1963—MODEL CARS AND ART AWARDS
’63 was a bumper year. My second year at St. Patrick High School. I was doing fairly well in their college prep program, and was recruited for Brother Jeremiah Peter’s “Study Club”. We would meet after school on Tuesdays and pursue non-syllabus topics. One session I remember in particular was two hours devoted to listening to and analyzing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. Heady stuff for a high school sophomore raised on Beer Barrel Polka!
During 1963, between the start of my Sophomore academic year in September of‘ 63 and the end in June of ’64, I grew ten inches. I went from 5’2” to six feet tall. Decades later, my legs still have stretch marks that look like long scars.
I don’t remember much more except my second year at Lake Meadows Art Fair. I again won a prize, and went to the director, Margaret Burrough’s house to claim it. Margaret was a former Black model who was deeply involved in NPOs. She lived in huge brownstone mansion in Bronzeville. We were shown into a parlor to wait and Margaret appeared through a grand set of pocket doors with my award plaque in hand. I recall my shock, when as a 14-year-old innocent, I saw the magazines organized, right in front of me, on her large coffee table. There were several art monthlies, a few copies of the Chicago Daily Defender (Chicago’s premier Black newspaper), Jet, Ebony, and…Playboy? Margaret was a society lady, and moved in exalted Chicago circles. Why would she read Playboy? This realigned some of my Catholic schoolboy thinking. I didn’t go right out and buy Playboy, though, although I now felt less embarrassed when I saw it on the newsstand in the corner store where I bought my model cars.
That Spring and Summer, I did the Teen-Aged Art Fair circuit, all over Chicago. I specifically remember an event at St. Juliana church on the far Northwest side. It was a lovely late Spring day, and the setting—the sidewalks around the church and school—was filled with mature oak and pine trees which gave nice shade. There were some decent food vendors, too, and it was a relaxed day. I sold three paintings. There were no awards given.
Of course I remember where I was when we heard that JFK was assassinated. I was sitting in Biology lecture. It was my first class after lunch. Just after 1 pm, the PA speaker in the classroom suddenly crackled to life. It was our principal, Brother Adrian, making the announcement that JFK had been shot in Dallas, and his condition was unknown. The PA was then connected to Chicago’s CBS TV station, where we listened to breathless news men, led by Walter Cronkite, who was called in a full four hours before his regular shift, frantically reading copy giving details. Within an hour, “Taps” was played and we knew what the voice over was about to say, Kennedy was dead…
Dad got home several hours late that evening. It seems that he had been stopped by the police while driving home and taken into custody, as he fit the general description of Lee Harvey Oswald that had been circulated. He was questioned and released. What I wondered was how he had been stopped in the first place, since by that time, Oswald had already been apprehended in Dallas’ Texas Theater. I guess the cops were playing CYA. But Dad had red hair, and a prominent widow’s peak like Oswald, though he was 6 feet tall, and Oswald was about 5’6”. What—you couldn’t trust the police? I was shocked.
1963—MODEL CARS—TIRED OF PLASTIC KITS—TIME TO ADVANCE!
It was Christmas of 1963 when I began my education in auto mechanics and theory of same. The folks gave me an AC Gilbert chemistry set and a few more model cars, and lots of art supplies, reflecting my dual interests. But my real favorite and a real eye-opener was my Renwal Visible V8 model kit. It was a powered (by a Mabuchi electric motor hidden in the battery case) transparent model of a generic V8 engine in ¼ scale. I couldn’t wait to assemble it, so I did a hurried assembly job, and didn’t wait for the glue to fully dry. I switched it on, and, to my horror, it destroyed itself in about five seconds. It was my first lesson in patience. The next day, I finished the disassembly myself, cleaned the parts and checked each for fit. and carefully reassembled it. It then worked flawlessly—I was proud of my successful completion of this complex task!
(ABOVE) A first-issue Visible V8 model kit, from 1963. A test of fire and a patience lesson learned.
NOTE: Dads always smoked pipes back then, despite the omnipresent ciggies on Mad Men!
I also received a Visible Man kit, which supplied a basic knowledge of the layout and function of the organs in a human body. It was fun painting all of the organs the correct colors.