Sometimes my father would visit a friend at a new company called Revell. They were making models of old-time cars and the friend gave my dad a couple of boxes.

They had stuff like the Stanley Steamer. They were made of plastic and not too hard to put together. They came in a small rectangular box and, in the beginning, there weren't that many models.

I remember that after sliding the wheels on, I had to heat a knife and melt the end of the plastic axle with the side of the knife so the wheel would stay on. Painting the model was the most fun. The paint came in little bottles and was called, "dope".

It wasn't long before I had a colorful collection. I soon discovered that it was easier and looked better if you painted some parts before you glued them. Some years later you couldn't get the glue without your parents.

And here's where my bike came in. I had been to Fletcher's Hobby Shop on Parthenia Street, just east of Sepulveda Boulevard, before. But it was always a long, long walk down Columbus Street to get there. Now, with a bike, this magical place was easily accessible.

You could make leather belts and hammer a stamp with little circular patterns. Models were everywhere! Boats, planes, cars, even famous monsters. There was an entire section of balsa wood projects that took more skill to make. Hanging from the ceiling were model planes - some actually had engines and could fly.

And the very best part, model trains.

I couldn't get enough of model trains. It wasn't so much the actual trains and tracks, it was creating the environments that l loved. I would bend screening to make mountains and tunnels and cover it with papier-mâché. I painted roads and spread colored sprinkles on wet paint or glue to make dirt and grass. I would take little twigs and put some sponge-like stuff on them to make trees and bushes.

I started my layout on a 8x4 foot piece of ¾" plywood. I put hinges on the side that was against the garage wall and would haul the other side up with rope and pulleys so we could get the car in the garage - the legs were also on hinges and would fold down.

This lasted for a few months and then it just became too much of a pain and the car slept outside.

The two biggest model train companies at the time were Lionel and American Flyer. Lionel had three rails and American Flyer had two rails. I liked the two rail look but I thought Lionel was a better train. My Lionel set was an 027 gage model. O gage was their larger model. There were a whole bunch of other gages and companies.

I would stare for hours at my growing little community. It would have been a great place to live.

A few years later I would get a paper route to help finance my model railroad adventures.

By the way, in those days there were a bunch of papers in Los Angeles - morning and evening editions. The Herald Examiner was a morning paper. Another morning paper (and the only Democratic paper in LA) was the Daily News and there was also the Mirror. The biggest paper was the Los Angeles Times.

There was also a San Fernando Valley paper, called the Valley News & Green Sheet (today called the Los Angeles Daily News). The front page was always green. It was mostly full of local events, lots and lots of ads and a sports section that was great because nobody else paid any attention to local high school sports.

In 1954, the Mirror took over the LA Daily News. Then the Times bought out the Mirror and it became the Times-Mirror Company and eventually, just the LA Times.

Then the Examiner folded and all we had was the LA Times. It was kind of like one of those old folk songs where an animal is eaten by a bigger animal and then that animal is eaten by an even bigger animal and on and on until all that's left is one giant animal with one very big belly.

I liked it better then because there were more places to get a paper route job.

Paper routes weren't easy to get. It helped to know someone else who had a paper route. My world changed when I got a route.

I had to get up extra early. The papers were left in my front yard in one big pile. It was a quiet and peaceful time of day. The mountains would be slowly turning from purple to a light orange. My head would still feel like it hadn't woken up yet. In the fall and winter it was cold and my hands would feel numb. Folding papers with gloves just didn't seem to work.

I had to fold each paper two times and put a rubber band around it. I can still remember the big brown and white box that the bands came in. But the strongest memory was the smell. To this day, if I hold up a newspaper to my nose, I can breathe in the ink and paper aromas and the memories, good and bad, come alive.

I had this white canvas bag with two big pockets and "The Daily News" printed on each side that I would hang over the handlebars of my bike. As I pedaled past the subscribers, I would try to aim for the porch. I had about a fifty percent success rate,

When it rained, I had to wrap wax paper around the paper and hope my mom would drive me. She usually did. I'd sit in the back seat with the windows open and throw papers left and right. The Plymouth was cold and wet inside.

One time, while I was on my bike delivering papers, a big black dog burst out from a bush barking from across Parthenia Street. It was running back and forth with white foam dripping from its lips.

It saw me and started to cross the street. I jumped off my bike hoping to use it as a barrier between the dog and myself. Just as the dog started to cross the pavement, a large pick-up truck and several cars drove by causing the dog to stop and wait.

When I saw the dog again, it had changed direction and was running west up the side of Parthenia Street. Frozen behind the bike, I watched. Two guys came running by and asked if I had seen the dog. I nodded and pointed west.

They took off running.

(To be continued)