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Author Topic: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?  (Read 62857 times)

Offline John Sunderland

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #50 on: October 07, 2009, 05:36:27 PM »
Rankin's in Celina Ohio....1965. I was a wee tot but I loved that place. Nickle Gliders, the latest Cox offering, engines in a jewelers case, the ole man sifting thru the latest shipment of balsa, a wall full of kits. Georges Streak Trainer was my first balsa model. Its now a different store in this small mid western town, but it still smells the same. I stop in everey now and then. Nostalgia trip for sure. #^

Offline Dave Nyce

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #51 on: October 21, 2009, 07:44:47 AM »
Believe it or not, the Penneys department store at the local mall had a good selection of kits and the best prices on kits and motors I could find in the early 1960s.  I remember the Babe Bee motor's cost being $2.99.  Then a few years later, I started going to a hobby shop farther away, called Penn Valley Hobby Center, in Lansdale, PA.  They had a tremendous number of kits and supplies crammed into a shop that wasn't really very large.  They always had a discount off from the list price.  The business was founded in 1961, and has had the same owners (a married couple) since 1968.  They are still in business now:   http://www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com/

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Offline Russ Danneman

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #52 on: October 23, 2009, 02:26:43 PM »
 Decatur ,ga. if you liked building models or racing slot-cars
The Decatur Hobby House/Speedway was the placed to be. electric train layouts set up.
slot car tracks were huge.
Before it was a hobby shop it was a J C Pennys and before that it was The Dekalb Theatre
PLACE WAS HUGE  at least it seemed that way in the 60's. it had it all.

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Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #53 on: November 18, 2009, 02:47:39 PM »
Before I went into the USAF, my home town had as many as 8 stores that were either actual hobby shops or had departments where you could buy flyable planes and engines for CL, FF, and even RC, as well as train and boat kits and supplies.  Not just plastics.  The old Cycle Shop I mentioned in an earlier post was never more than 3 blocks away.  In fact, for a lot of years, I could getkits and supplies for only at most a 4 block walk.  In fact, even in high school, there were two hobby shops and 2 hardware stores within a couple blocks walk where I could stop after school.

The last hobbyshop in my home town of around 60000 people pretty much shut down about 2 years ago.  And it was a model railroad shop.  Now, the closest full service shop is about a 20 mile drive in another town.
Tony

Offline Mike Lauerman

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #54 on: December 03, 2009, 11:01:02 AM »
Sportster Hobby shop, Santa Clara, Calif. Discovered it when I was 8, in 1949.  Mom & Pop store, Ed and Eileen. Ed was a Boy Scoutmaster, and sponsored C/L assembly and flying for a merit badge. Troop 42 was a real flying force!
I started with an A-J Hornet, which was a flyaway when Dad showed me how to wind it up...It was replaced that day!
Really wanted a Firebaby, but Dad said "You'll cut yer finger off!" He was retired Navy, WWII; took me to Moffett Field for a NATS. Ed and Eileen were there, assisting with registration...
There were other hobby shops, (Sheldon's, Ed's of Willow Glen, Boys' Store Basement Hobbies, Huston's Hobbies...) We rode the bus to get there. But my favorite planes came from Ed & Eileen's, starting with the Speedi-Bilt P40.
They closed in '65 (or thereabouts) victims of the reigning Kiely Family's 'Urban Renewal'. The whole town was razed, became a mall-type 2-block walkaround that is devoid of landmarks...(sob)

Offline Joe Connelly

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #55 on: December 03, 2009, 03:54:52 PM »
Paul's Hobby Shop in Chicago. The owner was Paul Van Saant who I considered God at that time, 1945 through 1959. He had a huge Nieuport 17 hanging there with a Spitfire 65 in the nose. It had a metal cowl and was just beautiful. He had other planes hanging but that is the one I remember. Paul was kind of eccentric but was a master craftsman. When Arden came out with the glow plug, I went into his shop and he started an Arden right there in the shop. He was remarking how the clear plastic tank was beginning to melt. Arden came out with bakelite tanks that were fuel proof. Paul said I guess I'll have to get one of those tanks. His shop was a storefront at the street level of an apartment building. I guess Paul figured the people in the building wouldn't mind the noise of the Arden running in his shop. I bought my first engine, an O&R 23 front rotary valve from him.

