Sixty years on.
My allowance in the eighth grade was 50 Canadian cents per week. It was more than adequate for my needs as I was stuck in a construction camp in the Alberta bush with no place at which to spend it.
Our one shopping trip a month went to Drayton Valley and by then I’d built up $2.00 of pressure plus whatever money might have come for birthdays or Christmas. The DV drugstore had a shelf of plastic models and a rack of Humbrol paint so that was my focus for the day.
Canadian kids paid over the odds for American plastic kits due to currency differences…and we were acutely aware of what we thought of as a racket. A Revell kit with $ 1.49 printed on the box art had a sticker of from $ 1.99 to $ 2.49 Canadian. We desired them but that price differential rankled.
Better were the Airfix boxes and baggies. At least the boxes did not trumpet a cheaper price overseas and the baggies were uniformly 50 cents. I could afford a new one each month as well as a tin of paint if the model was a new colour.
I have fond memories of the Fokker Dr.1 and the Westland Lysander in No.1 series. With a month to build it, there was time for a lot of dry fitting and careful brush paintwork.
The joy of nostalgia has returned in my old age with the delighted surprise of free models from friends. Two have donated very small models that they will not be building themselves – 1/144 scale fighters of various sorts. I’m known for building small planes, as well as for having an eclectic taste, so these will be a delight.
There is no need to divert from the kit pathway…they will be built straight out of the box or plastic bag. I’m an adolescent again!
The Little World 
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