Ye Olde Hobby Shoppe - Where Is It?

S

SifuPhil

R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
This is something that Seabreeze's thread on model trains got me thinking about ...

When I first moved here to beautiful Wilkes Barre, PA there were (as best I can recall) about a dozen operating hobby shops. Most were devoted mainly to trains, but several had a healthy selection of radio-controlled boats, cars and planes, dollhouses, model rockets and such. There was even one - The Train Shoppe it was called, believe it or not - that specialized solely in trains.

Now every one of those shops is gone. Who or what is to blame?

At least in this area I think it's several factors, but I won't be surprised if someone here brings up a few I've overlooked.

First I think it's the change in population statistics. We've lost a lot of the old-timers, the folks who used to work for the railroad. The younger generation has computers, so they don't need silly hobbies. :(

The economy - not as many people have disposable income for hobbies anymore.

The Internet - it's taken a huge slice out of the hobby business. Why pay premium prices at your friendly local store when you can get stuff for half the price on eBay? Of course, the fact that you can't get service if something goes wrong, or that the stuff is cheaply made in China, shouldn't be a consideration, right? :confused:
 

change in population statistics...
Internet....
Why pay premium prices at your friendly local store when you can get stuff for half the price on eBay?
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Bingo.

The economy - not as many people have disposable income for hobbies anymore.
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Not to spare on the old cheaper hobbies perhaps.

But 'hobby' shops are still around, their stock in trade has changed because hobbies have. Now it's garden centres and motor cycle chrome-porn dealers. Restoration specialists, and junk yards offering the purchase of rummaging rights for parts for old clunkers.

Also you've overlooked the number of those specialising in female oriented hobbies. Quilting, sewing, card making, bead suppliers etc, there are still a few of those around, although in rapidly dwindling numbers for similar reasons.
Art suppliers are still going gangbusters, at least the online ones are.

Another killer is the $2 junk shops full of cheap imports, the specialist hobby supplier can't compete with that. Who's gonna lay out a grand on a train set for the grandkids that they'll be tired of in a week when you they can get one that will last a week for $29.95 from Wun Hung Lo's bargain barn??

Sad though in a way innit?
 
That is sad!! I think one thing lacking is patience - we've gotten so used to having thiings in a hearbeat...maybe cheap Chinese-made crap, but still we can have it quickly..then toss it when it doesn't work anymore.

I've looked for toys made in U.S.A., and there wasn't any electronics at all - that's what the kids want now. And it's so true that they, and we spend so much time watching tv and/or playing on these things that we just don't seem to have time to spend extra time with hobbies.
 

Seriously though, why spend a lot on outlay for a hobby that may be a passing fad? I've played with just about every toy and hobby over the years and the only lifelong one has been drawing and painting, and even that gets dumped for months at a time. Better to dabble with el cheapo disposable stuff until we're sure it's a lasting passion. That goes for quite a few things doesn't it?
 
We have Caboose Hobby Shop by us, that has a large train selection and other things, saw Gary Coleman there once years ago. Then there's another named Colpar Hobbies, they have nice car and tank models, planes, etc.
 
Heck, I even remember in NYC there was a multi-story building devoted just to hobby supplies.

Polk's was a five-story wonderland for a kid like me. Each floor was devoted to a different hobby - trains, planes, cars, boats, and metal and plastic figurines. The top floor, with the cars, had a large figure-8 slot car track. The place was always busy, but on Saturdays it was jam-packed.

Now they're gone.

I admit I totally overlooked the "feminine" hobby shops - there seems to be no shortage of them or their customers. The last big trend I recall seeing in them was the scrap-booking thing. One lady-friend of mine was so into it, and spent hundreds of dollars on little gee-gaws to stick into her book. When I suggested she accompany me to the local flea market, where I was sure she could find dozens of little bookable treasures, she gave me this horrified look and mumbled something about "all that filthy garbage".

To each their own, I guess.

