Post by Energizer Bunny 211 on Jul 14, 2021 18:15:11 GMT
Not PC related.... but talking about "rearranging the den".....That reminds me of the story, when my parents first moved into our house shortly after they were married.....We have a "crawl space" for storage in the basement that extends forward about 45 feet (directly underneath our Kitchen floor) and I think it's about 80 feet wide......Anyway, my dad made by hand a custom built Slot car track that was about 40 feet in total diameter and he built it all out of plywood and particle board if I'm not mistaken, using a miter and router. Then he went to a hobby store and bought all the cars and track accessories from a local hobby store called "Leisure World". The scale of the cars was 1:24 and I remember he kept his good ones in a green and white box. I would often ask to get the box out and just look at them because the body styles and colours, I thought, were really cool. Almost pretty. And to me at the time, I handled them with extreme care because I smelled $$$$$. Back then, I think they ran for about 25.00 per car, which was expensive. Now as Collector's Items....Cars of that scale and vintage are as much as 80.00 CAD.
Anyways, as the story goes he a about no fewer 10 other guys from work would come home early and all be downstairs playing on the slot car track.....grown men crammed into this 4.5 foot high crawlspace, all gathered around this custom made slot car track with controllers in one hand and a drink in the other. My mom would come home from a walk with their dog....and jokingly wonder what is the world are all these cars doing in our driveway? i should call the cops, because I think somebody is having a party! Oh, wait...I can't! They're all here...." And sure enough, she'd come inside to find that no less than 10 guys my dad worked with were all downstairs in the crawlspace having competitions. As slot car tracks were a relatively new thing-- sure yo ucould buy one made of plastic and aluminum wiring for a couple hundred bucks back then.....But none of them had the attention to detail of my Dad's hand-made track, for the next several years until well after they had us kids....My dad was a very popular guy at work. All of his friends wanted to come over and play! LOL They all wanted to see this wondrous marvel of handmade construction and to challenge their coworkers to a race.
Then, I think when I was about 5....My dad bought me an HO Scale track and car set from TYCO, and for the next several years I would build every track configuration I could think of. I would spend hours playing by myself, just building different tracks and racing the cars.....Even making up commentary, like I saw on Formula One races. And every month, when I got my allowence, my dad would take me to the hobby store called "Leisure World" and he would let me buy one new car. I had a black and green 1986 Porsche 911, a beautiful black and white Corvette with burgundy pinstriping and with the number 85 on the hood, I had several Indy and Formula One style cars, like the yellow PENZOIL car that John Andretti drove, or the baby blue and red STP car that Gordon Johncock drove for this 1973 victory at the Indy 500, I also had Gerhardt Berger's #27 Ferrari....and many more. The Corvette and the Porsche were two of the fastest cars I owned. But the Ferrari was among my favourite because of the detailing in the body.
Unfortunately, over time the aluminum wiring that was strung along inside the plastic pieces of the track all corroded over time and even after rubbing it off with a quarter, that measure was only a temporary fix that would last for a few days. Then the corrosion would return, and it got to the point where the track was unusable.
Anyways, as the story goes he a about no fewer 10 other guys from work would come home early and all be downstairs playing on the slot car track.....grown men crammed into this 4.5 foot high crawlspace, all gathered around this custom made slot car track with controllers in one hand and a drink in the other. My mom would come home from a walk with their dog....and jokingly wonder what is the world are all these cars doing in our driveway? i should call the cops, because I think somebody is having a party! Oh, wait...I can't! They're all here...." And sure enough, she'd come inside to find that no less than 10 guys my dad worked with were all downstairs in the crawlspace having competitions. As slot car tracks were a relatively new thing-- sure yo ucould buy one made of plastic and aluminum wiring for a couple hundred bucks back then.....But none of them had the attention to detail of my Dad's hand-made track, for the next several years until well after they had us kids....My dad was a very popular guy at work. All of his friends wanted to come over and play! LOL They all wanted to see this wondrous marvel of handmade construction and to challenge their coworkers to a race.
Then, I think when I was about 5....My dad bought me an HO Scale track and car set from TYCO, and for the next several years I would build every track configuration I could think of. I would spend hours playing by myself, just building different tracks and racing the cars.....Even making up commentary, like I saw on Formula One races. And every month, when I got my allowence, my dad would take me to the hobby store called "Leisure World" and he would let me buy one new car. I had a black and green 1986 Porsche 911, a beautiful black and white Corvette with burgundy pinstriping and with the number 85 on the hood, I had several Indy and Formula One style cars, like the yellow PENZOIL car that John Andretti drove, or the baby blue and red STP car that Gordon Johncock drove for this 1973 victory at the Indy 500, I also had Gerhardt Berger's #27 Ferrari....and many more. The Corvette and the Porsche were two of the fastest cars I owned. But the Ferrari was among my favourite because of the detailing in the body.
Unfortunately, over time the aluminum wiring that was strung along inside the plastic pieces of the track all corroded over time and even after rubbing it off with a quarter, that measure was only a temporary fix that would last for a few days. Then the corrosion would return, and it got to the point where the track was unusable.
