I’m about to tell my age: do any of you remember the ads in magazines and comic books where you could sell what was basically junk and thereby earn “points” you could in turn redeem for more junk as a reward? I remember that I fell under the spell of one of these magical opportunities not long before my eighth birthday and while I don’t remember what I sold, maybe Christmas cards or wrapping paper or some other useless miscellany, what I had my eye on as a prize was a battery-operated slot car race track. When I finally sold exactly enough inventory (and not one item more) I sealed the order form and money orders into an envelope and dropped it into the big blue mailbox at the corner then began waiting. And waiting. And then I waited a while longer. The small print on the full-page ad in the Boy’s Life magazine said to allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery and they meant it, too.
Well, we’ve come a long way since those archaic times; we only need to log onto a website today, choose what we want to purchase then give a number from a piece of plastic we keep hidden in our wallet and our instant gratification is usually satisfied a few days later. I placed three orders on Thursday: One to Pennsylvania, one to New York state and a third to a company about 60 miles away in my own home state of Georgia and already two of the three orders have been delivered. A box of pen kits from Pennsylvania was delivered by Uncle Sam’s service on Saturday, my new McNaughton Center Saver bowl coring system came on the brown van today from New York state and I suppose I should have just driven to Cumming to buy the laser cut inlay parts in person because according to their website my order hasn’t even shipped yet. Maybe they miss the good old days, too. No matter, it’s all good, I still have plenty to do without working on this latest round of pens (did I mention I got a bowl coring system?!!!). I’m still thrilled that I got the big lathe working and can now use a coring system to try to get more than one bowl out of a block of wood, which is what I am headed out to the shop now to do!
Oh, and the battery-operated slot car race track? My very first experience meeting the guy driving the big brown van (and being handed a box that was surprisingly smaller and lighter than I had envisioned) happened one summer afternoon in 1976. I set up the somewhat delicate looking race track, which was small enough to fit easily on the living room coffee table, and filled the battery pack with two D-cell batteries that I liberated from my 45 rpm record player. I had visions of Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough flying around the high banks of Daytona as my younger brother and I placed the two plastic cars in the slots on the track then with a dramatic “Gentlemen start your engines!” we simultaneously pressed the buttons on the plastic controllers and…….
Nothing.
Not even a spark. Those cars never rolled an inch under their own power and while I could most likely get it running today, I had no clue at the age of 7 how to troubleshoot an electronic circuit so my long-awaited prize ended up in the trash can at the side of the road not long after.
I admit, I still get a little excited at the prospect of getting a package in the mail!
