The Little World

Being a kid whose dad was the project manager for a big construction project had its advantages – you got to ride out with him after supper when he made the evening round of the construction site and you got to climb all over the big tractors and earthmovers. In some cases, if they had to go back to the shop or out to a different part of the job, you could ride on the seat of the Cat or Euclid. There was always something going on and the sounds and smells were amazing.

There was also the chance that when a drummer for one of the big equipment firms called you could score whatever promotional toys he was handing out…Corgi, Dinky, or other cast-metal toys designed to sell heavy machinery. I’ve got a Euclid TC-12, a Cat D8, and a Cat grader in my collection – the really lucky kids were connected to the purchasing officers at head office. I’ve seen Cat scrapers and belly dump models plus a Bucyrus Erie steam model in their possession – as early as 1953 I recognised the junior graft line…

Well you sometimes scored when an unusual event occurred – in 1960 that turned out to be the arrival of a Bell helicopter on the dam site with an aerial photographer who was tasked with recording the works. He stayed only a few days, but on the last day after the job was completed, the pilot offered to take some of the kids up in the Bell for joy rides. I scored an invite, as well as the kids of the office manager. We Land Rovered out to the flat spot near the main repair shop and I was strapped into the passenger seat of the Bell.

I was thrilled, because I had seen ” Whirlybirds ” on television and knew all about helicopters. What I had not bargained for was the fact that it was made of nothing but an engine, metal tubing, and a plastic bubble. Up we went, and out over the dam and banked left and right and swooped and it was the worst air experience of my life. There was nothing between me and the receding Earth but plastic in a deafening maelstrom of noise. I shrank visibly, and was never so glad as when it finally flopped back at the shop on the spindly little aluminium framework feet…

Well, I am not surprised at this reaction, looking at the Italeri model of the thing – there is nothing but spindle everywhere you look. I shall glue it carefully and faithfully, and avoid all the military accessories provided in the kit ( I count 6 separate machine guns…). I’m not going to touch the dome until it is time to secure it. It will all be painted carefully – inasmuch as there is anything to paint – and then I will set it carefully on its spindly plastic framework feet somewhere where it will not give me the horrors…

Note the yellow sky on the box. We never had yellow skies in northern Alberta. Occasionally we had yellow snow but that’s another story.