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  #51  
Old 09-20-2011, 03:05 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
In my case, my parents weren't able to stop me from buying rockets, or LP albums, or anything else I wanted because I did it all behind their backs without ever seeking their permission or approval. They didn't support such choices but they were unable to stop me from making them. All that ended up happening was that I was on my own, without any backing or encouragement from them. When my guard was down, they gathered up and threw out all of my rockets, supplies and equipment, which is why I don't have anything left from that era but memories. I never had their approval for my rocketry activity, but I did it anyway.

My parents were not heartless and uncaring; they just didn't like the fact that I had an interest in this area. I never really thought much about it and I kind of thought that my experience was more or less the norm. In recent years I have read accounts of mothers and fathers who are my age who go out and launch rockets with their kids, give them rockets as birthday gifts, help them participate in the hobby, help them obtain Junior Level 1 certifications, go and teach about rocketry to school groups, etc. All of that struck me a being quite strange and unexpected. It really blew my mind, and not in a good way. It felt like the world had turned upside down. I'm still struggling to wrap my mind around it.
It's just as well that my parents were not only supportive, but participated in the hobby. Had they thrown out my rocketry gear (or *any* of my possessions, for that matter), I would have smashed out the windows and headlights in their matching orange and blue 1954 Chevy Bel-Airs--that's something that would have made me so angry that I wouldn't have cared about the impending whipping (my normal fear of it didn't prevent me from slapping my mother back once when she spanked me for something I didn't do).
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  #52  
Old 09-21-2011, 12:08 AM
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Mark II Mark II is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
It's just as well that my parents were not only supportive, but participated in the hobby. Had they thrown out my rocketry gear (or *any* of my possessions, for that matter), I would have smashed out the windows and headlights in their matching orange and blue 1954 Chevy Bel-Airs--that's something that would have made me so angry that I wouldn't have cared about the impending whipping (my normal fear of it didn't prevent me from slapping my mother back once when she spanked me for something I didn't do).
I was an adult (18 years old) by then, and away at college. I felt much more sorry for my parents than I did for myself. They just couldn't see past their original reactions from back when I was a child. This was right after I had started what I thought would be a short break from the hobby. At the time, I thought that I would just replace everything when I picked it up again, which I expected to do in a year or so. (It ended up being 33 years.) I was quite annoyed and angry about it, but not completely devastated. It bothers me more now because I wish I still had that connection to my past involvement in the hobby. I have no physical evidence of my previous stint, not even a photo. (We didn't take pictures for fear of being discovered.) I know that it all happened, but to everyone else it is just stories that I tell.

This is me right after I turned 13, just before I got started in the hobby.
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  #53  
Old 09-21-2011, 12:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
I was an adult (18 years old) by then, and away at college. I felt much more sorry for my parents than I did for myself. They just couldn't see past their original reactions from back when I was a child. This was right after I had started what I thought would be a short break from the hobby. At the time, I thought that I would just replace everything when I picked it up again, which I expected to do in a year or so. (It ended up being 33 years.) I was quite annoyed and angry about it, but not completely devastated. It bothers me more now because I wish I still had that connection to my past involvement in the hobby. I have no physical evidence of my previous stint, not even a photo. (We didn't take pictures for fear of being discovered.) I know that it all happened, but to everyone else it is just stories that I tell.
I hate to over-use the word, but...Wow! It's as if your parents had a "life script" for you, and your deviations from it angered them to a high degree. Even when we did forbidden things, when we were older our parents mentioned them to friends and relatives with chuckles and comments about our occasional precociousness. (When my brother Bob wanted a tattoo and Dad said no, he tattooed himself. While my father was very angry about it at the time, in later years he expressed respect at how my brother had the guts to repeatedly stick a painful ordinary sewing needle into his leg with ink on its tip.)
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Last edited by blackshire : 09-21-2011 at 12:30 AM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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  #54  
Old 09-21-2011, 12:38 AM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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All of that struck me a being quite strange and unexpected. It really blew my mind, and not in a good way. It felt like the world had turned upside down. I'm still struggling to wrap my mind around it.

My parents supported my rocketry activities by driving me to launches and such. They didn't understand it, really, but didn't oppose my participation.

But what you describe reminds me of my feelings when I see friends engage with their kids in "geeky" pursuits like computers, D&D games, building electronic kits, and such. A combination of feeling glad that these kids are getting a chance to get in on the fun, and terrible jealousy.
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  #55  
Old 09-21-2011, 07:54 PM
Neal Miller Neal Miller is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
Remember, this was in the 1960s. Model rocketry was still brand spanking new then and had not yet become widely accepted throughout the US.

