Introduction

That wasn't long winded at all....... jaw-dropping-smiley-emoticon LOL just kiddin thanks for the great intro.Its guys like you that have made and kept the hobby going.Ive never been to the NNL but i have lots of modling buddys that go. Of all of them maybe you know Chuck Darrell or Howard Cohen?couple of great guys.Anyway (now im carrying on) LOL Welcome to oor wee club on tha net!!

Welcome aboard

Thanks to everyone who replied in some way to my "introduction"





To be 100% honest, I still am having trouble trying to figure out how to use this site. I'm not the most computer literate person around and I'm having trouble trying to navigate through the various screens and use some of the bells and whistles that come with the site.





Anyway I'm more comfortable with regular E-mail so until I get better acquainted with your clubs forums or pages, anyone who would like to carry on a conversation via E-mail can reach me at robertgillfords@aol.com.





By the way the fords in the E-mail address refers to the town that I live in, Fords, New Jersey, EXIT 11 off the turnpike for anyone out there who needs to make a joke about New Jersey. Remember that the first rule about making a joke about New Jersey is to include something about the exits on the New Jersey Turnpike. I live within a mile of EXIT 11 and the wife WORKS for the New Jersey Turnpike authority.





Jokes about New Jersey use to be about exits, but about five years ago the morons of this state but in one of the biggest jokes possible in the governor's office, but that's a whole different discussion.





Anyway the fords in my E-mail address refers to the town that I live in, not the Fords on the road. But I couldn't find a town called AMC, but I am an American Motors Fanatic.

Hello

Again, I appreciate the fact that some members of the club responded to my 'introduction.' I just wanted to clarify something that I mentioned in that introduction of mine and add a little more background information if I can.

I mentioned that my friend John Slivoski and I founded the TRI STATE SCALE MODEL CAR CLUB back in 1987 (It may have been May or June of 1986), I can never keep that date straight in my mind.

But in reading that, plus the comment about how the club recently completed the 28th annual NNL EAST, it might appear or lead some to believe that I was the driving force behind the club and that I played a major role in making the club and the NNL EAST such a success. That however is not true.

It was all the various club members (from the guys who came to that first meeting) to members who joined years later, that put in the work, the effort and the enthusiasm that made the club and the annual show what it is.

For a long time (until his passing in 1997) John Slivoski was the real driving force behind the club and a lot of us old timers in the hobby know his name. But other members of the club all contributed long hours and hard work to make the club and the annual show successful. One of our early member, Ken Walkley provided a place for the club to meet in the basement of his father's church and in fact, several of the early NNL EAST events were held in that same basement. Guys like Bart Orleans (current vice president) Todd Konsole, and Greg Hernandez were all early members who made great contributions.

The club's current president Tom Geiger, does a tremendous job of organizing and promoting the show and the club and we have had many members who have come and gone through the years that contributed their fair share.

What I did not go into in great detail when I mentioned that I had been involved in the hobby since around 1957 was that I had two previous collections before the current one and I mostly bought kits from local retail outlets for those early collections. At that time, I actually built most of those kits I bought, but nothing that I did build that were a part of those early collections, were ever going to win any prizes at a model show. But I did enjoy building the kits as I added to the collection.

Nothing remains of those two earlier collections, but I remember seeing a re-issue AMT Cobra roadster kit being displayed in the front window of a local Pharmacy. Remembering how nice of a kit the original issue Cobra kit was from back around 1964, I bought the re-issue sometime in October of 1975 and that launched the current madness that currently exits in my basement. At the time I used to live in a high rise apartment building in Jersey City with my girlfriend (and future wife) in what was little more then a studio apartment. The last thing she or I needed in that ultra small apartment was a model car collection, but never the less that's what I did as I continued to buy additional kits. The first built models were displayed on shelves that were attached to the wall over a heating/air conditioning unit in the bedroom and I use to drape sheets of plastic like you'd get at a dry cleaners, the plastic that they drape over your clothes, to keep the dust off of them. I also use to paint the bodies, using spray cans on the landings of the stairwells in that 15 story high building. By the time my girlfriend and I moved to a larger apartment in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1981, the 'Collection' had grown to about 600 pieces. By that point I was buying items from Mail order houses, retail outlets and from the "For Sale Ads" in magazines like Scale Auto Enthusiast"

It was through those For Sale Ads, that I meet my friend John. I had been burned by several people buying stuff from the ads and through the mail, so I had a desire to 'see' what I was buying. Remember that this was all before the Internet, so basically you were buying items through the mail from the ads 'sight unseen'. With an UN-built kit you were pretty much safe, but when it came to built ups, started pieces, even some promos, you were taking your chances.

So when I saw a "For Sale Ads' in Scale Auto Enthusiast from a guy who lived in Brooklyn, I was happy that I'd be able to actually get to see what I was buying. I gave John a call asking if he had any AMC pieces for sale and he said he did. So we made arrangements for me to come over to his apartment there in Brooklyn, but it was a little weird because I was working the night shift (as I always did) so I didn't get to John's apartment until around 1:00 AM. That was in January of 1979 and that's how all it started. We spent that first night bullstrawberryting about models, real cars, airplanes and on and on and I remember that I bought four models from him that night, not one of them an AMC piece.

I can recall many of these dates and the actual models because I use to keep an accurate listing of the pieces that I bought, when I bought them, the place or person I bought them from and the cost and dates of the model purchases on the companies main frame computer system. That was a little 'perk' that I had that I miss very much since I was laid off in 2007.