My roomie does plastic canvas and she's always looking for supplies. Usually she ends up at the local craft stores, but seeing as how I'm teaching her the Internet, one of these days she might discover just how much power her credit card really has ...

For most kids I understand the logic of a cheap toy. I was just thinking more along the lines of the adult hobby market. I know that kids change their minds every few minutes - I know I did. I went through most of the regular hobbies at one point or another, and even found a few - such as matchbook collecting - that gave my parents heart murmurs. :eek:
 
I don't think kids have the patience to sit for hours building a model airplane out of balsa wood and tissue paper. I spent many, many hours making models of all sorts. No internet and a puny black and white TV was about all we had.

in my little town there were two hobby shops I visited. One sold plaster of Paris which I would mix with water and pour into rubber molds making a fleet of cars and the other had the type of airplanes I enjoyed making.

The one up the street from where I live now, just went out of business.
 
Pappy said:
I don't think kids have the patience to sit for hours building a model airplane out of balsa wood and tissue paper. I spent many, many hours making models of all sorts. No internet and a puny black and white TV was about all we had.
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I tried ONE of those kits, and promptly went back to the plastic ones. :D My plane turned out looking like something Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes had made.

The one up the street from where I live now, just went out of business.
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There, see? Sad, isn't it?

As Bogey might say if he were alive today, "We'll always have Internetz". :rolleyes:
 
Hobby shops are alive and well in our neck of the woods, well sort of, we have to drive a bit to get to them, like we do most stores because our little town is slowly drying up store wise.

My husband makes builds radio control airplanes, he even makes his own parts out of balsa wood, just gets a plane pattern and makes a plane. He has been doing this for decades. He also makes boats, but buys helicopter kits.

Well anyway, nobody really has a hobby anymore, not like they used too, instead we are on our computers. sometimes I think computers and the internet have been a very bad thing. I remember back in BC, before computers, I used to read more books that's for sure.
 
Like mentioned by others, you'll just have to look online when all the local stores disappear. I know it's not as much fun as sifting through boxes and supplies by yourself. I guess those days are gone mostly.
The big flea markets have nostalgic areas around here that carry some old time hobby kits. .. But I think they get too much money because it's a novelty now, and things are getting scarce.

Load up on a few of these catalogs:

http://www.catalogs.com/crafts/hobbies/index.html
 
It truly is sad to see the real hobby shops are gone now. Years ago there was one in my area that sold trains, rc planes and kits, the little race tracks, and anything else in that line of hobbies. I used to take my son there when he was a little boy so he could look around, he was into the model car kits. That building is still standing, but now it's some fly by night church kind of thing.
My husband is into anything aviation related. Before I met him, he had been a skydiver, even owned his own ultralight. Over the last several years he has been into rc airplanes, and helicopters. He has purchased several planes and even built a couple himself. Whenever we would get up early on the weekends for him to go fly, I would be the video chick, lol. I always enjoyed watching and filming his flights. His brother would come along too with is own plane and they would always try and come up with some new maneuver they could try. It's fun to watch the videos and look back and have some good laughs. Tony's brother was really good at flying his plane into the light poles in the school parking lot, which as a result, he earned the name "pole dancer", lol. Over the last couple of years, there hasn't been the time to dedicate to it anymore, so Tony has decided to sell of his planes now. When we moved into our home 5 years ago, I told him he could have one of the spare bedrooms for his toys. We call it The Hangar, lol. I really hate to see him get rid of everything, but he may decide at some point to get back into it. I'm sure some new plane will catch his eye. The money will help pay a few bills too.
 
