Evening star., 1941-11-12


''"'''''' making them at
Henry MeLemOre. home. wit h
what must be half hundred young
cousins and nepheWs and nieces TO
remember at Christmas I decided
to keep down the cost of bringing
smiles or snarls to their little faces
by sending them products of my
own handiWork.
A tour of the stores revealed that
the toy manufacturers we're working
hand in glove with penny -pinchers
like myself. Shelves were loaded
with toys which statesmen explained
could be taken home and assem-
bled at half the price of a ready
made plaything All in a few min
utes, too Simple. Nothing 10 it.
bought the makings Of air
planes, battleships, tanks and doll
houses and hurried home, eager to
convert my living room into hum
ming jolly little st. Nicholas work.
shop.
The first thing tackled was tt1s
construction of Vultee Vanguard
U. S. Army type pursuit plane. I
| got a nasty shock when pulled out
the blueprint that accompanied the
parts. 1t was bigger than q horse
blanket and resembled the final ex.
animation for honor students at
M. I. T. or California Tech. I
looked at the box to be sure I hadn't
been given the original design for
Boulder Dam
knowing that before I mastered
the intricacies of this layout, Cousin
Fred, aged 9. for whom the Vultee
model was intended, would have
children of his own and look pretty
foolish flying it in vacant lot, I
shelved the project in favor Of
Hawker Hurricane. I chose the
Hurricane because on its box was
plainly stamped Simple In con-
struction. Any child can make it"
Well, all have to say is that any
child who can is a Stacker il he has
not quit kindergarten or grammar
school and gone to work for the
Government in some defense job.
His country needs him, because
there can't be more than 10 or II
engineers In the world with enough
background to handle its details.
went to work on 1t, nevertheless,
but not before vowing that If by
some miracle I got it together it
would be sent to help the Russians
and not to Nephew Frank for pleas
ure flying around Alabama.
The design and parts for the
Hawker Hurricane cost me so cents.
could have bought a shiny, new
assembled one for SIPS. Up until
now my economy wave on this toy
alone has cost me around SIS. The
card table, which I turned into a
workbench, was the first item OF ex-
pense. I was whacking away at
propeller when the knife slipped and
almost cut the table in two. A pair
Of scissors (the only decent ones in
the house, fell apart on a wing job
and dozen new razor blades have
gone into the whiting OF the
fuselage. A suit of clothes Is all
but ruined by rubber cement spots.
and there is no telling how much
iodine and bandages I have used in
repairing cut fingers.
BY working three shifts a day the
Hawker should roll off the line on
December l and at a cost ap-
proximately the same as that OF a
Boeing flying fortress. The produc-
ton schedule-the whole house Is
now geared to Ford plant precision
calls for the Hawker to be followed
by the laying of the keel of a model
of Columbus flagship, the Santa
Maria.
What work I have done has been
accomplished under difficulties.
There have been open threats Of
sabotage from the neighbors who
object to living next to an industrial
plant which they say is the most
profane in history
Danger turks even closer. There
is Fifth Columnist right under nv
roof who is just waiting her chance
to take her broom and sweep the
whole works in to the fireplace. She
maintains that if the parents of the
youngsters who are going to get
the toys only knew the language
that is going into the building Of
them. they wouldn't allow them to
handle them without gloves.
The moral of this story is that
unless you are one of those men who
Is known as handy man around
the house" don't tackle toy making.
Just go ahead and buy each kid A
new bicycle and pocket your savings.