This is my contribution to "50 Years of Quarks" written on the invitation from Prof. K. K. Phua and Prof. Harald Fritzsch to the 50th Jubilee of the discovery of quarks. It consists of two parts. In the first part I describe chronologically personal recollections from the years 1956–1980. The second part contains excerpts from my book "Particle Physics: The Quest for the Substance of Substance" published in 1985.