All About Pocket Knives

It was the Fall of ‘66. I was excited because tonight dear ol’ Dad was taking me to my favorite place in the whole wide world … our local Slot Car Track. Ahhh .. the smell of burning Tiger Milk. The feel of a warm controller in hand. The sound of those magnificent 1/24th scale cars storming around the track.
For a thirteen year old boy it was heaven on earth.
Fast forward almost fifty years. I got the urge to construct the race track of my boyhood dreams.
I joined an online forum devoted to the pass time and did some investigating. I wound up with a plan.
But it wasn’t cheap. I happened to have an extensive collection of vintage Case knives I had collected over the years. I decided to sell half of them off to pay for my new venture. My collection had swelled to over 50.
Yeah I know … don’t say it. Anywho about half of those were all pristine 10 Dot Stags. I was drawn to those because I started twelfth grade in 1970. I figured I needed about five large to complete my project. That’s about what they wound up selling for on EBay.
I spent several months building Talladega. The name I gave my track because Talladega is known for its sweeping bank curves. My track had two and one was the largest Carrera sold.
It would be IMHO world class for a home layout. Opening Day I invited several members of the forum I joined along with my neighbor and friend to break her in. It was a great day I’ll always remember. I did a short video of it and posted it on YouTube.
Here’s the link if you’d like to see it.
Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. lol
Regards All
Mike

https://youtu.be/t7QrWMGCEZY

Very nice track, and I think it’s normal to trade one hobby for another at times to keep up interest. Hope you enjoy it as much as you have your knives(which are top shelf from what I’ve seen on eBay).

Thanks. I built that track over ten years ago. I envisioned all the kids in the family and their friends having races on the weekends.
Unfortunately they lost interest all too fast and it mostly sets dormant now. Too many other electronic distractions the younger ones are involved with today. But I had my fun just getting it built. No regrets.

Nice track.
I remember when track racing was popular. I never got into it.
You are right. Practically impossible to compete with the audio visual
games young people play with on a daily basis ( probably some adults too)

Bob

It’s so eerie and unsettling to me when we do all manage to get together as a family. There’s everyone, with IPhones in hand, glancing at their screens instead of appreciating where they are. Not fully enjoying our infrequent visits with each other. I’m sure grateful I grew up in different times. Sadly the young ones will never know what they missed.

Hey Mike, those were good times for sure. Me and my brother were within bicycle distance of a slot car track. We would throw the cars and controllers on the bikes and head out for the track. They also had a couple of pinball machines for a dime. Great fun!!! Wish my grandkids could experience that like I did. Great story and a real great track for sure Mike. To this day I still don’t know what happened to our slot car stuff.

Jimbo
Merry Christmas!!

Thanks for sharing, that brings back some good memories for me as well back in the late 1960's. Every Saturday we would race.

Thanks,
Joe

NEAT brings back good memories