The Falls Church Hobby Center

Posted by Roie R. Black on Fri 16 July 2010

If you have read any of my other posts, you probably know that I got into model airplanes very early in life, and they helped me focus on my life goal – to be an aeronautical engineer. Well, one very important place in my life was the hobby shop closest to my home while I was going to high school – the Falls Church Hobby Center, run by Raymond L. Burt.

Sadly, both the hobby center and Ray are gone, but not my memories of my time in that place and the people I met and worked with. Here are a few of my memories.

As we entered the seventh grade, my two best friends, Ron Tinkham, and Bob Hoy, and I all decided we were going to get serious about building model airplanes. So, we jumped on a bus and went downtown to the headquarters of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which issues licenses to modelers who want to build models and compete in competitions of all sorts. We came away with our AMA numbers: 18079, 18080, and 18081. (I still have mine, although I had to argue with the AMA to get it back after I let it go a number of years ago.) We even joined a club, the Fairfax Model Associates, so we could learn more from folks who took all this very seriously! (I still have friends from that club – and the club is still going strong!) Our new adventure building, flying, and competing was off and running. One problem, though – this took money. I had a paper route, which helped a bit, but not enough.

When we were old enough to get real jobs, (well, actually a bit before we legally could do so), Ron and I asked the owner of our favorite hobby shop if he needed any help. Wonder of wonders! He said sure. Cool! We would get to work where all the stuff we struggled to buy was sold, earn a few bucks, get an employee discount, and be big shots to all our modeling friends.

Mr Burt made us study the store so we knew where everything was located and could sell whatever he had. He gave us a test to make sure we had done our homework, and both of us became employees! (I think I made $0.85 an hour, even though minimum wage at the time was about $1.25 – oh well!) We would go to work after school, and on Saturdays and life was pretty good.

Mr Burt used to take trips up to Philadelphia to his supplier and buy stock for the store. I went with him several times – and what a time we had. It was cool wandering up and down the aisles of that warehouse seeing everything you could possible stock in a hobby shop. It was like wandering around the biggest Wal-Mart you ever saw, but everything there was stuff you really wanted – none of that other foo-foo stuff! We would load up Mr. Burt’s truck with goodies and haul it all back to Fall Church. Of course, he made us unpack it all, put prices on everything and find places to display it all. That is why they call it a “job” – it involves “work” (which is a four letter word, by the way!)

We used to play games with our customer in that place. Our favorite involved a gadget we made by bolting together a random bunch of model airplane engine parts, parts from a model locomotive, an odd part of two from football uniforms, whatever we could find. We stuck the gadget in a drawer behind the cash register and waited for the place to fill up with customers. Then one of us, not working at the time, would walk up to the counter and ask if we had a “left handed isostatic framus meeter” The guy behind the counter would say sure, and reach in the drawer for the gadget. We always laughed at the expressions of those standing around watching all of this! OK, so simple pleasures for simple minds – but we had fun at work. You are supposed to have fun at work, right! That has always been my goal!

Ron and I got to display many of our models and trophies earned in contests in the window of that shop. We worked pretty hard to build them and it was nice to see them on display. Mr, Burt did all that to show off what folks did for their hobbies. It was always kind of neat to look in those windows and see people talking about how cool your work was.

Mr. Burt trusted us far more than would be common today. Quite often when I got to the store, I would take bags with hundreds of dollars in cash to the bank. Today, that would be like being handed a high school kid the keys to an armored truck! One time he told me that the Treasury Department was letting folks buy bags of silver dollars for the face value of the coins. Since we sold coins to collectors, he thought we could make money by buying the bags in the hope that there would be some rare coins in there. He actually handed me four thousand dollars cash and the keys to his truck and I went downtown and stood in line to get four bags of money! Those things were heavy! Wow! (By the way, one of my friends in the model airplane club worked at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where they make all the paper money. I got to visit him and see huge pallets of thousand dollar bills – uncut! He would not give me a sample, though – phooey!)

We lived a lot of the history of our country in that shop. When John Glen orbited the earth for the first time, we built models of his rocket and displayed them in the store window, When Russia started building missile sites in Cuba, we stood around talking about how we should go down there and stop all of that. When Kennedy was shot, we all hung around the shop in a dark mood, who would do such a thing to our President. It was my home away from home for the last few years of high school.

The store was right next door to the old Falls Church, after which the town was named. George Washington was a deacon of this church, riding in on Sundays from Mount Vernon on horseback. On the grounds of this church is a very old cemetery where a number of soldiers from the Revolutionary War and even Civil War are buried. We would take out a metal detector from the shop and wander around the church looking to see what we could find. I remember one of us finding an old bullet from probably the Civil War buried about a foot below the grass. We really got a kick about that, especially since we were studying that war in school and taking field trips to places like Manassas and Gettysburg – ever heard of those?

One of the other guys who worked in the shop was Phil Cox, who was several years older that us (and out of school). He was Mr. Burt’s right-hand man, and it was Phil who decided what days we could work. Phil was not into airplanes, his passion was slot cars, so we never got together except at work. But Phil was a huge help to me when I set off for college.

My folks were pretty poor. My dad was mostly unemployed as I was growing up, and my mom worked full time at the Pentagon to get us through. When I was accepted to go to Virginia Tech, we had a huge problem. No Money! We tried to get loans, but everyone said my folks made too much to qualify, so we were out of luck! My parents scraped together enough money to pay for tuition for one term, and enough to maybe cover books. I had to figure out the rest. I worked a second job the summer before I left for school, and that helped. But two weeks before I was to leave, I was still short $250 – a huge amount in those days!

One day at work, I was agonizing about how I was going to have to give up on this idea of going to college, when Phil offered to loan me the money out of his savings! All I could do was stare at him. Why on earth would he be willing to do that. Well, Phil never went to college, but he wished he could have. He thought it was important enough that I do so, that he was willing to take a chance on me. Wow! I learned a valuable lesson about generosity and helping other folks just because you can – Thanks Phil, wherever you are!

When I finally stopped working in the Hobby Center and went off to college, Phil had me do one last very important thing. Every employee of the Hobby Center stood in front of the lone cash register in that place for countless hours. What you found out as you left the store was that on the bottom of the shelf where that cash register sat every employee who had ever worked there had signed their name. You were never told of that until you were ready to go, and you got to add your name to the list. (OK, Phil – how did you know?)

When Mr. Burt finally decided to close the shop and retire, as many of us who were still around finally showed that board to him. To say it choked him up would be a gross understatement. Mr. Burt was lying on his back on the bottom shelf of the counter staring at that board through tear-filled eyes. It was a wonderful moment.

So I got to go to college, and pursue that life goal! The Falls Church Hobby Center, Mr. Burt, Phil, Ron and others I have forgotten, made a huge difference in making that happen! Rest in peace, Mr Burt. And thank you again!

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