Models

Whatever happened to models?  Not the beyond anorexic ones that walk down the catwalk.  I’m talking about the plastic models that we used to build from a kit.  Remember those?

My brothers used to have them.  They had airplane models and car models and at one point they also had “monster” models.  I think they had Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, and a werewolf.  I remember that I always wanted to build one but I was told that they were for boys and that I was too young for them so I didn’t ever get any.  I used to sit and watch them work on their models, first putting them together with glue (boy did that smell!) then very carefully painting them.  I remember they had to sit at the kitchen table when they worked on them because the kitchen was big and well ventilated so they wouldn’t inhale the fumes from the glue or the paint.  That’s why I got to watch them work on the models.  At that time I thought that maybe when I grew up they might let me work on one of the models with them but that never happened.  I grew up.  I just never got to work on one of their models with them.

Then, when I married, I got myself a couple of kits at PicNSave (now Big Lots).  I think they were a dollar a piece or so.  I got a tank and a submarine.  I think.   I did put them together but I don’t remember painting them.  When my son was about ten, I got him a couple of model kits.  He put them together but I don’t think it was something he really wanted to on his own.  I think he did it for me.  He probably didn’t want to seem ungrateful so he accepted the offer to buy him a couple of model kits and he dutifully put them together.  He didn’t ask for any after that so I didn’t get anymore.  I had put it all out of my head, with only an occasional thought until I saw a movie last night (The Answer Man) in which Jeff Daniels had a werewolf model that he kept displayed and didn’t let anyone touch.  Then it all came back. 

Now I’m thinking I might want to get another model kit for myself.  That is, if they even still make them.