No one else got into model rockets? I was introduced to them at age ten and couldn't get enough. For about five years they were my complete and total passion. It sucked when I'd lose one, though.

My painting skills stank since I didn't have the patience for the detail. Now I would understand the joy of the construction process, but then I wanted to see them fly and put them together a bit too quickly quite often. A new Estes catalog would hold my interest for weeks on end.

Oh yeah, I had the electric motor that came with a bum connection. It finally quit and I got a second unit from the company. So I took the motor out of the first unit and would couple them together to get more than the standard three speeds. I had super slow or super fast or sometimes somewhere in between. I also had the motor for the tinker toy set and it was more finicky.

We also had race car sets and board games and card games along with all manner of other stuff now since forgotten.

Ah yes, I practically lived in the sand pile as a kid. I can't call it a sandbox as it was an old tractor tire with a pile of sand in it. How I never got bit by a spider or something, I'll never know!

The advantage of growing up on a farm is that the possibilities are endless with all sorts of things laying around. I tinkered with old radios I found, darn I wish now that I'd kept them, which was probably partly responsible for my ham radio interest and a present career in telecom.

I had them all except Capsela and Construx. The Erector set was clearly my favorite as with using steel and nuts and bolts things didn't fall apart. Lego would pop apart and Tinker Toy pieces would jam or be too loose.

Lincoln Logs were cool, though. I built plenty of simple houses as a kid. As I got older I started playing with a hand saw, hammer, and nails and then graduated to a welder and gas torch.

Those construction toys led me to all sorts of things and are among the best things my folks ever got me for Christmas gifts.