| It was more than fate that found me back into HO slot cars at the age of 41. After all, nearly 25 years of my life had zipped by without them. Why? Being an average teenager in the 70's, I guess girls, parties, beer, work, etc. seemed more popular at the time. Unconsciously I slipped into what I thought was "adulthood" and I left nearly all of my hobbies behind. Models, electric trains, and even my beloved HO slot cars seemed to evaporate from my life. Fishing was perhaps the only pursuit that I had somehow never gotten away from. I'd always found that whenever I had time on my hands fishing was the only diversion I allowed myself to truly enjoy. During the warmer months fishing could take me away from the world if only for a little while. But alas, that was only possible part of the year. That's until last October rolled around and now it's either fishing or "fish-tailing" that keeps me occupied. The "fish-tailing" I refer to is not the golly-whopping and story telling that you might imagine a cabin-fevered fisherman might partake in. On the contrary, it's the perfectly imperfect , HO scale, "Thunderjet-kind" of "fish-tailing" that I loved as a kid. What I'm talking about is that familiar kind of electrical and kind of light oil smell that wafts in the air as the cars warm up. The initial squeal that turns to a smooth humming buzz with a little tuning is now happening again. Also back are the squirrelish road manners of a trusty Corvette Grand Sport and it's rusty driver that have both been "garaged" way too long. How'd I find my way back into slots after 25 years you ask? Simply stated, my beautiful wife Carey. She is likely THE best thing that ever happened to me. She always looks for unique gifts for me whether it's my Birthday or Christmas. She took notice of my inability to put down the Sharper Image Catalog when we received it last winter 2000-2001. It advertised a 2-lane 1/32nd Scalectrix set with a computer that drives another car against yours. After not thinking about slots for 25 years, I couldn't help but say "man..how cool would that have been to have as a kid" and "boy I really miss those old HO days". At that point she saw that I had re-developed a true interest that never went away. I must admit I dropped a hint or two (or 10) for a few weeks before Christmas, but then (just like in the 70's) life kind of went on with no more thought given to slot cars by both of us. Spring passed by, then Summer came and I got laid-off from work. After the true panic was over we realized my "somewhat" decent severance could allow me to work on our house up to September until I really needed to worry about a new job. Then I'd really need to hit the bricks and find work. It was a great opportunity to get at the many things that needed to get done and I think my wife was quite happy to see me finally get to it all. Home Depot was too. Amazingly though, despite the long "honey-do list" I remained on schedule finishing all the painting, carpentry, and clean-ups by the end of the first week of September and was able to begin job hunting in earnest. I felt hopeful. Then just like a blanket party, September the 11th happened. If I live to be 1,000 I'll never forget any of it or truly understand how or why anyone could even begin to justify carrying out such an act. It was mass murder plain and simple. On top of all the tragedy felt by the victims, rescuers, and their families were the economic ripples sent out by the event which didn't help matters any either. It hit even my family and we live 50 miles away from ground zero here in Connecticut. All at once, every job lead I had developed, we’ll call you back promise I received, confidence I gained, and contact I had made suddenly fizzled out. "Wake up and smell the adulthood" I would think to myself. Then came October 26th, 2001. My Birthday, and what I've now come to think of as my best and most perfect gift ever. Why the best and most perfect? It was truly something that I couldn't justify going out and buying for myself at the time and it would also provide me with a much welcomed diversion from the all too serious nature of things as they were. Needless to say it was my best Birthday EVER because Carey bought me a Tomy AFX race set. What a brilliant woman. She RULES. From there it's all history. I landscaped the layout using common inexpensive building materials from Home Depot. My tabletop is 2" thick pink foam insulation by Owens Corning covered with a piece of grass carpet/astro-turf. Black duct tape neatly borders the entire set-up. It's extremely stiff, sound/vibration absorbent, utterly feather light, and most importantly can be stowed away quite easily. Break down or setup of the whole deal takes only minutes. For further enhancement I created rocky hills and brick risers to place under and around different parts of the layout. These I carved with a steak knife (Dremel?...please). This utilized all of the leftover foam pieces which I then painted. I figured that by staying out of the local (and very expensive) hobby stores for landscaping supplies I saved a ton of cash and that enabled me to add a few more cars and a couple of specialty track sections. Bushes and trees were the only things "store-bought". Finally, what resulted from all this frugality was "Rodgers Raceway". It's small by most standards (36x60), but I think it's good looking, it never has to be in the way too long, and it's always lots of fun to race on. Especially since my house rules only allow stock T-Jet type cars with basic Thunderslick rear tires. It's a driver's course so no hopped-up super cars are allowed! It's my way of keeping things more realistic and besides it's much closer to racing "how it used to be" back when I was a kid. Now not only would I agree that the "Thunder Is Back", but I'm back too. Still unemployed, I find things to be a little less tragic these days. I'm looking hard for a new job and that's what counts. Besides how bad can things be when you can still go fishing or "fish-tailing" whenever the mood strikes you. Oh yeah ... I'm hooked again. Kind Regards... Dave Martin ,
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