Some Sad News from New Jersey

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Njaco

The Pop-Tart Whisperer
22,348
2,066
Feb 19, 2007
Southern New Jersey
Not many may care about this but I just found out that the hobby store that I have been going to as a kid is going to close. It opened in 1967 and in 1969 I started going there. Haven't stopped since. Just bought a Me 163 1/48 from there last year along with paints and supplies, etc. This place was a HUGE part of my childhood and just when I finally move to within a block of the place ( I can walk there in 2 minutes!) now it is closing. The owner wants to spend time with the grandkids and times are tough.

Can you fall in love with an inanimate object?

R.I.P. Bob's Hobbies and Crafts

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Very sad.
There were 3 shops I used to go to when I was a kid. The nearest one was owned by the father of a school friend of mine and closed up years and years ago. The other two closed within a couple of months of each other 5 years ago. I started going to another shop that was an hours drive away but had a fantastic selection. I could spent hours in there just browsing. It closed last summer.
 
Same here. I see the odd kid in my LHS now and then, but they're normally with their Dad, getting spares for an R/C car.
'The Model Shop', in the city near where I was born and raised, had been going since around 1920, a huge place with three floors packed with everything you could imagine for any model of anything. As a kid, I used to go there every Saturday and, as an adult, I'd go on a regular basis, until moving away from the area.
Even until a few years ago, if I was in the region, I'd still call in, and be recognised by the son of the owner, who'd long since retired !
But it closed probably eight to ten years ago now, taken over (and moved premises) by a chain of so-called model stores, who did the same to the similar shop in my now nearest city.
That chain, having run less than ten years, has now folded, wiping out many local and regional, traditional, long established businesses across the country.
 
None of the hobby shops of my youth exist today. And some of you may have seen me mention just how difficult it was to find a model for the OOB GB recently.

When I was a kid, you could find hobby shops all over, some were specific (model railroad, boat building, etc.) and then some were stacked to the rafters with all sorts of cool stuff. In Anaheim (Orange County, southern California) there was a "village" of shops, all clustered in a sort of themed fantasy village, called "Hobby City". Each shop was specific: Dolls, dollhouses and miniatures, RC and slot cars (including a bigass race track), scale models (balsa, resin, styrene, etc.), Coins and Stamps, Gems and Minerals and on and on. There was even a snack bar and a play center for the little ones and this "Village" had been there and thriving from the 1950's through the 1980's but started a slow downward spiral in the 1990's.

It's long gone now, the village was torn down and replaced with a "strip mall" which seems to dominate the Southern California landscape.

It's sad to see what looks to me, as an end of a great era.
 
It's sad also that 'creative' pursuits of any kind are dying out where youngsters are concerned. I don't know of any kids who, these days, make their own bows and arrows, and go hunting, or go off into the countryside on 'adventures', make rope swings across stupidly dangerous valleys or rivers, ride their bikes 20 miles each way to visit the local airfield, make camouflaged 'dens' where they can play soldiers and camp out overnight, experiment with 'chemistry sets' to make all sorts of potentially dangerous/explosive/adhesive substances, build rafts to try to cross the English Channel, or build and paint model kits.
No, they sit on their increasingly fat @rses, staring at a screen and twiddling control units to play inanely stupid video or computer games, then when they grow up, are totally b*ll*xed if something like a break-down in their car happens more than 1 mile from home !
 
I agree with all of you guys. I hate that my generation will never know what it meant to have a true adventure or a good hobby. All they care about it seems is how much "Swag" they have, How many kills they have in Call of Duty and what rap songs they like. It also irritates me also that I have to deal with these idiots all the time at school and I get picked on for being that "Lame f@ggot with no social life who builds little toys in his room alone." To think I have to deal with them for another 3 years till I graduate... I always take pride in knowing that I have a great childhood and I'm not spoiled with iPhones, Beats headphones and stupid bright expensive clothing. I'm not saying all kids nowadays are bad but there's a crap ton of bad ones out there- I'm gonna stop here before I type up an entire book about this.
 
Here in snowy Western NY, two hobby stores have managed to stay afloat and thrive: In Jamestown, CWAction Hobbies and in Buffalo, Niagara Hobby. I give each of them as much business as I can. Yes, the net is nice, and convenient, but local--if they pay attention to their customers' needs--deserves to be kept going.

On the positive side, this last summer, I taught a basic modeling course for home-schooled kids ages 9-12. Had nine boys learn about selecting, cutting parts from the plastic trees, sanding and trimming to fit, and assembling mainly plastic, mainly automobile, models (that's what they were mostly interested in) but also a pirate sailing ship, an F-16 fighter, and the space shuttle Enterprise. No painting-nine boys would have painted everything in the room, including me and themselves. Only one boy cut a small cut, which we took care of with the Neosporin Band-Aids brought, and got a lesson in how to be safe and what first-aid stuff to have in your model area. I Sent them all home with a model of his choice the group had completed, including the box of "spare parts" and a model of his choice (cars, airplanes) to build on his own. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

And, update, one of the boys has built a working crossbow (toy-blunted point, fairly harmless arrows) from scratch lumber.
 
You're a good kid.If only there were more young people like you in this world, it might be a better place than it is. You will still have something to keep you interested if their electronic world collapses. The little twerps can't think without the Iphone stuck to their faces 24-7.
 
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