Flashback

(The following is a reprint from a 1986 article about Hub Hobby.)

Jerry Kelly speaks softly and saunters around the Hub Hobby Shop like a man wearing slippers In his den.

Between frequent roars of the passing Broad bus. Kelly fields phone calls and greets customers in search of model-train parts, tiny bottles of paint, miniature evergreens and accessories for radio controlled model planes. Such items are usually located within seconds.

The Hub Hobby Shop stands in a plain commercial block of South Broad Avenue between Washington and the pumping station. Its name comes from its Broadmoor location - near the center of the city's proverbial saucer.

"We bought the business in 1951, when it was a radio-repair shop and sold small appliances." says Kelly of the Hub. "We started to add hobby supplies. Very soon, they began to eclipse the radio and appliance repair business, so we got out of that quickly."

The stock comprises a virtual candy-box of Lilliputian train accessories, plastic models of airplanes, cars and ships, and a host of oddities. Elaborate model planes hang from the ceiling. Racks of paint and books on military aircraft line the main room. An adjoining room is devoted almost entirely to plastic models.

"Thirty-five years ago the merchandise was much more limited," Kelly says. "Plastic models were just beginning to come out. Since then, the expansion has been astronomical, and computers have done such an accurate job of creating plastic models. We divide it into the plastic models, the flying models and trains - 'HO' gauge and 'N' gauge."

But the world of model trains, in years past the domain of young boys, is now almost exclusively the property of gadget-minded adults, according to Kelly.

"There are practically no youngsters interested in the trains," he says. "It's not that they don't exist, but they're a small minority. Then there's the teen-age group, but we lose them during the 18-25 year-old period when they go off and start families and find other things to occupy their time.

"Frequently we get them back in the 30-year-old age range, when they might acquire the necessary space or income and spare time to accommodate model trains. It's true of other hobbles, too. Our largest age group is 30 and over."

The room devoted to plastic models seems to include everything that has ever taken to the air. World War II planes abound, as do fighters from the Korean and Vietnam wars. There are menacing-looking Lockheed SR-71 spy planes In several different sizes, armed-to-the-teeth F-14s and Harriers. Among civilian craft. Piper Cubs are found near Concordes, the Pan Am Airbus and "Big Orange" - a Braniff 747.

"As far as our customers are concerned," Kelly says, "It's the airplanes. They're more popular than the cars. Military aircraft account for 95 percent of all the display models. Also, armored fighting vehicles -tanks, personnel carriers, cannons, anti-aircraft guns.

"My present Interest, though, is in radio-controlled airplanes. I've built many of them over the years and have taught a lot of people how to fly them. We always had sawdust: and balsa-wood chips all over our front porch when we were growing up. My brother and I grew up in this area and went to school at St. Matthias, and we started this business.

"Anyway you can't just give radio-controlled planes to people and say. 'Here, go on and fly It.' It requires close supervision In the early stages. The average person may need six to 10 hours of help before they can fly one themselves. Nowadays some of them are 10 to 12 feet long and weigh 30 to 40 pounds."

Kelly stands to the middle of the plastic-model room and gazes nonchalantly at the walls of boxed fighters, bombers, airliners and cargo craft

"It's hard to find an airplane that hasn't been done," he says. "Only the most obscure planes haven't been done in plastic. We also have helicopters and model rockets."

At the other end of the store, tiny boxcars, flatcars and landscaping material dominate the train section. Train accessories include roadside diners and even trackside shanty shacks.

"These are scenic materials," he says while pointing to some diminutive shrubs and trees. "They're good for many purposes. We sell a lot of them to architecture students and architects themselves, as well as to the people who build model trains. Our busiest period for model trains is December, and during periods of bad weather."

Tucked away amid the standard trackside depots and shacks, though, is a genuine novelty - a plastic model called "IRS on Fire." The illustration on the box shows a blazing four-story brick building with an Internal Revenue Service emblem on It. Included are battery operated flashing lights to simulate flames, and liquid smoke.

It's recommended for those age 8 and over.

Vincent Fumar is a freelance writer; this article is a reprint from a 1986 Dixie magazine, a former Times-Picayune supplement.