A tale of two Traxxas owners

[Saito2 4196]

This is just a couple random interactions I had with two separate Traxxas owners of late. Just finding and seeing another RC vehicle in action is a great rarity in my area. Earlier this week, my daughter and I were out for our daily bike ride around the neighborhood after I got off work. Closely, up ahead,  a big Traxxas something or other shot out into the street at full speed, quickly spun out, flipped over and went skidding away, shedding its body in the process. My daughter was delighted to see another RC car. A woman went out into the street to retrieve it while my daughter excited exclaimed that her daddy had one too and was just running his earlier (I had my Blackfoot out before the bike ride) to the man at the transmitter. I asked if it was a Traxxas as an ice-breaker. The man began to proclaim he had many RC cars (actually 6 IIRC) and that this particular one was the second biggest one they made. My daughter said I had lots and I admitted I had too many (I'm a little sheepish about the amount I have in my collection and I don't like to brag). The woman ignored us and the man quickly did as well while my daughter went on about RC stuff. I had to quietly tell my daughter it was time to move on with our bike ride. Being autistic, she doesn't read situations well (something I had trouble with at that age as well and hope I can teach her in the future), and was puzzled when I later told her I didn't think those people wanted to talk to us.

This is tough for me. Situations exactly like this in life have made me very cynical and wary in dealing with other humans. I'm highly introverted so this doesn't really affect me but my daughter is very extroverted. The fact I even spoke to these people at all was because she was present and trying to speak with them. She's open and very direct and doesn't know how some people can be. I don't want her to be quite as negative like me as its not her nature, but it hurts to see others being rude to her and her resulting puzzlement.

 

The second interaction of late involved a Traxxas Stampede on a different street. My daughter stopped and watched also informing the man I had some RC vehicles as well. In this case, the fellow was quite friendly we chatted about his Stampede a bit and then he asked about what I had. I rattled off a few and his eyes lit up when he heard some of the classic names like Blackfoot, Clod Buster, Frog and Hotshot. He had some stories about the old days and about a neighbor he once had who had a Blackfoot he lusted after. It was a great interaction. So what's the moral for my little one? I guess some people are jerks but not everyone? lol.

[markbt73 4174]

Autistic and extroverted is a pretty rare combination, as I understand it. That's gotta be tough.

I admit, I tend to shy away from conversations with the public in general about RC cars, unless I see someone out running something that's not the typical Traxxas/Arrma/Chinese take-it-out-of-the-box-and-crash-it-into-the-garage-door type of vehicle. But that doesn't happen very often; it seems us vintage folks are a minority among a minority.

The best interaction over an RC car I ever had was probably 20 years ago, when I was out running a Kyosho Pure Ten MGB, one of the nitro-powered ones. I was still breaking it in and tuning it up, doing laps around a big empty parking lot, and a man and his young son stopped to watch. They asked questions, I answered. Turns out the guy had grown up in Australia and had an MGB there when he was younger, so he was really interested. I offered to let him drive it, and - right on cue - the engine quit and refused to restart. He laughed and said, "I see it runs just like an old MG, too."

[Pablo68 663]

The guy in the first example was a jerk. Pure and simple. Makes me want to write sentences with swear words in it.
Especially being that way with kids. Seems like your daughter wasn't the only one with issues in that conversation. The next person is an example of how we all should be.

The other point is that we should all want people to be interested in our hobby, to draw more people into it.
Being uncommunicative and or an *** does not help the hobby.

I do hope your daughter is ok.

[Saito2 4196]

40 minutes ago, Pablo68 said:

The other point is that we should all want people to be interested in our hobby, to draw more people into it.
Being uncommunicative and or an *** does not help the hobby.

Great point. Even though I'm not a people-person. I feel its almost my duty to be a good representative for the hobby, should someone show interest. If anything I have to carefully regulate myself so I don't go overboard going on about RC, well, vintage RC. People are shocked and interested at times to learn I'm futzing about with a 40 year old "toy". I suppose I saw the same scenario play out in the model train world. The oft times impenetrable, gatekeeping that went on in that world was sometimes juxtaposed with the more kindly adult happily showing a youngster the ropes.

21 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Autistic and extroverted is a pretty rare combination, as I understand it. That's gotta be tough.

It is, or at least it will be increasingly so. I'm not sure how to tackle it. The autism part, I can help with. The extrovert part is a mystery to me.

50 minutes ago, Pablo68 said:

I do hope your daughter is ok.

Thank you. She is. She's still at the point where she can brush it off. Adults, in general, around the neighborhood are pretty friendly to her and always seem amazed that she's frequently playing outside (probably how they remember how kids used to be, lol) and that I'm usually with her. I guess parents don't interact with their kids as much as they used to. Honestly, school will be the increasing problem. Last year was 3rd grade and that was the point classmates stopped accepting her as "quirky" and either started messing with her (she is quite open but has poor acumen and no "guile") or actively trying to avoid her. All I can do is be there for her and try to teach her the best I can.

