. This is when I started model building for the first time, I hope everyone will contribute and have some fun 
recalling our school 
With me it started even before I lost my father, but really began in earnest after I started the first grade.
I was always different, well I was a weird kid. I didn't have any interest in sports like the other little boys, they were into Baseball, but were leaning toward Football, as was much of the country. While all of my friends were thinking about playing Baseball like Mickey Mantle, or playing Football with the Green Bay Packers. I want to do only one thing, to be a fighter pilot. I didn't just fly the hottest airplanes, I wanted to design them too. While I should have been learning my numbers and letters, I was far away. Flying a fast, sleek fighter plane, shooting down the bad guys, or building our country's latest super fighter, in a top secret hanger hidden from the bad guys, at the local airfield. Of course there were other things too, race cars, tanks, but for the most part it was airplanes. Airplanes were all I ever thought about, the only thing was of any importance to me.
Then there were the teachers, English, and Math. Yucky stuff that didn't interest me at all... Well then there was one bright spot, History, in history class I could talk about something that was really relevant to me, combat aviation, this was something I knew something about. But there was always the darkness close at hand Math, and English, GOD I HATED those subjects!
At the time I could not understand why anyone would want to learn about those things, after all, I could write my name and as for Math if you put a $ sign in front of the numbers, I could add, subtract, multiply, and divide with the best of 'em. I just couldn't be bothered with such trivial things like Math and English. I was doing important stuff here! Designing the airplanes that our country would need if we ever to beat the bad guys, "the Communist!". And who could fly those important airplanes, the guys who designed them in the first place!
So there I was, drawing fighter planes, and race car of course,"there would be a time when the whole world was free, and we would be needing something to do, and that was racing!"
My view of the world was a vary narrow one then of course. I would in time learn about other things, economics, social issues, air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, overpopulation, crime, and drugs, the list could go on and on!
But what brought us all to this forum? We want to build flying model airplanes, from kits, we want to build better airplanes from the kits that, the good folks at Guillows produce, But there is more isn't there? We, "well me anyway", want to learn enough to design a airplane of our own. And one day who knows...Building something bigger, something that we can fly our selves, a real airplane of our own design, and then after that it's faster, higher, farther.
Some come on all of you dreamers, fess'up what got you started in this most wonderful of hobbies!
After dad built the Peashooter, I figured I'd have a try at it. I found a Comet Aeronca that was in my 12 year old price range, not realizing that the low price was due to being printwood. I thought all kits were die-cut. Who would want printwood? That build was a complete mess, although I did manage to build something that looked a bit like wing panels, with covering. I finally tossed the parts just a few years ago. I still have a little peanut scale Druine Turbulent, that is a bit better and actually flew short distances, built shortly afterward.