Random Thoughts on Friday

I have always enjoyed painting toy soldiers.  Civil War, WWII, and the Alamo are my favorites.  I have been painting figures for decades.  I love a good hobby shop with a nice selection of figures for hobbyists.  I like 30th scale and smaller.

Back in.....  maybe the late 80s, early 90s, I remember going to Willy's Hobby Shop in Evansville Indiana.  Actually, I think the shop had a different name, but everyone called it Willy's.  It was a short drive from Owensboro, and I went there frequently.  I had also joined a plastic modelers club that involved groups from Evansville and Owensboro (it was named EH Miller) and the club would meet weekly in Evansville.  Stopping by Willy's before the meeting was a must.

Did you ever go to Willy's?  Trust me, you would remember if you ever did.

Willys was simply the perfect little hobby shop.  It was jam packed with model kits, and behind the counter, he had a great selection of resin and metal soldiers...  Many priced WAY out of my price range.....but many that were fun to look at.  He had plenty of the more affordable plastic kits too.  That's mostly what I would buy from Willy.

Willy, the shop's owner and operator, was a character himself.  Physically, Willy WAS Santa Claus.  His personality was....  well, that of an old drunken sailor.  He used four letter words in every sentence.  Sometimes, he could get multiple four letter words in each sentence.  He drank on the job.  He was generally very grumpy.  I could go on.

AND I miss the man.  He had character.  He was anti-PC (I can't even remember if PC was a thing back then).  He didn't care what you thought of him.  He didn't care if you bought anything at his shop or not.

I remember one time, he had acquired a collection of metal soldiers.  Some half painted, some unassembled.  They were in a box on his counter.  I asked Willy what he wanted for them.  He said he wasn't sure what he was going to do with them yet, but if I stuffed a few in my pockets while he wasn't looking he wouldn't care.

Sadly, Willy passed away, jeez, maybe around 1992.  I remember there was a huge 50% off sale at his shop as his family closed things down.  I HATED the whole situation, but I did buy some of my first resin figures at that time.  I could finally afford them.

I still have friends to this day that bring up Willy.  I would love to hear from anyone else that also remembers Willy, or that knows of a similar hobby shop still around.