Model behavior

Luckily, the gift shop at the museum did not have Sam-sized aviator jackets [this one was a loaner].

I mean, it's cute for a photo and all, and it was generous of my folks to offer, but do I really want my child looking like a little version of the guy who wrote the Little Prince? Mon Dieu!

Anyway, my mother did think he might enjoy putting together a balsa wood biplane model. And she was totally right. Although the nailing on of the propeller was a little dicey.

And apparently "glue" and "paint" are not really distinct in Samson's mind. So while we put the model together last night and plan to paint it tonight, it's got a weird kind of Elmer's icing on the fuselage. Still it was a fun project for the two us.

I wasn't much of a model guy as a kid. Which is funny, because the one and only time I stole something from the 5-and-dime [yep, we really had one in my town], under the tutelage of my older (and clearly street-wiser) neighbor, it was a model.

The plan was like a grade school version of Ocean's Eleven. We would each buy a model, get our purchase, and then go back into the store (under the pretext of "having forgotten something"), and switch out the purchased one [cheaper and probably a Snap-Tite] for a more expensive one [presumably one needing glue]. Oddly enough, it worked.

So I think I "traded" a Japanese Zero that I was eminently capable of constructing for a pickup truck I had neither the skills nor the interest to put together. Come to think of it, I gave it to Ronny --- which was probably his plan in the first place.

Anyway, Sam and I are model guys now. Or at least we will be again when this one breaks. Which may be soon as he keeps asking when we can take it outside to fly. Stay tuned.