Wow, what a great thread. Its good to hear of such close family bonds created by a common passion.

My entire life has revolved around aviation. Since I can remember, I have been surrounded by planes. I, too, was introduced to modeling by my dad, who was introduced by his dad. (I unfortunately never met my expert modeling grandfather, whom I am named after) Throughout my childhood, my dad built plastic and built up tissue models all the time. (We always had a few Guillows model around!) We have videos of me as a 2 year old playing with my dads plastic models making airplane noises, and even at that young age, I was allowed to "play" with them and did my best not to damage them.
One time, my dad brought me back an English R/C magazine when he was on a business trip in England. It had full scale plans folded inside for a simple motor glider. My dad had always been interested in gliders, so he actually wanted to build it and fly it. So, both of us spent our time cutting out pieces and scratch building the glider. My dad bought the Hitec Laser 6 radio that I still have. It was such a great experience, and while the glider only flew twice (it was too underpowered, so we retired it and moved on) it really kick started my R/C habit.
Eventually, I became more and more absorbed in R/C, while my dad migrated to full scale gliders. Today, as a 19 year old junior in college, I am just as addicted to R/C as my dad is to soaring. And while we may not spend time together on weekends because he's at the airport and I'm at the flying field, we still talk about what we did at the end of the day and are still very involved with the t=others hobby. And from time to time, I go flying with my dad in our glider, and he comes to watch me fly at the field. We're both extremely interested in each other's hobbies, even if we dont practice them as much.

I am eternally grateful for what my dad has done for me. In the early days of my R/C-ing, even though dad was flying his gliders, he still supported me and my R/C stuff. Last year however, he helped me get an excellent internship at his job so that I could fuel my own fire. Today, I am self-funded in my hobby, and yet that is still thanks to my dad.

I may be one of the younger ones here, but to all you dads, just let me say that the gift of a good hobby and spending quality time with your children is probably the best thing you can do for them.

Mark, thanks for the story and memories, and best wishes with your health issues.