One of the pros of moving to D/FW is living in closer proximity to my parents in Memphis, TN. Mom and Dad have made the eight hour drive west on I-40/30 twice in the last seven months - once in the summer when Dad's boyhood baseball team, the Detroit Tigers played the Texas Rangers in Arlington and then again two weeks ago for Thanksgiving.
As long as there is a newspaper to read, strong coffee, sweet nibbles, salty snacks, adult beverages at the requisite hour, hearty meals, Lutheran worship/fellowship and grocery shopping, my parents are low maintenance house guests. For example, over Thanksgiving they were perfectly content on Friday afternoon with a Trader Joe's/Specks daily double in Fort Worth followed by a Mexican dinner with extended family in Allen ending with a nightcap and a rousing game of dominoes around the dinner table.
On occasion though Dad will make a special request involving a visit to an aviation museum, a hobby shop and/or a historical marker. None of these populated the most recent agenda, but in August he did inquire about a hobby shop that he had researched on-line in advance of their trip, M.A.L. Hobby Shop on Lee St. in Irving.
As we got closer to our destination, I realized that we were traveling to old-school Irving, far removed from the neighborhoods of Valley Ranch and Las Colinas that are more frequently associated with the city today. After turning on Lee St. and getting my first glance at M.A.L., it dawned on me that we had hit the trifecta: a hobby shop/museum with its own historical marker!
The first fact that the marker points out is that M.A.L. (Model Aircraft Laboratories) has been in business since 1948, a year before my father was born. Upon venturing inside, we most likely inhaled 60+ years of dust. Ventilation issues notwithstanding, it was impossible not to be charmed by the unkemptness of the shop and the quirkiness of its proprietor, Mr. Edgar Seay, Jr.
Dad and Ed hit it off immediately. As I thumbed through a few postcards and surveyed other pieces of random merchandise, the two hobbyists discussed a variety of model shows and conventions they had attended over the years. Dad also quizzed Ed on a couple of kits that he was on the hunt for. Unfortunately, they were not in Ed's inventory, but Dad did find a couple of items worth bringing home and bought me a few of the postcards, including one that Ed had photographed himself of a Braniff International Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62 near D/FW Airport on October 29, 1973, not quite six months before I was born. He was even gracious enough to autograph it for me.
After hanging out with Ed for a bit longer, we said so long and headed home. It was easily the most memorable - and historical - visit to a hobby shop I had ever made.
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