My exposure to Erector Sets

As a child my exposure to Erector Sets was very limited.

My parents thought they were too expensive, so I never got one.

My cousin had an Erector Set and I played with it a bit with him.

We built things according the the directions that came with the sets and quickly got bored.

A few years later, a friend who lived down the street built a working model of a guillotine using parts he'd inherited from his older brother, a razor blade and some melted lead for weight.

With that, he destroyed a few plastic army men and cut a few twigs, but most importantly, I realized at that point that there was MUCH more that could be accomplished with Erector sets than simply following the directions.

I never got an erector set until I was around 30 years old.  My lovely wife knew that I had and infatuation with them and put one on layaway at a local toy store until my birthday.

I still never progressed much beyond the instructions, but always knew there was more to be done.