Hey Red! They had all kinds of self-esteem. They may not have known what it was, but they had it. When a kid wanted something, he/she went out and EARNED it. Selling papers, mowing lawns, and whatever it took to save that $3.00 for a kit that had glue and lacquer in it. Then that $12.00 motor was something else but it was well cared for while it operated.

Building a FF or CL model on a worktable of a large cardboard box side, while sitting on the floor in one's bedroom, and then sliding it under the bed when not working on it, using the most basic tools -- did you ever "drill" motor mounts using a wire heated on the stove burners -- and cutting the fingers with that razor blade used for cutting balsa parts, and many things that either you and I could not now do, but we did them back then. That was self esteem at its best. Kids did what needed to be done to get the things they wanted. Mom and Dad had other things to take care of, like earning a living.

OTOH, I wonder just how "smart" some of us were.