Well after that first midnight run to Brooklyn, John and I remained friends and for the next six or seven years, we'd go over to each others houses, we'd attend swap meets and model car shows together and spent almost every Friday night bullstrawberryting over the phone. The thing that I always enjoyed about that, aside from the conversation (John was a walking encyclopedia on model cars and facts and figures about real cars) was the fact that John would call the 800 number for the company, dial my extension in the computer room and we'd bullstrawberry all night long while I watched tapes spin. And it never cost John or I a cent in phone bills.

It was some time during the the spring of either 1986 or 1987 that John and I started to discuss the idea of starting a model car club, and I hit upon the idea of using the accumulated magazines that John and I had, to compile a listings of any name that we saw in any kind of an ad for anyone who lived in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Connecticut. We then mailed postcards and invited those people to attend an informal meeting that was held in my backyard in Bayonne. About a dozen guys showed up, mostly from New York, New Jersey and one guy from Connecticut and everyone agreed at that meeting that we'd form a club. Ken Walkley helped out by offering the use of the basement at his father's church and that's how it started.

We derived the name of the club because of the three states that the guys came from at that first meeting. I often joke when telling this story, that had someone from Pennsylvania showed up, we would have to had to call the club the Quad State Scale Model Car Club.

Within a year of forming the club, it was decided we'd hold an annual show and it was further decided that we'd utilize the NNL format in that there would be no formal judging. Everyone who attends our event is given a ballot and the winners in various classes and themes are based on people's choice or votes. Turned out that it's a good system, because it eliminates favoritism, politics, and bias of any kind towards one type of model, or build style etc.

The NNL format was actually started by a model car club in Ohio, but we contacted that club and asked for permission to utilize 'their' format at our proposed show. The Ohio club gave us the good ahead and that became the foundation of our format.

So as I mentioned, the 28th annual NNL EAST event was held last April and it was another smashing success. We fill a room in the PAL building where we hold our show,(that is actually a full sized basketball court) with about 250 folding tables that are raised about two feet, covered in white paper and the various classes and categories are designated with signs. We start to let the general public in at 9:00 AM and by 10:00/10:30 most of the tables are filled to capacity with models being displayed by modelers who come from half the states in the country, Canada and many times, foreign entries.

One year a friend of mine from Sydney, Australia sent a half a dozen models through the mail to be displayed at the NNL EAST show and for the last few years running, we've had a guy who lives just outside Paris show up to display his incredible models. This gentleman's name escapes me, but he more or less makes attending the NNL EAST his primary reason for coming to the US each year.

We also have two additional large sized rooms at the PAL building and those rooms are filled to capacity with vendors who are selling everything between $5.00 started or broken models and parts in plastic bags to hi end die-cast and resin models costing more then $300/$400 each.

All the resin casters such as the Modelhaus attend our show, cottage industry companies that produce resin or metal cast parts, photo etched pieces, decals, as well as vendors selling old and rare unbuilt kits, promos, die-casts as others who have new and just released kits for sale cheaper then in most retail or mail order outlets.

We've had representatives of all three major kit manufacturers attend out show, as well as Scale Auto and Model Cars magazines, which always features our show in their monthly magazine issues as well as the 'Contest Annuals.'

For anyone reading this, take a moment to consider attending the next NNL EAST, which will be held in April of 2015, and for anyone in the New York City/northern New Jersey metropolitan area, we hold a club meeting on the second Saturday of the month in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Anyone is invited to attend a meeting and perhaps become a member. You can find additional information about the club and the NNL EAST by typing either TSSMCC or NNL EAST on the Internet.

Well as I mentioned in my 'introduction' I've gone through various stages regarding the hobby, through the years. The current collection that I have is now close to 1800 pieces and lately I've been engrossed in buying stuff over the Internet through EBay. I have to stop however because I'm spending far too much of my retirement money on this stuff, and like I always do, I go off on a tangent and then get carried away, I always have to go overboard with anything I get involved in. Right now I'm buying built ups, started kits, promos and some die-casts and I have no place to put them. Right now, there are more then 60 pieces that will not fit in any of the display cabinets down in the basement and I can't simply go out and buy another display cabinet because there is no floor space left to put it.

But there was a period in the mid to late 90's when I walked away from the Hobby, the club and my friends and went through a so-called 'mid-life crisis' as a friend that I've known since the sixth grade and I, got caught up in that destructive and expensive life style of running to Go Go Bars and after-hours clubs after work.

The five years that I spent out there in that world and that life style took a tremendous toll on my health and my finances because it was another phase or endeavor where I got carried away and went overboard. I don't necessarily regret that period in my life because I did have experiences that I'll always remember, but I did cause a lot of damage to myself, my health and especially my marriage. I also stopped my involvement in the hobby because I couldn't afford to do it all. Drinking and partying every night, working a 60 or 70 hour work week and trying to build model cars at the same time. Something had to give and sadly it turned out to be the models.

But more important, it was during that period of time that my friend John got sick and and finally passed away in 1997. That is a big regret that I have, that I wasn't around in his final days to offer some friendship and comfort to him.

Well let me close this out. As the kids say in their text messages 'TMI' which perhaps is what I did here. But I have other stories about the hobby, road trips, real cars and on and on that are more interesting and I'd hope, more humorous which I'd be willing to share if anyone is at all interested.

Thanks
Robert Gill