Joe Connelly

Offline Robert Schroeder

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #56 on: December 07, 2009, 11:23:50 AM »
Kirkwood Hobby Center in Kirkwood, Mo.  I happened to ride by there om my bike one day.  It was about 1.5 miles from my house.  There was an old couple who owned it whose name I have no idea.  I was quite young, but when I started delivering papers, bought models to build.  Then Comet flying models.  In '52 my grandmother sent me a plastic Super Sabre with an OK Cub .049 for power and I was hooked.  I never could get more than 3/4 of a lap out of that plane and have been opposed to plastic plans ever since.  About that time the hobby shop changed hands to a young guy who moved it to Central Kirkwood, about a half block from school and only 1 mile from the house.  My father bought an ABC Trainer and a 1/2A trainer, both Victor Stanzel models.  I built the 1/2A trainer and put my OK Cub on it and flew it all year.  Just about wore it out that first year.  My father built the ABC trainer and put a McCoy "36" Sportsman on it.  After two stalled take-offs and two wing separations I learned to fly big airplanes.  After my father built and crashed a Firecat he quit flying and gave me the engine which I used until it died.  The owner of the hobby shop conducted a contest at Kirkwood Park every year where I was initiated into competition.  There was a club called Schaeffer's Yellow Jackets.  Those kids had lots of practice and cutting edge equipment, much better than I could afford, and had coaching which I didn't.  One day I wen to South St. Louis to Schaeffer's Hobby Shop to see what the competition had.  Art was very affable and didn't treat me like a pain.  Still, I didn't go there on any kind of regular masis because it ias a loooooong bike ride from Kirkwood.  But, his shop was FABULOUS with all the Stunt planes he had made hanging from the ceiling.  I then went into the Military and...
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Offline Howard Rush

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #57 on: December 07, 2009, 08:42:50 PM »
There was a shop in KC at about 95th and Holmes run by a one-legged guy, whose name I forgot.  He took me to Swope Park once and let me launch his stunt plane.  I bought my OK .29 from him.  Do any of you KC guys remember him?  I'd like to look him up.
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Offline Robert Schroeder

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #58 on: December 08, 2009, 10:45:55 AM »
Ty,

The last time I was in St. Louis, I stopped by the Kirkwood Hobby Center to say hi to the owner.  There had been a guy who worked for him who had bought the place a few months before and was running it.  The owner had retired and moved to Phoenix.  It was still open and was selling as was said, mostly trains along with other assorted hobby items, but no airplanes of any kind.  It had taken over two stores with a large opening between them.  This was a few years ago, but I imagine it's still going strong.  I think it had a strong following.

Bob
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Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #59 on: December 08, 2009, 01:59:04 PM »
A couple local hobby shops have pretty much done the same thing.  Because of a decline in the number of areas to fly, to stay in business, they have slowed down or shut off the model airplane business, and increased the model train RC car, and even wargaming stock.  (Have to say that for me, LHS means nothing closer than 10 miles.  Most are at least 18 miles.)To stay in busines, they have to adapt to the customer base.  One hobby shop just moved to our county from Cleveland, and they are in the process of feeling out the customer wants and needs.  A different clientele.
Tony

Offline Robert Schroeder

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #60 on: December 09, 2009, 10:30:45 AM »
St. Louis County has a great flying field for both CL and RC.  I remember when it opened, a bit after Double Cola closed and we lost our field behind the bottling plant.  That's when we changed our name from The Double Cola MAC to The Lafayette Escadrille.  I'ts still there although there are many more rules, I've heard than there were in '59 or '60.  But still, I guess a lot of the intrest waned and only the hardcore people are left.  Or maybe a lot kinda moved away like I did when I went into the military for 20 years and then after retiring and starting a divorce, was transfered to Ohio.
There are 2 hobby shops in the Toledo area, one catering to rc, mostly foamies and arfs and one with a few arfs, a lot of cars, trains and other stuff.  Can't get fuel, dope or CL pieces parts.

