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currently the only link that goes to a model is the root beer baron and those pictures need to be retaken! Give me some time.

In many ways the 1960s were a great time to grow up. One of the most innocent past times of the 1960s for school age boys (and girls) was model building. The 1960s was also probably the heyday for show rods. Long before "Pimp My Ride" there were three men who probably wrote the book on customs cars. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, George Barris, and Tom Daniel. Most kids could only dream of owning the real thing, but thanks to the plastic model industry most any kid could buy a scale rendition of some of the greatest cars on the planet.

Of course, unlike today, you couldn't just buy an assembled replica, you had the joy of putting it together yourself. Yep, it was a pretty geeky thing to do! But what the hell, it was fun.

Most of the models I had have long moved on to the trash heap. A few survive or have been repurchased out of nostalgia. I'll try to get them up here as time permits, but it may be a while. Some of them are still in the re-release boxes and others are in stages of repair.

Kids who grew up in the Sixties will remember the popularity of the maltese cross. Back then the Nazi connotation weren't racist, or hateful; it was just all part of the surf culture. The crosses were known as a Surfer's Cross. While others wore "peace doves" and peace symobols I wore a surfer's cross, despite never surfing in my life. The surfer's cross also seemed to be symbolic of many of the show rods. It's a shame that much of the innocence of the time was lost.