When I was a kid, I built plastic models. Lots. Started out with cars, did some ships, armor, finally planes. Really got into it, too . . . work bench, lighting, special tools + brushes, mixed my own paints, had an air-compressor-cum-airbrush, etc, etc. Still have a couple hundred kits, stuff that I'd collected, most from up to when I was in High School, some after . . . I tell myself they’re all waiting for the day that I retire, set up some little work space, then quietly build 'em up --- assuming I still have the eye-sight, dexterity, mental acuity + patience to do so.
Anyway, I’d started out building the model kits that were being sold in stores. But as my skill/equipment/interest + curiosity improved --- and I learned more --- the stuff I was buying from all those hobby shops I was hanging-out in just wasn’t doing it for me. At first, I just modified what came in the box. But later . . . I started making some of my own bits --- from scratch. That kinda model-building got me looking into books . . . semi-technical historical texts full of photographs, line drawings, descriptions, tables --- reference materials for details, shapes, configurations, equipment, camouflage, markings --- all the stuff I was trying to model --- and missing from store-bought kits.
Studying all those aircraft subjects stirred-up another interest. . . . for machinery + technology + history --- the way they mix, how that showed up in aircraft. Head’s still full o’ that kinda stuff. Like why the Ki-61 gave way to the Ki-100 . . . ‘cause Kawasaki had an easier time getting reliable air-cooled radial engines than it did getting its suppliers to hold the closer-tolerances on license-built Daimler-Benz liquid-cooled DB601s, especially after the B-29 raids picked-up, starting in late ‘44 . . . worthless information when I was a kid . . . still so, 4 decades on.
Anyway, by my early teens, along with my kits, I’d started collecting books, about aircraft, for reference. But the book pictures weren’t always clear/close/detailed enough for me, either. So --- started going to museums and air shows, to get a look at the actual aircraft, myself, up close . . . take my own photographs. By High School --- cars, parties, girlies? . . . . not me. I had my Grandpa’s hand-me-down Plymouth, trips to Davis-Monthan, and a Canon Sure-shot . . . .
I think I only broke all that off to go to college, get a job, get married . . . . grow up. (20/40 --- and 6’5” . . . no fighter pilot.)
And now? Here? With a little time on my hands? That old strange interest + focus, attention to detail, reading + remembering histories, numbers, nuances of subject + type + sub-type, the pleasure to search + thrill to find . . . all have their outlet again . . . . here.
I don’t like to collect things, per se --- space, money . . . and I only collected little planes ‘cause I ended-up spending all my time + money chasing after big ones I'd never fly --- but, still . . . . I know that I have that impulse in me.
So I watch myself, make an effort to keep my tendencies manageable, reasonable . . .
And besides, cars are too big/expensive/inconvenient for me to collect. And mine move, go/take me places.
But . . . . there’s all kinds o’ stuff that comes with cars.
Like license plates.
I got into plates with my old Roadster --- don’t remember exactly how. But I do remember going to a 356 Event, up around Morro Bay, early ‘90s? There was a fella there, Ollie Shipstead, with this ’59 Coupe, red + Rudge wheels + damaged by stuff falling on it during an earthquake, being restored to concours. Ollie showed off a set of US Forces in Germany (re:occupation) plates he’d had for the car. Wow --- I'd never heard of anything like that. Started looking for my own set not long after that.
My car was already up-and-running, so . . . . I started collecting plates, all 1960. Funky stuff to stick on an Old Car, small, cheap . . . mostly. And fun. Plus, the variety. . .
Still have those. Souvenirs.
Now, I’ve got another Old Car, again. Time for plates . . . again.
Knowing myself, remembering, I try to limit my collecting to only some few things . . . chosen more for being interesting, than anything. If a lot of people have a thing, or if everybody wants the same thing . . . then that’s probably not interesting for me.
On the other hand, if something’s obscure or unknown or I’ve never seen one, or heard of it . . . or could imagine it? . . . . then I’m in. Besides, I’m modestly-meansed --- and obscure/unknown/etc means nobody wants it . . . . means cheap.
So. Rather than dilute someone else’s thread with my kooky license plate stuff . . . I’m starting this little thread . . .
Rick