Bob
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Offline david beazley

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #61 on: December 14, 2009, 02:10:36 PM »
George's Model Shop on King Street in Alexandria, VA.  Classic shop of the 50's-60's.  Planes, boats, slot cars, plastic and wood kits.  I remember seeing Jim Warker kits, before I knew what CL was.  He had an M-5 5 cylinder radial in the show case.  The real big deal hobby shop was Corr's Hobby in Washington DC.  I didn't get there much but that was a real treat when I did.  I could then and still can spend hours looking at stuff in a "real" hobby shop.  My wife would rather have a root canal than acompany me to an LHS.
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Offline Bill Little

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #62 on: January 03, 2010, 02:26:53 AM »
There was a Hobby Shop that I went to in Charlotte when I was very young, but the one that got me hooked is still around and the original owners still regularly work there!  It is Hayes Hobby Shop in Fayetteville, NC.  They had just opened when I first went there in 1963.  The store expanded and moved to another section of the Shopping Center, but it is still going strong.   Alan Hayes (a member here!) is the son of the owners and I am sure he will carry on the tradition of great service and friendly manners that his Mother, and Father, Gentry, have established.  A great thing is that the staff is knowledgeable in everything they carry!  You don't see that everywhere.........

Big Bear
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Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #63 on: January 03, 2010, 11:35:04 AM »
Nowhere near my first, but I still remember MR. Barts in a mall in Topeka, Ks back in the 1967-68 time frame  when the USAF gave me room and board localy.  Also still remember visiting Ace back when Paul Runge was still running it when I was TDY down the road at Whiteman AFB.  I could only drool.  That's back when as a Sgt, I ws drawing a whole $326/mo, including seperate rats, before taxes.
Tony

Offline john e. holliday

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #64 on: January 03, 2010, 06:51:41 PM »
Boy you do bring up memories.  I remember driving all over Topeka when the company had me working at the Toll Office(long distance phone service).  Bart's was was one of my favorites.  I do not know what ever happened to him.  Then there was the bait shop out on 21st, that the lady carried some control line stuff. 
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Offline Robert Organ

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #65 on: February 01, 2010, 06:59:45 PM »
In the early Fifties, my friend Steve and myself would walk or ride our bikes to Hobbyland, a small shop on South Beckley in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. A man named Joe was the owner and he would actually run your new Fox, K&B, Mccoy etc. engine for you in the back room of the shop before you left with it. Later we frequented Bernies Hobby House on Jefferson in Oak Cliff owned by Bernie Haire, a really nice person who was always willing to give good advice or help with any thing hobby related, even if you didnt buy it from him,those were the days!
Bob Organ   AMA 316747

Offline Chad Hill

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #66 on: February 02, 2010, 03:39:49 PM »
Gene's Hobby Shop, Tulsa, mid-late 1960s. He even had a workshop in the back for kids to build their planes in!

Joe's Hobby Shop in Detroit, early 1970s. Everything for a CL-er and plenty of combat stuff, too.

Offline Will Hinton

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #67 on: February 03, 2010, 01:48:45 PM »
This will sound crazy, (most of what I say/do does) but my addiction actually started in a Rexall Drug store!  They sold the ten cent Comet models and that got the juices going!  Years later when I could drive and earn enough for an engine the good old AHC was first in line for my purchases until I found Elliot's Sporting Good store in Marietta, Ohio.  They had quite a hoby shop in conjunction with their regular store.  The guy doing the counter for the hobby section was none other than Steve Wooley!  I had many conversations with Steve during the next few years, then went USN.  Later, after I was located in the Toledo area, we ran into each other at the Toledo r/c conference.  We risked our lives standing in the aisle and talking for who-knows-how-long.  That was the year of Steve's tragic accident.  I look back at our time at the Toledo show as so very special.  He was good guy. :'(
Blessing,
Will
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Offline John Desrosiers

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #68 on: May 16, 2010, 01:39:24 PM »
The modelers haven in Lawrence ma. I hung there from 1958 to he closed around 1980. I met lots of nice people there. Jim Carpenter and Jay Leno. Yes that same guy on the late show. He still owes me five bucks, I dont think I,ll ever see it   Bob Lambert was the owner and one of the best guys I have ever met

Offline FLOYD CARTER

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #69 on: May 24, 2010, 03:55:58 PM »
There were a couple hobby shops in mny area (south Los Angeles).  Before I was old enough to drive a car, I took the bus into a place called Huntington Park.  After walking several more blocks, there was the Seville Ave. Hobby Store.  It was run by an old couple, but they knew the best things to stock.  In 1944, I went in and filled out the papers to get on the waiting list for a brand new Ohlsson & Rice 23 engine.  These were still being made during the war, although in limited numbers, and by employees working after-hours (being paid by O&R, and not their government contracts).  Later, and just in time for Xmas 1944, the engine arrived.  And that was my main present for Christmas.

