Better put this down before i forget as some of it is starting to get foggy.
It was around 1970 and we lived with my grand parents when my stepped dad was on the USS Enterprise on tour. I could hear a high pitch buzz of a Cox .049 and jump on my Stingray bike and raced to the school to find a older neighbor kid and his dad flying. Wow I wanted one. When my step dad got home he bought me a silver P51. He dropped me off at the Navy base hobby shop in Millington. Some of the Navy guys helped me and got me flying the plastic plane.  I got several flights on it until I bonked it and cracked the molded in plastic tank. Fast forward a few more years and we had to move to Norfork Va. This time he was on the USS America. I made a friend and travel with his family to Boston where we found a hobby shop. We both picked up a 1/2a kit with the sheet wings. I think they were Sterling kits.  We took them back to Norfork and I dont remember where we got the motors but I remember flying them in our back yard.
Another move I think around 1976, we were back to the Millington area and I built a number of Carl Goldburg 1/2a's. The Lil Wizard was my best flyer. I had model planes hanging all over my ceiling and I could lay in my bed and look up at all my planes. I no idea what the CG logo was on my plans. I built CL planes like I built my plastic static models. Once I got it put together, start spray painting. I wondered why my models never kept paint on or some did not fly well. I even built a CL model in wood shop out of pine! Still have that plane!
One day I saw a big motor at a LHS. It was a Testor .19! A monster of a motor. I got it and a Akromaster. I put it together and bolted the motor on. Off to my school parking lot and with the help of a friend got it off the ground. It was not long after that I discovered girls, my step dad fixed up a old car for me (64GTO) and then off to collage. Not real sure what happen to my planes after I left home. Wish I still had that car!
Fast forward a number of years.... I now had two boys of my own. Bought the oldest son a Cox Texan. We crashed it right out of the box! What memories it brought back. I then found SSW and wow the things I did not know. Before I knew it we had a Trainer Flight Streak hanging over my sons bed. We moved up to Flight Streaks and now he is grown and moved out. He still flys with dad every now and again. And I now have a hobby and a whole community of friends that share my passion of model planes.