Play.

[Roy]

Murph, that's the second time you've confused Robert with me.

I apologize , Roy, and am duly embarrassed.

It's not just you, Murph. In her later years, my mother used to call me Jim. Jim is her younger brother. No, she didn't suffer dementia.

[E7]

And all of that has satisfied a childhood love that has invited play, to this day. Murph

There is a line in the Peter Paul and Mary song "Puff The Magic Dragon" that relates to that. My childhood was fine, but I have no particular interest in amending or reliving it.

Rich

[Wolf]

I doubt there are any more Shakers, one of the tenets of their cult was celibacy.

There were three Shakers until one of them died on Jan 2...now there are only two in the
last colony in Sabbathday Lake, Maine. The two are Brother Arnold Hadd (aged 60)
and Sister June Carpenter (aged 78), and it is problematic that they will be able to recruit
many new converts.

[HONDO74]

It's not just you, Murph. In her later years, my mother used to call me Jim. Jim is her younger brother. No, she didn't suffer dementia.

My mother sometimes called me James, which is my brothers name. My given name is Robert but she called me Bobbie. I always thought my mothers mouth started moving before her brain calculated what to say as she confused other things also. She always called the refrigerator the ice box and the sink as the zinc going back to the days when the were made on zinc.
https://www.handcraftedmetal.com/Custom ... Sinks.html

One of my first girlfriends name was Bobby. When we were together and my Mon would say Bobbie, we didn't know who she was talking to. Then I had two girlfriends in a row with the name Carol. The girlfriend I married name is Nancy. She called her Carol for a long time.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I think my affliction regarding having twice mixed-up addressing replies to Roy or Robert is simpler than that. (I've been thinking about this a bit.) I theorize I see Robert's big red "R" and since Roy is a bit more prominent in my mind, I translate the "R" to designate Roy. I don't think it will happen ever again.

Oh, and P.S. I used to refer to refrigerators as "Fridge," too, but that was a regional, vernacular kind of thing, since in the Pittsburgh area, back in the 1950's, the first kind of modern refrigerator anybody had was made by Frigidaire, so a refrigerator was a Frigidaire to a lot of us, for a long time. As time went forward, I had to deliberately purge myself of that misnomer. ("Ice box" was a term my grandparents used.)

[MurphOnMillerAve]

And all of that has satisfied a childhood love that has invited play, to this day. Murph

There is a line in the Peter Paul and Mary song "Puff The Magic Dragon" that relates to that. My childhood was fine, but I have no particular interest in amending or reliving it.

Rich

Loved that song, back then.
So, do you have model trains?
They are a hobby for me, not a sad reach backward to relive my childhood, which was fun, but I wouldn't want to live there again.

As time went forward, this hobby of ours (?) morphed into a little business (Layout Refinements) for me, which was a whole lot of fun, for quite a while.
Murph

[E7]

As time went forward, this hobby of ours (?) morphed into a little business (Layout Refinements) for me, which was a whole lot of fun, for quite a while. Murph

At that point it ceased being a hobby, even though it was "fun". Just defining things and NOT criticizing your choice. Also my hobby is models, and yours is toy trains. Again not denigrating your choice, but there is a distinct difference. When you look closely there is little similarity between the two. Neither one makes a H*ll of a lot of sense when you think about it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I bet your business kept you involved longer than you would have been otherwise. I'm guessing your interaction with 'customers' was an added benefit (at least for the most part, because there are almost always some who are PITAs. All opinion!

Rich

PS: I like "Leaving On A Jet Plane" more than Puff.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

.............because there are almost always some who are PITAs.

And that is why I rarely do any custom building for anyone. You are working for someone else that rarely has any understanding of what goes into building models and then starts making unreasonable and/or unrealistic requests/demands.

I'm a tough enough boss over myself; I try to keep a healthy balance between hobby and then hobby evolving into work. I will do some resin casting work for others, since I generally learn something new with each new project // mold that I make, but that also has specific rules up front

[MurphOnMillerAve]

.............because there are almost always some who are PITAs.

And that is why I rarely do any custom building for anyone. You are working for someone else that rarely has any understanding of what goes into building models and then starts making unreasonable and/or unrealistic requests/demands.

I'm a tough enough boss over myself; I try to keep a healthy balance between hobby and then hobby evolving into work. ...

My little Layout Refinements was never work for me, not when I left the house at 5:00am to head south for two hours in NJ to reach a client's home before the Rush-hour, building a whole layout from the cellar floor up, nor when I had to travel to F.A.O. Schwarz in NYC to satisfy the requirements of having the client - Lionel, no less - give my carte' blanch to do what I wished to sharpen-up a layout.