Floyd

addition July 15.  In 1948, in South Gate, CA (south L.A.), Morgan's Model Supply opened.  They were primarily wholesale, but would sell OTC from their stock.  I believe they later moved.  In the meantime, West Coast Model Shop opened in my hometown of South Gate CA, and operated by Walter Hallberg.  I left the area briefly in '52, but later found Walter running another hobby shop in nearby Downey, CA.

Another model shop opened in the area about 1954.  It was run by Bob Dunham (owner of Orbit Radio R/C).  I worked with Bob in designing their Orbit 10 channel R/C receiver and transmitter, using the popular Medco or Bonner tuned reed banks. (I still have the first hand-wired receiver)

F.C.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2010, 06:41:55 PM by FLOYD CARTER »
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Offline Jim Pollock

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #70 on: May 24, 2010, 05:51:28 PM »
Most unfortunately, just about everyone that could remember "Bob's Cyclery" on Yousemity Ave in Modesto are now Dead and gone.  I think the one last person who could remember it is Dan Cockrum.  However, I don't know if he even remembers when he flew model planes?

Jim Pollock,  The Modesto Flying Circus (MFC) used to be such a magnificent model airplane club......in the 50's 60's and at least the early 70's.  H^^

Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #71 on: May 24, 2010, 10:04:27 PM »
Boy, this just released a couple old and almost forgotten names from my early exposure to this addiction.

First kits, Comet Struct-O-Speed, and some Guillows and Walker gliders and rubber FF, were purchased by walking ( when my mom was distracted, I started doing this at sometime between ages 4 and 5) about 2 blocks to a corner store named Yurcheck's.  The building is still there, has been through several itterations including a store front church, a private bar/club, and now appears to be a private residence.  Then there was Karnack's, about 4 blocks away, where I bought the usual Comet and Guillows, as well as Strombecker kits, Revell kits, Lindberg kits,Flying models and MAN mags.  They went through a similar fate as Yurcheck's, but the building was torn down last fall.  The bicycle shop has been empty for years, although for a while, it was a small high quality butcher shop.

Of course, right around the corner from my High School, was the old Lorain Hobby Shop (imaginative name) which was mostly CL planes and model railroading.  I remember buying many older MRR and MA magazines, used from racks on the back wall.  They are now a gap between a Jewler and an empty store.
Tony

Offline Peter Nevai

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #72 on: June 16, 2010, 01:56:32 PM »
Wilsons Hobby shop Jamaica Queens N.Y. Run by Pete Wilson.
Forest Park MAC held it's meetings down in the basement.
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Offline Fred Vander Hoek

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #73 on: June 21, 2010, 09:15:58 AM »
 Western Hobbies early 50s Compton CA. It was owned by my parents and grand parents. Later in the 60s was Robbie's Hobbies in Cudahy CA. Robbie would always give me a job there during Xmas season when I was in junior/ High School. Worked for hobby supplies and model kits.
Cheers!
~VanCam
« Last Edit: June 22, 2010, 10:11:32 AM by Fred Vander Hoek »

Offline don Burke

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #74 on: July 09, 2010, 09:59:36 AM »
Believe or not, my parents led to my addiction.  When we were just kids they started giving us Strombeker solid models to build. This led to them showing us the hobby department at the Montgomery Wards store in Manhattan Kansas where I bought my first 10¢ Comet model.

Encouraged by our parents, my brother and I managed to find hobby shops near wherever my Dad was stationed in the Army.  This included Germany from 1950-53.  At that time the "good stuff" came from America's Hobby Center by slow boat from the US.  Balsa wood did not exist in Germany at the time.
don Burke AMA 843
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Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #75 on: July 09, 2010, 10:58:54 PM »
Oh how I remember drooling over the AHC adds, planning what I'd eventualy buy.  Actualy put in 2 orders:  First was after getting my first job out of high school.  Bought a Super Aerotrol radio kit.  Never worked right.  Then, geting ready to rotate stateside from Wheelus AFB, I placed a large order.  It was waiting for me when I got home on leave.  Actually more than I'd ordered.  They'd combined my order with that of anoter Sergeant stationed there.  Contacted them several times, hoping they'd at least reimburse me for forwarding the order.  Got total denial, their shipping papers showed I'd recieved my order, and that the other order had been properly sent to Tripoli.  I imagine the extra order finally found the proper home.
Tony

Offline john e. holliday

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #76 on: July 10, 2010, 10:18:18 AM »

Encouraged by our parents, my brother and I managed to find hobby shops near wherever my Dad was stationed in the Army.  This included Germany from 1950-53.  At that time the "good stuff" came from America's Hobby Center by slow boat from the US.  Balsa wood did not exist in Germany at the time.
[/quote]

 
It was not a slow boat.  It was the ship of the plains, called "Conastoga" wagon.  Pony express kept saying package was too large.  But those of us out in the remote areas relied a lot on AHC.   LL~ LL~
John E. "DOC" Holliday
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Shawnee, KANSAS  66203
AMA 23530  Have fun as I have and I am still breaking a record.

