Michael,
You comments are quite true, particularly the reasons why kids don't partake
in the same hobbies as parents. Part of the reason is culture (we didn't
have all the electronic gizmos taking our time), part is just being
different people. My dad was a model RRer and a railfan, having grown up on
the B&O main line in Martinsburg, WV during the steam/diesel transition. He
told many stories of cab rides on EM-1s and S-1 helpers on the 9 mile grade
east of town. He was not a photographer or modeler but the latter surfaced
in the 50s. He was ALWAYS a railfan, up until he was moved to a nursing
home by my mom when he was 80.
He trained (no pun intended) me to like trains and, together, we built an 11
x 17 HO layout in our Florida house. Painting ties and hand laying code 100
rail took a LOT of time. I still like hand-laying switches (I must have
been dropped on my head as a baby L). While I was learning to be a modeler,
I was also becoming a railfan/photographer on the FEC and SCL in the
mid-70s. He was a conductor on the Gold Coast RR that ran along the Ft.
Lauderdale airport on the SCL connector to Port Everglades. I enjoyed
spending time with him and railroading is in my blood (grand- and
great-grandfathers were both RR lifers) but I put my own spin on the hobby,
focusing primarily on photography until about 10 years ago when modeling
came back heavy and photography took 2nd place.
We as parents want to grow our kids in ways THEY want to go and enjoy. We'd
be 100% wrong in forcing them to "like our hobby"; it just doesn't work with
any hobby. Unfortunately, none of my kids have hobbies of any kind as their
school and extra-curricular sports activities don't leave much free time.
There are SO many more "things" to do as a student now than when I was in
high school in the 70s. We had spare time and a lot of it (I didn't play
sports . I was too busy shooting the FEC!), so I learned to model and joined
the local model RR club for weeking meetings and work sessions. My dad also
had hopes of me taking over his accounting company but I'm a tinkerer by
nature, so Engineering is what I do best.
We just have to face the facts that our environments are constantly
changing, including technologies that draw our youth's (and our own)
attention in many more directions (opportunities?) than we ever thought
possible. All we can hope for is to show folks the benefits of model RRing,
the comraderie, the satisfaction we feel upon completing a kit or kitbash,
and joining other modelers in meets or work sessions. It's likely, when the
school and college and first job are in the past, and their kids don't
demand so much time, that some form of hobby will surface. Maybe it'll be
RRing, maybe reading, maybe photography. We just need to encourage young
people to consider ANY hobby that doesn't involve mind-numbing staring at a
laptop screen or GameBoy.
Jim King
Smoky Mountain Model Works, Inc.
www.smokymountainmodelworks.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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