[Pablo68 663]

32 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Great point. Even though I'm not a people-person. I feel its almost my duty to be a good representative for the hobby, should someone show interest. If anything I have to carefully regulate myself so I don't go overboard going on about RC, well, vintage RC. People are shocked and interested at times to learn I'm futzing about with a 40 year old "toy". I suppose I saw the same scenario play out in the model train world. The oft times impenetrable, gatekeeping that went on in that world was sometimes juxtaposed with the more kindly adult happily showing a youngster the ropes.

It is, or at least it will be increasingly so. I'm not sure how to tackle it. The autism part, I can help with. The extrovert part is a mystery to me.

Thank you. She is. She's still at the point where she can brush it off. Adults, in general, around the neighborhood are pretty friendly to her and always seem amazed that she's frequently playing outside (probably how they remember how kids used to be, lol) and that I'm usually with her. I guess parents don't interact with their kids as much as they used to. Honestly, school will be the increasing problem. Last year was 3rd grade and that was the point classmates stopped accepting her as "quirky" and either started messing with her (she is quite open but has poor acumen and no "guile") or actively trying to avoid her. All I can do is be there for her and try to teach her the best I can.

Does she have anything like teaching aides or staff at school to help her along? They generally do over here, and compared to what it was like when I was a student, the kids are a fair bit more accepting of differences than they used to be.

[Saito2 4196]

2 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

Does she have anything like teaching aides or staff at school to help her along? They generally do over here, and compared to what it was like when I was a student, the kids are a fair bit more accepting of differences than they used to be.

Not really. She is mainstreamed and not placed in a special classroom. My daughter was really on the edge socially on where she fell but considering her meltdowns were not physically violent and she is quite intelligent (I taught her some basic algebra principles after 1st grade and is probably the only kid to know a nonagon has nine sides). They let her leave class to go to a few specialist which we had to fight for. Her 1st grade teacher was older and outwardly disliked her to us. Halfway through first grade she said she had nothing left to teach her. The teacher was hostile in meetings dealing with my daughter toward other school administrators (like the vice principal) too. Having enough of that rubbish, I dropped the hammer and let them have it in the pocketbook. If they couldn't provide for her, state law requires the school district to foot the bill to send her to a specialized school of our choosing within the county. We didn't want that, but it gave us leverage. The next large meeting was quite different and her attitude had "magically" readjusted.

But its not all bad. Her 2nd grade teacher was excellent. She not only could cope with my daughter but gave work and studies above and beyond the other kids to keep her occupied. Really an first-class teacher and a great experience for my daughter.

If I had to guess, her trajectory will mirror mine. Kids will generally grow more hateful toward her crescendoing in middle school and then leveling out in high school, where kids mature a bit and become a bit less monstrous (well, most anyway, lol) 

[Pablo68 663]

16 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Not really. She is mainstreamed and not placed in a special classroom. My daughter was really on the edge socially on where she fell but considering her meltdowns were not physically violent and she is quite intelligent (I taught her some basic algebra principles after 1st grade and is probably the only kid to know a nonagon has nine sides). They let her leave class to go to a few specialist which we had to fight for. Her 1st grade teacher was older and outwardly disliked her to us. Halfway through first grade she said she had nothing left to teach her. The teacher was hostile in meetings dealing with my daughter toward other school administrators (like the vice principal) too. Having enough of that rubbish, I dropped the hammer and let them have it in the pocketbook. If they couldn't provide for her, state law requires the school district to foot the bill to send her to a specialized school of our choosing within the county. We didn't want that, but it gave us leverage. The next large meeting was quite different and her attitude had "magically" readjusted.

But its not all bad. Her 2nd grade teacher was excellent. She not only could cope with my daughter but gave work and studies above and beyond the other kids to keep her occupied. Really an first-class teacher and a great experience for my daughter.

If I had to guess, her trajectory will mirror mine. Kids will generally grow more hateful toward her crescendoing in middle school and then leveling out in high school, where kids mature a bit and become a bit less monstrous (well, most anyway, lol) 

Righto then. Over here (Aus) in my experience the emphasis is very much on keeping kids in mainstream as much as we can. They might have a special area/room to go to for some things, and there is usually a person specialising in this kind of thing who basically oversees the kids whole day/week at the school. This also includes teaching aide time.
Now it is not a perfect system here by any means, and resources are pretty limited too. But they are trying I guess.

Best of luck with your daughters schooling mate.

[Saito2 4196]

Thanks and thank you for your concern.

[NWarty 1228]

Nice topic Saito,

I always joke that Traxxas is the realm of meth-heads, and people who want a toy but can't be bothered to learn how to put it together. There's no investment in the hobby for many of these folks, and I think that sometimes translates into a cold shoulder to others.  (I've seen way too many tweakers at the hobby shop who can't figure out how to fix a suspension arm when they took their nitro-douchmaxx off a six-foot jump and launched it a 100 feet in the air).

I run my RC's in front of my house, and considering the amount of sidewalk foot traffic we get, am always prepared to talk about RC's if someone shows interest. In the 17 years I've been running them in front, only one time did a gentleman stop, and oddly enough, I was running my Heng Long 1/16 Tiger I thru the front grass. He was an old tanker from the 50's and we chatted about five minutes or so. I was pretty giddy about that interaction. 

99% of people are going to view them as juvenile toys.

I'd consider model railroaders and club flyers as the worst of the gatekeepers.