 

Ouch! I hate that photo! Not because of the content, but because of the squinty-face that I am displaying. Here's the story on that...

I have very sensitive eyes and will always wear very dark sunglasses at the field. Some might have noticed that I actually wear two pairs of sunglasses when I fly - one normal pair of dark glasses and a pair of "fit-overs" that are also very dark.

The lady who took that cover shot, Ruth Chen, asked me to remove my glasses for the photos she wanted to take. The first one she took was while my eyes were still trying to adjust. I asked her not to submit that one, and she agreed - then she went ahead and  submitted it anyway! Oh well.

At least my son and my father look handsome in that photo! All kidding aside, I was very pleased to have that memory and I'm really not mad at Ruth, who went on to become a good friend.

Later - Bob

Probably, but she is a professional and a lot of film (pixels...?) have been expended by her since that photo was taken. If she is organized - and I'll bet she is... - then she wil have the negs. I'll try to get in touch with her. I haven't talked with her form some time now, and she was getting pretty long in the tooth the last time I saw her. I hope she's still with us. I'll contact Rob Kurek at AMA and find out.

Later - Bob   

George's Hobby Shop in Alexandria, Va, right on King St. I would work there on the weekends for a 20% discount. Sometimes, maybe I'd get a gratis hamburger from the greasy spoon across the street.

There was a place in Washington, DC, right across the river, called Corr's, I think. It was in a very iffy area of DC, 9th St, home of Berly Q joints, whose luminaries did more than one US Senator in (Lilly St Cyr, Patty (no relation) Waggin, etc.  The hobby shop moved across the street sometime in the 50s. The first store had a large, hand painted freeflight mural in the back. The second store had a beautiful dark blue Smoothie hanging in there, and I lusted after it. These were classic big city hobby shops.

We flew at the Alexandria Sailing Marina (still there), which is only a mile or so south of Reagan National Airport. We would see those Capitol Airlines Viscouts whistling in all the time.

Currell

My first real Hobby Shop mentor was one Mr. Don Still at Don Still's Happy Hobby Haven in Beaumont, Texas. As a kid growing up in the backwoods of east TX just outside Livingston, TX, somehow airplanes fascinated me from almost day 1. While my first model experiences were with the Joe Ott, Comet and such models during the WW II days, available at the "dime' stores, later I received some help from a 4th grade teacher with a donation of Air Trails magazines. That introduced me to real flying magazines.
During the war years every so often we took the train from Votaw TX to Beaumont, TX. There i saw my first H/S. Later just after the War, we went every so often to visit my grandfather, mom's side. i was able to visit Don Still's place. I well remember that Stuka hanging on the wall. At that time it was a G-I-A-N-T model airplane. I loved it.
Now for some next 7-8 years after the war, when I needed anything, even if it was simply a couple yankee dollars, Don always saw that I got whatever I ordered. In the early '50s, several of us school kids played hooky one day and  visited Don. None of us could fly inverted. Don made a phone call, we had models in the car, and before the day was over each of us was doing inverted flight. Don's friend was a drugstore manager and went out with us to a local school ground and the rest is history.

Mr. Don Still is, and always will be a GIANT of a MAN in my mind. 

Boy, thanks to some situations at work and a health situuation, I haven't been on this site for a while.
While I had been going to a couple corner stores for Comet and Guillow kits for a couple years, sometime around 1949 or 50, I took a box of pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters, even a couple silver dollars, and went with my dad to the Cycle Shop on 28th Street in Lorain, and bought my first CL plane and engine.  An Enterprise Air Racer with an O. K. Cub .099.  Never got that plane finished, but I eventually learned to fly CL with that old engine and an Enterprise profile P-51.  Still have that old engine, and once in a while still put it on something.  Has almost as much power as some of my Babe Bees.
Interestingly, that bike shop was in the same store building my grandfather had his dry goods store in until losing it during the depression.

The greatest shop ever when I was a kid was National Hobby at the corner of Brookpark and Ridge Road in Cleveland. It was a great shop and the ownor was Will Pachasa who was the brother of the ownor of Cleveland Models. National was a great shop. Lots of kits, balsa engines and whatever you needed. Will's daughter owns "Hobbies are Us" in North Olmsted. Nice shop to but not what National was to me in the fifties and early sixties. I wasnt around when the business was sold and then eventually went out of business. They had an auction and had I been there I would have bought the balsa rack. Hand made by Will with a whole bunch of slots. I had a real thing for that balsa rack. I rode my bike nearly ten miles from my home. All down hill going and all up hill coming home.
Wayne

I grew up in the town of River Edge N.J. It about 10 mi outside NYC. It was a good time and place to grow up if you liked model airplanes.
My first CL plane was a Flite Streak which I bought at the local Sweet Shop. I don't remember the name of the place but it was a soda fountain that sold among other things kits and engines. I remember how excited I was going there knowing I had the money to get the plane.  I built the kit in my basement by myself, my parents were desensitized to the smell of Ambroid and dope by my older brother. I put in a Torpedo 35, which my brother gave me, (he is still giving me engines). We took it to Rich's Hobbytown in Parsippany NJ for its first flight. There were flying circles outside of the back of the store. My brother did the honors, It was a fast plane and on the first wingover the nose and engine departed from the wing. That was my first lesson about making sure your fuse is well glued to the wing. My brother, being the good guy he is, consoled me by taking me into the shop and buying me a Sterling P-51 (my choice over the Ringmaster, it had flaps!). We then had lunch which started a tradition of stopping for lunch to discuss future projects after flying!
There were other shops in the area and several department stores had hobby shops in the basements that I would frequent, but the best one was Hi-way Hobby in Ramsey NJ, it was always worth the trip . Upstairs were airplanes boats etc and downstairs was an extensive model railroad shop. When I went on the Jr High school we moved to Ramsey, and I had the hobby shop all to my own. Before I could drive, I biked there so no one would have to wait for me. I had it memorized, and knew what they had on the racks and shelves better than the guys working there. By that time I was transitioning into R/C. I was building boats and planes so the buying was only limited by how many odd jobs I could work.

The fist shop I remember going into was "The Hobby Hole" in Cape Girardeau, MO. It was in the basement of a clothing store on Broadway. You had to go through a hole in the floor where a spiral staircase went into the hobby shop. I guess that was about 1973  or so. My brother Johnny would take me there to buy models and that lead to my balsa addiction. Anyone else remember that place?
The next one would be a hobby shop in downtown Temple Texas. We moved there in 76. I remember the fellow behind the counter whose was Randy Zavodney I think.  His name was unusual and it kind of stuck in my young head.
Then we moved back to Missouri. I would go to the big shops in St. Louis when we visited the relatives in "the City".
Hobby shops still fascinate me. Nothing beats a mom 'n' pop hobby shop!!