I think that back when we were growing up, there was still more of the "build it yourself" kind of toys and entertainment. I had the little plastic cowboy and indian "Fort Apache" set, and I spent hours and hours painting all the horses (first, of course), and then the cowboys and indians, and lastly, the props that went along with it.
We got kite kits, and decorated the tails with our brightest pieces of rags. Bikes had popsicle sticks,, and baseball cards to personalize them.
Our parents made and decorated much of the things around the house and yard, it was not only a hobby, but a way of life back then.
Now, we no longer entertain ourself this way, we are entertained by TV, internet, and gaming. Anything you can imagine can be found online, so most of us don't create things ourselves, especially the younger people.
At least there are still some hobby stores, even if they are mostly for crafts, and homemade stuff seems to be making a comeback, and is being sold on the internet, since what was once common, is now hard to find, and has value again.
 
I bet none of you grew up without electricity??? We did; and sis and I used to do a lot of jigsaw puzzles to pass time, when we weren't outside, that is. We read a lot; which is something I need to get back into again...we had radio, but no tv, of course. Looking back, seems we never were bored, either.

Something I'd like to get into is sculpting; but haven't really researched materials as yet, and not sure what I'd do with the stuff I made, anyway. :confused:
 
We had power but jigsaw puzzles were always in some state of construction for after dinner while we listened to the radio. Also crossword puzzles were an obsession with 2 of my Uncles who lived with us. I think I learned more about vocabulary and how to negotiate 'cryptic' wording of clues from them than I ever got from school. It also instilled a respect/reverence? for words as almost entities.
It gave me a sense of their 'gravitas' I guess. Not that I was an elocution nazi by any means but it did make me more aware of how to use them to express more than surface chatter, and of how their meaning changed according to the wording of those 'clues'.

I was always sent for the dictionary for any word I questioned and that became 2nd nature. Still is, but I've gotten lazy and trust Google and Wiki way more than is seemly academically these days. (But at least if anyone double checks me they'll get the same answer.) By the time I started school I was well acquainted with the letters and vowels and roughly how they fitted to form words, although couldn't technically read.

The very first word we were asked to think of and construct for ourselves using consonants and vowels was a surprise. Most came up with little ones, I came up with 'provide'. I was asked why I thought of that word and I honestly didn't know, but it seemed to impress the hell out of the teacher, it must have been the only 2 syllable one she got. I think she could see trouble brewin' from that day.
I think it's a bit strange that I can still remember the first word I ever 'composed', considering the amount of them I've poured out since.

Anyone else raised on crossword puzzles? I guess it's an unusual after dinner family entertainment and I was extremely lucky that it was a thing shared and thought about as a group in competitive vein, so that I could hear how it was done and be included as an interested spectator to the guesses, cusses, and triumphs. I'm forever grateful for that lucky circumstance. It's usually a solitary and silent pursuit and little kids are excluded.

Afterword:

The last of those Uncles died a few months ago, he called at least twice a week to 'consult' about a crossword clue and a chat. Crosswords remained a lifelong obsession with him, and even the very last phone call he made included a question about the spelling of a word because he didn't have a dictionary in the hospital with him. Now that's dedication! ... you've no idea how much I miss those calls.
 
My mom was a great crossword fan - nothing fancy, just whatever was in the daily paper - and I must have picked up the habit from her. I was never as maniacal as she was, though, and after I got to the point where I could finish 3/4 of the Sunday NY Times puzzle I considered my life complete and gave them up.

Now Dungeons & Dragons was a high school and college hobby for a while, as well as a social opportunity to bond with like-minded nerds, but it died out rather quickly after I discovered the opposite sex. I found I could almost always roll a +3 Charisma for them ... :rolleyes:

My father had been into coin collecting for many years and my brother Mickey was into stamps, but both left me kind of bored.

Jigsaw puzzles always left me frustrated except for the ones I did as a little kid - the wooden ones with 5 pieces and little red plastic handles on them. Those I used to do with the rapt attention and repetition of Rainman, but to do them nowadays I'd probably sweep them off the table. Roomie still does them once in a while, but SnagglePuss always manages to grab one of the corner pieces and use it as his personal hockey puck.