  1. Building and launching rockets is illegal. You will be arrested if you are caught and you will go to jail.
  2. Boys (it's always boys) who want to build and fly rockets are sad, mentally ill losers.
  3. Their obsession with rockets will eventually land them in prison. (See #1.)
  4. Bringing and keeping model rocket supplies in this house endangers your entire family.
  5. You could burn the house down.
  6. Boys have been blinded and even killed doing whille pursuing this "hobby."
  7. People will ostracize you and no one will ever hire you because companies will regard you as dangerous and most likely mentally unstable. (The jury's still out on that one. )
  8. It doesn't matter what information you give us, because you are too young to understand the whole picture.
At the time, we didn't know anyone else who participated in model rocketry. It was unheard of in my school and in my Scout troop. Local hobby stores had never heard of it (I asked around) and neither had any of my friends.

You can see how much influence all of the above arguments had on me. The biggest consequence was that I have to pursue the hobby sub rosa, so to speak.

Early on, my wife saw my pursuit of the hobby as a BAR as an embarrassment and something that we needed to conceal from friends and family. There has been gradual improvement in that area. No one else in my family or in my circle of friends has any interest in model rocketry and they never ask me anything about it.


MARK II, TO BAD FOR THEM.
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  #56  
Old 02-11-2017, 07:01 PM
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Newbomb Turk Newbomb Turk is offline
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Wow. I just discovered this thread. Brilliant box work.
Greg, you're a genius.
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  #57  
Old 02-11-2017, 11:54 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
When it came to hobbies growing up, I had the greatest parents in the world.
As long as I was willing to build them, they kept me suplied with kits.
Had an almost never ending motor supply as well....If I got down below two PAKS of the most popular engine choices, my dad took me to the hobby shop to get more, or he picked them up on his way home.
Launched almost every other week for several years during the spring/summer months growing up. I would have quickly got VERY bored with a launch of one rocket.
Wow--this thread sure brings back memories (including of the thread itself!). I guess you and I were among the lucky ones--despite having grown up during the Great Depression (my father was by far the poorer of my parents, even before it hit; he showed me the thatch-roofed shack that he, his brother, sister, and parents lived in in Key West, Florida!), my parents had an attitude of, "Yes, we'll save a good fraction of our money, but we're *not* going to forego enjoying life, or deprive our children of doing so, either!" Thus:

While I was growing up, we made frequent trips to our local hobby shops (both in Miami and in Blairsville or Gainesville, Georgia), where my father bought motors and kits for himself and for me as well. (I also bought my own kits and motors when I had money from various jobs, and my parents let me spend it as I pleased, only suggesting that I figure out the best values before making the purchases.) Also:

Being an avid model rocketeer *and* a fireman (and later a Fire Chief) in the 1960s, my father may have been seen as strange by his fellow firemen. But maybe not, since Miami is not terribly far from Cape Canaveral, from which launches were readily visible, and rockets were a subject that was very much "in the air" (no pun intended) then. My father and the other firemen also watched satellites pass overhead in the evenings, and "pilgrimages" to the Cape--as side trips after visiting my mother's parents and extended family in nearby Orange City--were virtually an annual ritual for us. I'm so glad that my parents introduced all of us kids to these things!
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http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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  #58  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:40 AM
Eagle3 Eagle3 is offline
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Can't believe this thread escaped me all these years. Great artwork on the box art.

My parents objected to model rockets early on mainly because they thought I could spend my money on something better, but I stuck with it and eventually won my dad over. In hind-site I think there was probably more to it than that since they never objected to my plastic model obsession at the same time. They were probably worried I was going to burn down the house.
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  #59  
Old 02-13-2017, 08:10 AM
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I missed the box art and I've even posted in the thread!

For what it's worth, even though the diamond pack production may have already stopped, my first mail order from a catalog in 1978 had motors shipped in diamond packs, C6-5's IIRC. Prior to that, what little I had came from stores in a larger neighboring town. They were Centuri motors in the white box with red and blue trim, IIRC.
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  #60  
Old 02-13-2017, 08:58 AM
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I have great fondness for the diamond paks and the artwork. It reminds me of the mom and pop hobby shop that I bought from when I first got in to the hobby. I have several diamond paks that I keep on the display pegboard in the hobby room.

I also have a sheet of Astron Igniter blister paks that haven't been separated.

When I moved to Greenville, MS for a year (1975) there was a hobby shop with blue and green tube motors. Unfortunately I was on a lawn mowing budget at the time and also didn't know how valuable those would have been. I still have some of the empty tubes. I gave one each to Carl for his collection.
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