Offline FLOYD CARTER

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #77 on: July 14, 2010, 06:46:02 PM »
More dull stuff added to my previous.....

There were a couple hobby shops in mny area (south Los Angeles).  Before I was old enough to drive a car, I took the bus into a place called Huntington Park.  After walking several more blocks, there was the Seville Ave. Hobby Store.  It was run by an old couple, but they knew the best things to stock.  In 1944, I went in and filled out the papers to get on the waiting list for a brand new Ohlsson & Rice 23 engine.  These were still being made during the war, although in limited numbers, and by employees working after-hours (being paid by O&R, and not their government contracts).  Later, and just in time for Xmas 1944, the engine arrived.  And that was my main present for Christmas.

Floyd

addition July 15.  In 1948, in South Gate, CA (south L.A.), Morgan's Model Supply opened.  They were primarily wholesale, but would sell OTC from their stock.  I believe they later moved.  In the meantime, West Coast Model Shop opened in my hometown of South Gate CA, and operated by Walter Hallberg.  I left the area briefly in '52, but later found Walter running another hobby shop in nearby Downey, CA.

Another model shop opened in the area about 1954.  It was run by Bob Dunham (owner of Orbit Radio R/C).  I worked with Bob in designing their Orbit 10 channel R/C receiver and transmitter, using the popular Medco or Bonner tuned reed banks. (I still have the first hand-wired receiver)

F.C.
89 years, but still going (sort of)
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Offline Gary Wallace

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #78 on: March 31, 2011, 12:15:47 AM »
I  was around airplane all my life, even before I was born! The full scale J-3 Cub I fly now, my mom was flying in when she was pregnant with me! My dad was a flight instructor, so  airplane models  came naturally. The first hobby shop I remember was the Toy Box in Springfield, Mo. I was about 6 years old and started with 1/2a stuff. My dad worked for the Federal Prison Service, so we moved around the country like the military. Ohio, Florida, and then back to Springfield around 1968, worked part time at the Bike Shop, the best hobby shop in town. In 1970 the owner move the hobby shop to a different location and I managed that for 5 years, then I bought it and carried lots of airplanes, boats,and cars. I flew and raced C/L and cars for 22 years until 1994 when I sold it and had to go to work at a real job.
Gary

Offline Dennis Coleman

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #79 on: April 23, 2011, 09:18:19 AM »
The first Hobby Shop that I can really remember is Covina Hobby Center in Covina California.  I started going in there in 1958.  Ed and Marge Bzovy owned it and it is now being run by their son Eddie after Ed's passing last November.  They had one Employee at the time named Roger Wildman (does that name ring a bell).  He was always working on something from bending up fuel tanks to helping novices (me) with their problems.  Covina Hobby has always been a control line mecca.  I would crack Ed up when I would walk in the door after he just got a supply of fresh balsa and take a deep breath and immediately head for the balsa rack.  Nothing like the smell of fresh balsa.  Al Heinrich and I would head down there on Friday evening after we got our allowances and buy a new plane, usually a Flight Streak or Ringmaster.  we would then head to one of the houses to start building and have them flying by Sunday morning.   Ed was instrumental  in starting a Control Line Club called the Flightmasters.  I think the sign is still in the shop somewhere.   Covina Hobby is truly one of the mainstays of the hobby in So Cal.     

Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #80 on: April 23, 2011, 05:52:35 PM »
Just had a memory of one of the old-time hobby shops awakened last month.  The old Clearview Hobby Shop in Lorain, Ohio.  Family owned from mid 1950's till around 1990.  Started by the father, it was run by his wife after he passed away  in the early 60's,taken over a few years later by one of the sons when her health started going bad, then after he passed away (also a fireman, heart problems) the other son ran it.  He moved the store sometime in the late 70's to a larger area in a local mall.  He finally closed the store when the mall decided to reduce the number of units for tax purposes.  Seems Bob did better with insurance and real estate sales, so he closed out.
I remember the last time I stopped in the store, just a day or two before it finally closed.  I noticed a $2.00 bill in a frame over the counter.  Asked him if he remembered that I was his first customer in the new store, and paid for the first purchase with that bill.  He looked at it for a couple minutes, added up the bill, and when he made change, he hesitated, then reached up, pulled the bill down and out of the frame, and used it for my change.  I think we both had somewhat wet eyes.  He died about 8 months later.  Neither he nor his brother or father had made it past 50.
The thing that brought back these memories.  Early March this year, the local paper had an obit.  The mother just this year passed away at 104 years of age.
I miss the old style hobby shop, the kind where the proprietor and the hired help know their products, where the store not only stocks the traditional supplies and products, but also stays up to date with the newest and can and does give the customers knowledgeable and quality advice.  Not too many left.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2011, 07:26:08 PM by 50+AirYears »
Tony

Offline Dennis Holler

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #81 on: May 10, 2011, 07:16:33 PM »
I remember The Craft House Hobby shop on Military Trail in WPB Fla from the middle 70's as ell as Mickinley's hobby Shop, also in WPB.  We used to drive over to the coast from Clewiston when I was a little kid to shop or have fun, what ever, but Mom and Dad used to always take me by those hobby shops and they got a lot of my "kid" money whether it was airplanes, plastic models, or ho scale trains.  Later on, in the early 80's i discovered the Depot in Lantana and spent a bunch of money there on Lionel trains...
I've started plenty...would be nice to finish something!!!

Offline Andy Whitam

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #82 on: May 11, 2011, 06:00:08 AM »
Mid 1950's. Tillman's records and Hobbies in Natchez Ms. What could be better than talking model airplanes and listening to rock and roll in the 50's.
they carried mostly scientific and sterling kits, cox and McCoy engines. Those were great days in my life.

Offline johnt4051

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #83 on: May 16, 2011, 11:25:23 PM »
My earliest memories of a hobby shop were of a hobby and bicycle shop called Em's, in downtown Port Angeles, Wash., early  and mid 1960s.  Can't remember the exact name, something like Em's Cycle Shop.  Anyway, I would ride the nine blocks my bike from our home on Ninth St. to the hobby shop on Front Street, and shop for what i could afford.  Thinking of that shop reminds me of a model-airplane-kids story:
  A buddy and I went to the schoolyard with my reliable Sterling Navion to put up a few flights, but we couldn't get the McCoy .35 to run right.  It would seem to run OK backwards (odd!) but would only sputter forward.  It took us about an hour to figure out that the new 10x6 nylon Top Flite prop the nice lady at Em's had just sold me was a pusher.   HB~>
  Well, it only cost a quarter, so I wasn't out much, but it ruined a flying day.
  --jt
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Offline john e. holliday

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #84 on: May 17, 2011, 08:35:17 AM »
That is almost as good as the guy who put his prop on backwards and wondered why he had no speed. LL~ LL~
John E. "DOC" Holliday
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Offline donald raab

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #85 on: July 03, 2011, 10:19:56 AM »
Ed Guth's hobbies in Syracuse NY.  About 8 years old and my parents bought me a Strombecker Piper Cub.  Never looked back.  CL/RC and now OTS when I can.  A real diversion from E3D electric but all are fun.

Offline John Sunderland

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #86 on: July 21, 2011, 10:49:26 PM »
Rankins in Celina, Ohio 1966. D>K

Offline Rick Henry

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #87 on: August 09, 2011, 11:38:48 PM »
Dont remember the name but it was a hobby shop/sporting goods store in Portland Indiana.  They had all kinds of kits and engines and a bunch of planes hanging from the ceiling.  Later on I made a hundred trips to Indy to Jack Sheeks shop.  If memory serves me it was at 5454 E. 21St Street. 

Rick

Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #88 on: August 10, 2011, 11:49:40 PM »
Not the first hobby shop for me, but the first one while in the USAF.  Technical Bookstore at Chanute AFB, Rantoul Il. in 1965.  Bought a Merco .29 RC engine there, my first RC engine with an actual throttled carb.  Really overheated with Missle Mist, got a couple short  flights with a thingy I built up with a J. Roberts 3 wire system, sold it cheap, then found out a year or two later I should probably have been using something with low nitro, like maybe Superfuel.
Tony

Offline Robert Redmon

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #89 on: September 04, 2011, 04:36:05 PM »
I don't remember the name of the hobby shop, but it was in Ft. Worth a couple blocks away from Leonard Brothers Department Store in the mid 1950s. It had a model of a B-36 over the door. I think the only thing I ever bought from that shop was a .25 roll of 1/2 A flying lines, but I recall drooling over the stuff in the glass cabinets that lined the walls and being awestruck by the models hanging from the ceiling. I was about 8 years old at the time (1954).