I developed friendships with al of my clients. They would give me the security codes to their homes, for example, when I would work in the basements of their homes, until they returned at suppertime. Their first stops would be the basement to enjoy what I accomplished that day for them.

All of those efforts and accomplishments were exciting and, to me, a privilege, to find that I had expressed myself creatively to just the right standards of my clients. What a satisfying adventure that was!


The other aspect of my hobby-turned-business was the bi-annual trips to York, PA to construct my little booth and wait to greet customers, some of whom became clients. Every item I ever presented for sale at York's TCA Meets sold. I have zero inventory remaining. A favorite customer was Richard Kughn, of Lionel. He would come into the booth, wave an arm, saying',"'ll take them all," gesturing at a whole shelf or table-full of Insta-Ramas. Another customer I really liked a lot was Tony Lash, if you remember who he was in the hobby. Man-o-man, that guy could buy!

Another most excellent customer-turned-client I was blessed with, as a result of meeting folks at York, lived in Kansas. He hired me to travel there (in my SUV, full of the supplies I needed), stay there, housed in a motel as his guest, for several days, to work hourly on his layout, planning and effecting emplacement of Insta-Ramas he had purchased over a couple years time, as well as other myriad purchases he had made from other over quite some time. I earned money via a fee for leaving my house to begin the commitment to travel to custom-serve the client, the time involved in traveling to the home, and for spending hours on-premises.

It was the acceptance of it all that gave me the biggest reward. I enjoyed the resulting cash, as well.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You were luckier than most others.

Maybe it was the clientele that you were selling to and interacting with vs. those in my arena that tends to specialize in a lack of scenery,

[MurphOnMillerAve]

You were luckier than most others.

Maybe it was the clientele that you were selling to and interacting with vs. those in my arena that tends to specialize in a lack of scenery,

The clientele could afford me, frankly. That is, my range of prices for my Insta-Ramas sold at York or personally brought to homes, was $29 to $1,299. The "Empty Urban Lot" you can see pictured above was among the lowest priced.

The one custom-designed Insta-Rama I ever did (and personally delivered to Connecticut, by hand from NJ) was a series of logging blocks, circa 1890's, about which I had not the slightest actual, practical knowledge. So, being the English teacher that I am (and yes, I did ask myself, upon occasion, "Why exactly am I standing in this guy's basement making train stuff?!) I researched the topic and became properly informed, about such things as "Steam-donkeys" and the use of oxen and horses, rather than what I was accustomed to crafting, using "Feller-bunchers" and "Forwarders" and "Harvesters" , for example, on contemporary logging "blocks," about which I also had to conduct research (first-hand, in Upstate NY).

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You were luckier than most others.

Maybe it was the clientele that you were selling to and interacting with vs. those in my arena that tends to specialize in a lack of scenery,

The clientele could afford me, frankly.

Oh, it's not that my potential clientele can not afford me; it's just that a significant percentage of them belong to the group that stands around at train shows holding $2-3K of brass under their arms while complaining about the $5-20 admission fee.

Nobody seems to be interested in these....

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Then, you should have met my customers. Or had I known and seen such as these you have shown me, I'd have included your work among my own as I did whole landscapes, cityscapes, and village-scapes on entire layouts, provided the prices were comfortable for all concerned. I often utilized any other products clients had in their possession into the Layout Refinements work on a layout if so requested.

When customers would look over my displays at York, I never pushed or even suggested. And I never gave tours. I figured, my work was done, once folks entered the booth. I absolutely would not huckster. I also never conversed about prices. They were as-marked. Period. I did have a small sign explaining, however, that no Insta-Rama would ever be repeated; once one was sold, it was not going to be made again, even upon request.

One very pleasant man, who lives on Long Island, came into my booth for the first time, saw a home-brewery piece he liked very much, and asked me for a price "adjustment" from the $1,499. I declined. He repeated his desire for it, but elected not to leave a deposit, and went to the men's' room. The moment he made his way half way down the aisle away from me, another gentleman, who had been quietly observing the interaction, stepped forward and said, gesturing to the piece, "I'll take it." He paid with cash.

The previous customer returned approx.. an hour later. He was disappointed and surprised the piece was gone. I told him I would look forward to seeing him at the next Meet.

A month later, he called me and became a client, hiring me to travel to L.Is. to do custom work on his layout. We became fast friends, too. Here is some of my in-person on-site work on his layout.

[Roy]

I wish I felt like doing my stuff. There is so much satisfaction in making things I like. Unfortunately, my meds stopped working.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I wish I felt like doing my stuff. There is so much satisfaction in making things I like. Unfortunately, my meds stopped working.

Hi ROY, I am sure we would all welcome seeing some of the things made by you, Roy, if you still have any of them around. Care to share, Roy.
Thanks, Roy.
daMurph