I have some new subscribers to the Blog and for them, and all the others (including moi), I wanted to explain my hobbies. They are somewhat odd in this day and age … in fact, I get the impression that hobbies in general are oddities to a lot of people for whom Facebook is the principal means of enjoyment. I quit Facebook a long time ago, in favor of other “time sucks” that have ended up giving me far more pleasure.
Model Railroading
I have a large layout. It isn’t as large as some that I know about (upwards of 50′ x 50′), nor it is as sophisticated as others (built by master modelers). At nine-by-nine, it is a good size and allows me to indulge my life-long interest in railroading. I still get a buzz when I hear a massive Union Pacific freight train rumbling through Laramie: the whistle, the clickity-clack, the wonderment at the places it’s been.
Mine is an O-Scale layout, which differentiates it from the smaller HO-scale and N-Scale layouts of my youth. It is not as large as the so-called G-Scale, which many people run in their gardens (hence, “G” scale). But given that I have loads of rolling stock in O-Scale, it was the way to go.
It is populated with engines and cars made by Mike’s Train House (MTH) based in Columbia, Maryland, with a few locos and cars made by the Lionel Corporation. Both companies seem to be doing well at a time when the hobby is “age challenged.” You see, as a baby boomer, I can remember well the many Christmases when getting a model railroad engine from under the tree was the highlight of my year. Not so much now. Most of us are older and there aren’t a whole lot of new, younger hobbyists coming on-line. But MTH and Lionel seem to know that and have adjusted their business models accordingly.
So, beyond the obvious, why is this my main hobby? Well, because it allow me to escape and to get into the Flow. There is a method to my madness.
In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one’s sense of space and time.
Named by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975, and the subject of his book of the same name, the concept has been widely referred to across a variety of fields (and is particularly well recognized in occupational therapy), though the concept has existed for thousands of years under other names, notably in some Eastern religions, for example Buddhism.
You know when you’re in Flow. For runners, it is known as the “runner’s high.” Rock climbers also get into a Flow, particularly when highly technical maneuvers are required on the rock face. I experience it when running trains; especially when trying mightily not to crash them into one-another.
By the way, you can see my trains in action at my YouTube channel.
Typewriters
This one’s a little harder to explain. Maybe it’s my Italian Heritage. In 1575, an Italian print-maker, Francesco Rampazetto, invented the scrittura tattile, a machine to impress letters in papers. Later, another wop, Agostino Fantoni developed a particular typewriter to enable his blind sister to write. Still another Italian, Pellegrino Turri invented a machine similar to today’s typewriter. He also invented carbon paper to provide the ink for his machine!
In 1823, one more Italian, Pietro Conti di Cilavegna, got in the game and invented a new model of typewriter, the tachigrafo, also known as tachitipo. Doesn’t that look suspiciously like “touch type”?
The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices until after the mid-1880’s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, and for business correspondence in private homes. By the way, and because of the way the keys on typewriter were prone to smash together when certain letter combinations occurred, early manufacturers decided to separate commonly used letters to avoid that smashing together. It is why we, still today, have the so-called QWERTY keyboards!
In my youth, one had to take a typing course. And early in my business career, typewriters were still in wide use. I can recall how they had evolved, from the manual typewriter to the more-sophisticated electrics and quasi-word-processor machines. I still have the last typewriter I bought in the early 1980s.
But then came the Macintosh and its keyboard. Then, the IBM PC and its keyboard. And Word for Windows and Word for Macintosh. And the rest is history.
Not quite, however. Turns out that I am not alone in venerating the typewriter. No less than Tom Hanks is a respected collector of these machines and is renowned for his ability to price valuable collection pieces. Moreover, I read somewhere that Vlad Putin, dictator of Russia, has decreed that all of his personal correspondence is to be produced on typewriters. (I guess he saw what almost happened to Hillary Clinton and decided to avoid inadvertent disclosure).
There is something magical about a typewriter. The clickity-clack, similar to that on the railroad, completes a kind of eye-to-hand-to-paper kinesthetic motion that, for me, allows for comprehension and retention not entirely possible with a computer. It slows me down, too, and forces me to think about what I am writing or about to write. And it enforces clarity.
I have something like 20 typewriters in my collection, ranging from a 1930’s Olivetti to a
1975 Smith Corona Coronet Super-12 electric. I also have the Brother Charger 11 I used in high school.
Typewriter ribbons are hard to come by these days, and so I am getting better and better at “rolling my own.” For this, I follow innumerable blogs and various YouTube videos about the hobby. Again, it is all about Flow and being “taken away” to an earlier time.
So, those are my two hobbies. At least, the main ones. I also dabble in other things, but these two take most of my free time. The value of a hobby cannot be measured. And it need not be an expensive one. Here’s what the richest man in the world has to say about it:
“I have a nice office. I have a nice house… So I’m not denying myself some great things. I just don’t happen to have expensive hobbies. But I have hobbies. I couldn’t exist without them.” — Bill Gates