Bob Redmon
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Offline Mike Keville

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #90 on: September 04, 2011, 07:41:25 PM »
Just saw Floyd Carter's reply (#1) - yes, Al's in Elmhurst (Chicago suburb) was a winner.  Last shopped there c.1966.  My best  memories, however, are of Haddonfield, NJ's "Highway Hobby", 20 Tanner St. - the best CL shop I've ever seen.  That was c.1950-1956...and of course it's long-gone too <sigh>.

And then there was Rich's Hobbytowne in Parsippany, NJ.....not to mention Lakewood Village Hobby, CA (killed-off by "Hobby Warehouse" in the 1980s).

FORMER member, "Academy of Multi-rotors & ARFs".

Offline Butch Hopping

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #91 on: October 12, 2011, 02:23:05 PM »
ahhhh my first hobby shop,it was located in a jewelry store in davenport IA.in the back corner they had free flight and c/l kits and supply,s.my first kit was a carl Goldberg swordsman with a cox 020.the shop owners son helped me build it and taught me to fly on it,it was the first of many to come.i had 16 good yrs in c/l before crossing over into rc,dam know looking back i should have run the other way when i seen that first rc model fly,but i am back and look forward to many great years in c/l,Butch
Butch aka Bear,

Offline Tim Wescott

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #92 on: October 12, 2011, 02:34:37 PM »
There wasn't any shop -- I think I was born with this.  We lived out in a sub-rural area outside of Portland, Oregon, that somehow acquired a shopping center.  It had a Benjamin Franklin store that stocked a whole bunch of Comet kits, which I built regularly.

Then one Christmas someone gave me a "Whole Kid's Catalog", which included a promotional poster for all sorts of aeromodeling tips from Sig.  I sent off for the poster, and then for years I mail-ordered most of my hobby supplies from Sig.  Eventually I got a driver's license and could buy stuff at the closest hobby shop (Aero-Sports in SE Portland -- Leon even offered me a job one spring), but I still got the bulk of my building supplies from Sig.
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The problem with electric is that once you get the smoke generator and sound system installed, the plane is too heavy.

Offline john e. holliday

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #93 on: October 14, 2011, 09:08:25 AM »
I know in this thread is wwhere I posted about the first hobby shop, but the old 10cent Comet kits came from a Drug Store that was on State Avenue in KCK. H^^
John E. "DOC" Holliday
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Offline Joseph Patterson

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #94 on: October 21, 2011, 10:17:54 AM »
    Broome's Hobby shop on Plank Rd., Baton Rouge, La. for me. First visit about 1958. Mr. Broom sold Dad a used K&B Torpedo 19 to put on an old 40's airplane that had an O&R 23 glow. The store itself was a small "A" frame bldg. about 20 x 40 ,if that large, situated in the far corner of OURSO Dept. store parking lot. It was jam packed with C/L stuff. Mr. Broom always helped us out by reducing the price or pulling some parts out of his scrap parts and giving them to us. His wife was always in the store working with him, but you always wanted him to help because he new more and was more inclined to help with the prices.  We usually bought Goldberg Shoestrings, Flight Streaks, Ringmasters, McCoy 35RH, Cox .049, Perfect tanks and wheels,  and Misslemist fuel/Fox. Also had to have the White Tornado nylon props. Not very efficient, but very unbreakable. Broome's was in business over (3) decades. He shut it down and worked part time for several years at Hobby Towne before he passed away. When the slot car craze hit in the early to mid-60's he put up a track for drag racing behind the store. The motors we used in our drag cars were unbelievely powerful. Kids would rush over there after school and race until dark, or whenever Mr. Broom would shut us down, then home to the dreaded home work. 

Online Jim Kraft

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #95 on: December 07, 2011, 04:23:22 PM »
We lived in Kansas City in my early years, and I remember buying Guillows rubber powered slip together jobs when I was about 5 years old, at the drug store on the corner. Later, we moved to the Roeland Park area, and I use to ride my bike out to Hobby Haven in Mission to buy stick jobs. I remember a Dakota Biplane hanging in that shop that I thought was the coolest thing I had ever seen, but a little above my modeling skills. This was all in the 40's. Swope Park was the modeling mecca back then when all the military guys came home and flew there. My family would take us kids on picknics there on weekends, and I watched as many modelers cranked on ignition jobs.

