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I can say that over the past 21 years of this hobby, people have been very nice and helpful and I try to display the same attitude towards others.
As far as niceness, my first experience was when I was in the 7th grade (1990) and the local newspaper ran a story about me and my newly acquired antique radio hobby (I think some of my school teachers had something to do with that article). It wasn't long before people in the community, many of which I didn't even know, were tracking me down to give me an old radio or radios. These were mostly older folks and I think they were just happy to see a legally blind kid who was making an effort to do something constructive with life while the other teenagers of the day were doing drugs, getting drunk, and getting their girlfriend's pregnant only to leave them "high and dry".
The second experience was about a year later, when I was advertising for old radios on a local call in "buy & sell" program on a local radio station. One day, an older man, who I found out only lived less than a mile from the house, called and wanted to come by for a visit. It turned out that his wife had recently passed and he had heard me several times on the radio. He said that on the day that he called me, he said to himself, "Loyd, are you just going to sit here all the time wasting away or are you going to get off your butt and help that kid out". After that first meeting, he came over here most every Saturday for several years and we spent the day fixing radios. Or, should I say, we spent Saturdays with him showing me how to fix radios. This went on for several years until he re-married and moved to another part of the state. Even though he left town, we still stayed in touch until he passed away about 6 years ago. In fact, this guy ended up blaming me (in a nice way) for getting into antique radio collecting. He closed his TV shop in the early '70's and pretty much walked away from it. I think the only things he held on to were one or two old radios, his Weller soldering gun, and his trusty Eico 232 VTVM. When he died, his widow ended up selling me most of his radios at a good price.
Also, there were two or three other older guys who used to be in the radio/TV business that I used to pester; but, they have all passed on, as well.
I will say that everyone here and on ARF has gone above and beyond to help me out and I'm also glad to see that there are actually people in my age group who enjoy the same things as I do.
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