I would love to get into model building again, be it planes or ships or buildings, but I'd like it to be at the craftsman level with the thousands of metal and wood pieces. Oddly enough that could hold my attention. When I was married I had a short run as a custom dollhouse builder where everything was hand-made to photos or blueprints of a customer's home. Even the walls were studded-out with scale 2x6's, the floors hand-laid, running water and electric, etc. Tons of detail work but I loved it, and was well-paid for my efforts.

Sadly, the only hobbies I seem to have now are collecting belly-button lint and cat-spanking, but at least I can participate in both at the same time.
 
I have the attention span of a kitten with hobbies too. Went through the model ship building kits thing, the plastic ones.
Did the Cutty Sark and a Spanish Galleon, (that one was spectacular) and got the Thermopylae half built before the inspiration died. Never did finish that one.

I've seen some 3D jigsaws and those model sets of famous building look brain stretching enough to keep one occupied.
My latest past time is finding freebie trial blueprint, floor plan type programs and playing with them until the trial time runs out. I'm running out of them though.

Next project is figuring out why men seem to get more belly button lint than women. There has to be a scientific theory for that.
 
Diwundrin said:
I have the attention span of a kitten with hobbies too. Went through the model ship building kits thing, the plastic ones.
Did the Cutty Sark and a Spanish Galleon, (that one was spectacular) and got the Thermopylae half built before the inspiration died. Never did finish that one.
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I think Cutty Sark is probably the most-modeled ship ever. My Dad had one (wood), I had one, my brothers each had one, you had one ... it's almost as if it's a touchstone for the hobby families of the 20th century.

Next project is figuring out why men seem to get more belly button lint than women. There has to be a scientific theory for that.
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I don't like to brag, but I consider myself somewhat of an authority when it comes to navel maneuvers. Based upon extensive collection and comparison testing between myself (a male) and several other test subjects (females), I can offer a hypothesis that men have more navel lint for two reasons:


  1. They have more body hair around the navel that traps sloughed-off skin cells, pet fur and pizza droppings
  2. They have a gender-specific fear of that specific hole in their body and, more often than not, choose to keep the lint in situ rather than discarding it on a periodic basis.

These are of course only preliminary findings from a 12-year study. When continued funding is received for this and similar studies (ear wax, toe jam) then a firmer theory can be offered.
 
Talk about losing interest. I have a huge WW2 B-29 bomber out in the workshop that I started to build 4 years ago. Our friend Earl, who is now gone, Was a navigator on a 29. He flew several missions on bomb runs to Japan and lost a lot of friends on these missions. I can't remember the name of the island they flew out of but it was the same base that the Enola Gay use to drop the A-bomb. The name Timian island rings a bell. Maybe.

Anyhow, the model was about one quarter finished when I lost interest in it. I may get off my duff one of these days and finish this as a tribute to a dear friend. Earl Piersall. RIP
 
Yep, it was Tinian - a massive airfield laid out in a pattern similar to New York City's streets and named accordingly. They even had a Greenwich Village and a Central Park.

The Enola Gay took off from the North field.

I'd love to see the finished plane. ;)
 
SifuPhil said:
Yep, it was Tinian - a massive airfield laid out in a pattern similar to New York City's streets and named accordingly. They even had a Greenwich Village and a Central Park.

The Enola Gay took off from the North field.

I'd love to see the finished plane. ;)
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Thanks Phil, I knew I was close on the name of the island. Earl, keep a daily report on all the missions and has a large chunk of metal that hit their plane. I read his report a while back and it was amazed at what these men were doing for our country.
It took several hours just to get to target and several more to return. The B-29 had a pressurize cabin which made the trip a little more bearable. The flying coffin, the B-17 did not and it must have been a terrible flight.
 
Yeah, compared to today's planes those must have been crude. I give them a lot of credit for having the courage just to step into those things.

Which one was called the "flying boxcar" - was that the B-17, or something totally different?
 
Ah, okay - thank you! I heard the name many times but I was never sure which plane it referred to.

Odd-looking beast, isn't it? Reminds me of a pregnant P-38. :D
 
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