Oddly enough, my first control line planes were bought at Charlies Hobby shop in down town KC after we had moved away to a small town in north central Ks. We use to go back to KC to visit my grandparents, and I always went to Charlies and bought a Scientific Hollow Log to take home to build. Modeling was magic back then. I was 10 years old when we moved from KC, but there were a couple of older guys that flew control line on the school yard a 1/2 block away. Several of us younger kids were flying 1/2 stuff.

I have been a modeler all my life except for a few years in my late teens when cars, motorcycles, and a special girl took most of my time. Started flying control line again in 1960 when I was 19 and married to that special girl.
Jim Kraft

Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #96 on: December 07, 2011, 04:31:02 PM »
Anybody here remember the old Comet and other solids?  They came with a block or three, a couple pieces of 3/32" or 1/8" sheet, and some 1/16" sheet.  The idea was to trace the outlines on the blocks and sheets, and carve the pieces to shape before glueing things together and painting.  My trouble with them, I couldn't control a single edged razor blade enough to do a good job, didn't have a pocket knife sharp enough, and by the time I got my first Xacto, they were no longer available.
Tony

Online Jim Kraft

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #97 on: December 07, 2011, 05:26:44 PM »
I did a few Stromberg solids in the late 40's. I also did some of my own out of balsa blocks that I got from a friend. This thread is sure bringing back a lot of great memories. Great to read how others got started also. We were very fortunate to have grown up when we did. Those years we picked up many virtues from modeling that carried us all through our lives. Now days there are very few that know what it is like to create something with your hands that actually works.
 I remember building a brass fuel tank out of a sheet of brass for a 1/2 Pint racecar. I did not have a soldering gun, so I used a woodburning tool to melt plastic to "weld" up the tank. It worked very well and never leaked. We just made due with what we had in those days. I use to flatten nails and sharpen them with a file to use in one of those hand crank drills.
  When the rod broke in the OK Cub .074 in my race car, I made one out of steel in highschool shop class. It ran just fine and never broke again. I think I still have that engine somewhere in my stuff.
Jim Kraft

Offline 50+AirYears

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #98 on: December 08, 2011, 12:52:56 PM »
Boy, the memories.  Not just my first LHS, but so many others that I went to and got advise, help, and encouragement.  Like ACE RC in Higgensville, Mo, where I visited the first time in 1967, found Paul Runge Sr, alone in the office.  Introducung myself as TDY down the road at Whiteman, he told me everybody else was out to lunch, took me back to the, I can only say warehouse area, and turned me loose.
I've already mentioned the original bicycle shop, Yurcheck's, Karnack's, Clearview Hobby, Mr. Bart's, Lorain Hobby Shop, and maybe a few others.  Another that I can't forget, that was a fantastic aid when I got started in RC was run by the fire chief at the time, Al Nickley.  Gentleman not only was conversant in all aspects of model airplanes and boats, but had a 2nd degree commercial FCC ticket, and was able to do legal repairs and tuning on transmitters. His van was not only carrying his planes abd support equipment when he got to the local flying field, but it was also equipped to do light field repairs on radios.
The exposure to the early models, before ARFs, die cut balsa, radios fully functional, plug n' play right out of the box, gave me so much challenge, inspiration and encouragement, that has helped me in every job I ever held, right from picking pop bottles off the street for the deposit, right up to instilling the patience that led me to be a problem solver, whether I was working on the auto assembly line, troubleshooting ground support equipment in the AF, getting stuck with the troublesome intermittent problems as an auto mechanic, or solving some really exotic problems in product development engineering for the last 28 years of my working career.
Tony

Offline thomas farmer

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Re: MEMORIES OF YOUR FIRST HOBBY SHOP that led to your ADDICTION?
« Reply #99 on: December 27, 2011, 06:11:45 PM »
Mrs Cooper, Coopers hobby shop, Independence Missouri. My uncle Glen went with me to her shop to get a one$ size stick and tissue model.We came out with the stick and tissue model and a ready to fly plastick controle model called the Aero Mite,with a spitzy .045 and the rest is history. I was about 10 years old. Glen is the only uncle still alive. I visit him every time I go to Kansas City Mo. Great memories. Forerunner


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