OCR Text |
Show w haft's Hmm i mm m .hi mm, . - i cation Is "hobby mining," in which amateur prospectors take to the hills each week-end in search ot gold. This has resulted in a rush tor claims, reminiscent of last century'i gold stampede. These modern prospectors pros-pectors aren't finding much golH, but they have hopes and meanwhile it's a lot of fun. Career Hobble. Then there's also the hobby which can be Joined with your professional career. An example is Mildred Dil-ling, Dil-ling, Internationally known harpist ling, Internationally known harpist who began her rise to fame with a second-hand harp. When she retires re-tires from the concert stage, many years hence, she'll have something more tangible than memories, because be-cause she spends her spare time collecting old, rare, curious and historic his-toric harps. Somo hobbies can make you feel like a kid again, which isn't a bad idea. Several years ago some youth-, ful minded father bought his young-' ster an electric toy train for Christ- mas and had so much fun with it himself that be bought another. That hobby, model railroading, has grown overnight until now many a hard-headed business man spends I his evenings playing with a miniature minia-ture train. It isn't child's play, however. The serious model railroader builds his own "rolling stock" to exact scale size and has from 200 to 1,000 feet of track on which to run it. Today you can buy disassembled miniature minia-ture railroad parts and build your own system, consisting of engines, Pullmans, coaches and innumerable Everybody's Doing El: The Banker Has a Toy Railroad, the Butcher is a Camera Fan, and She Baker Collects Stamps! By JOSEPH W. LaBINE How do you spend your spare time? Or do you waste it? There's a difference, you see. It's easy to stand on a street corner and watch the world ro by, but you're apt to crawl into bed that nifiht feeling like a fifth wheel on the buggy that makes this world go 'round. How to utilize spare time is a problem that vexed mankind man-kind long before bored monarchs snapped their pudgy fingers to make the pipers play. Today, in a world of shorter working hours and increased social consciousness, intelligent use of our "loafing" hours $. , . the Wright brothers spent their spare time playing with gliders in a deserted spot called Kitty Hawk, N. C. Look what happened to them I More than one stamp collector has had similar good fortune, turning his hobby into a professional stamp business that netted a living income. And in Californkf the newest avo- types of freight cars. Train hobby, ists prefer freights because of the variety they offer. Or, You Might Try There's a humorous side to hob-bying, hob-bying, too. Out In Halfway, Ore., Walter W. Evans collects of all things official positions! Evans is vice president and cashier of the First National bank, city treasurer, high school clerk, secretary-treasurer of the telephone company, key banker for his county banking association, asso-ciation, public education committeeman committee-man for the same organization, and president of the Northwest Oregon Bankers association. Recently he decided to run for justice of the peace. Then, in Akron, Ohio, we And Walter Wal-ter Thompson, a gasoline station attendant at-tendant who in the past two years has dissuaded 10 persons from suicide. sui-cide. That, says Thompson, is his hobby. His station is located at the end of a bridge. At nearby Cleveland Cleve-land a strange fellow who jumped through the trees at Brookside park, clad in a tiger skin breech-clout, turned out to be nothing more than a Tarzan hobbyist. But police warned him to practice elsewhere. Maybe the suicide stopper and the amateur Tarzan aren't true hobbyists, hobby-ists, but to discover how important this business has become, you need only look at one of the exhibitions staged by people who have found a happy pastime and are willing to tell the world about it. Famous People, Quaint Hobbies. Famous people sometimes have unique hobbies. Jane Pickens, the songstress, weaves rugs and makes bobbin lace because it gives her time to think. Chester Morris, the movie star, Is an amateur magician magi-cian and Dr. Frank Black, musical director for a broadcasting network, plays with chemistry during his spare time. Right now he is experimenting experi-menting with liquid rubber to use in making sculpture molds. Perhaps you already have a hobby. hob-by. If not, take a little sage advice ad-vice from the experts before developing de-veloping one. The best way, they say, is to fall into something you really enjoy. Don't deliberately look for a hobby; simply drift into a stimulating avocation avo-cation that brings you real enjoyment. enjoy-ment. Another thing, don't be too strict about your hobby, because if you tie yourself up with a lot of restrictions the whole thing will suddenly become be-come very irksome. If you're not careful, your hobby is apt to take too much time at first. You may get so enthusiastic that life becomes one continual mental tussle between your hobby and your better self. But eventually you'll I is a serious matter. But don t I take it seriously; instead, why not find a hobby? ! In every walk of life these days you're apt to meet stamp collectors, candid cam-1 cam-1 era fans and miniature railroad rail-road builders. The garage mechanic who tunes up your motor probably tinkers with short-wave radio between the evening meal and bedtime. A United States Supreme court justice may surreptitiously i read detective stories when no-I no-I body's looking, and your doctor might collect rare old books. i "Cream on Your Porridge." j It's reached a stage where the ! curious thing to look for is not peo-I peo-I pie who have hobbies, but those who I don't. Someone has called it a way to "put cream on your porridge," which means that a not-too-serious hobby will add zest to the most humdrum life. Nor need your work-a-day job be humdrum; Henry Ford, one of America's busiest industrial magnates, devotes his spare time to building the famous Greenfield village at Dearborn, Mich. Albert Einstein, the scientist, relaxes by sawing away at his violin. Andre Kostelanetz, the orchestra leader, is an expert wood carver. Pick up the paper almost any day and you'll find an item about your next door neighbor's hobby. In Chicago Chi-cago one evening last year, M. J. Smit, a retired gas company superintendent, super-intendent, was visiting a friend's home. The friend remarked that he was going to build a model of the Italian liner, Rex. That set Mr. Smit to thinking and a few days later he started building his own steamship, a three-foot model of the gigantic Normandie. A Chicago woman attorney spent 50 years of her spare time collecting figurines like those shown above. Each figurine represents some outstanding out-standing figure in history. Costumes, hair dress, jewelry and other accessories ac-cessories are absolutely authentic. Outstanding in the above group is Jnan 67 Arc. emerge from this stage with a balanced bal-anced viewpoint, having learned to live with this new companion. You'll discover that moderation in ! all things Is an excellent idea, but what's more important, you'll not be alone with a pair of twiddling thumbs the next rainy afternoon! I Western Newspaper Union. ' : ii3J v. W v v v - a i? A JJ " , 'yrx:'- .' A j Mr. Smit, who is sixty-eight years old, suddenly discovered a new meaning in life. "I found I'd been missing something," he says. "It's great fun making model steamships and I'm going to keep doing it the rest of my life." Ace in the Hole. ; A few blocks away Arthur Laed-'erach, Laed-'erach, an electrical engineer, goes down 'to his whitewashed basement each evening and works at the hobby hob-by of years standing marquetry. This is the science of making landscapes, land-scapes, stiil life pictures and ab-: ab-: strict designs with veneer woods, inlaid to give the proper appearance. appear-ance. It's a hobby that demands use of the jigsaw and a lot of patience. pa-tience. In the end he develops a unique skill that may serve him in good stead should the electrical engineering profession fail him. That incidentally, is an important feature of hobbies. More than one annteur tinkerer has turned his avocation avo-cation into a money-making business busi-ness In Massachusetts a woman who grew up with a liking for tinkering tink-ering over old. broken-down bicycles bicy-cles haa now made that her business busi-ness And a good many years ago Old Bill Morris of the filue Ridge mountain district In North Carolina tends this ancient frontier fire as his hobby. The flame was started by his ancestors H8 years ag-i and has been kept alive ever since. |