Born in 1947 and before I was 10 I was spending my pocket money on the famous Keil Kraft Flying Scale kits
of course I never got the Spitfires and FW 190s to fly but did have some success with the more sedate Luton Minor and Piper Cubs. Some good Pirelli rubber donated by an older modeler improved the perfomance dramatically.
The Keil Kraft Senator was a big step forward and made many a 2 minute flight on summer evenings.
I built a Hill receiver as a physics project at school and with the help of the fairly mad physics teacher resurrected an ED ground based transmitter. The combination had about a 100 yards range so I flew in left hand circuits around the TX.
I was about 16 when transistors became affordable and a home brew TX and RX was built as another school physics project and instead of a 60 inch 35 powered monster I built a 27 inch monster called a Sharkface, an Eric Clutton design. I had a huge amount of fun with that and wore out at least two small diesels.
There has been a resurgence of interest in the UK in flying by pressing a single button. The radio link uses modern 2.4ghz stuff and the rubber driven actuator is replaced by a modern servo but it is still pure button pressing at it's most basic. If I was in reach of those clubs I would be in there with a Sharkface and reliving my youth
http://www.singlechannel.co.uk/
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http://youtu.be/oYXPy8hBjBg