Tool Connects me with the past

The other day I was repairing a section of old picket fence that we had bought at a yard sale a while back.

Needing a clamp to hold one of the pickets in place as I was working, I went down to the basement and brought up my Dad's old, slightly rusty, C-clamp.

The heavy steel clamp was basement cold when I held it, but it warmed my heart, because I knew that it had been one of my dad's tools before his death in 1950 when I was 5.

Using HIS clamp to work on MY project gave me a special physical sense of connection with him on this Fathers Day.

I'm thinking about looking around the house and garage for other old things which might reconnect me with the past......for example these very old 35mm movie film cans in which my dad kept assortments of screws, nails, bolts, nuts, tacks, etc, each can carefully labeled using medical adhesive tape.

To this day I have all of these 65 year-old film cans next to my toolbench with the same kinds of hardware items inside each one.

Comments

Heather said…

That's cool, dad. I can totally picture all the film cans in the basement. Nails, screws, nuts, washers...all easily found. I think I need to buy Brian some old film cans.

June 22, 2009 at 1:20 PM

Vivi said…

I distinctly remember the smell of the old film cans and how you always had them neatly stacked in the basement of our two houses growing up. Neat that you were using your dad's old tools on Father's Day.

June 23, 2009 at 2:29 PM

The Gentle Smith Matriarch

We met in 1966 when she was 18 and I was 22. We began dating soon afterward, and as I recall never disagreed on much. Our childhood homes were 3000 miles apart and we loved Minnesota and each other, so we got engaged in July 67, married in December and moved into a house with a teenage foster daughter. This was followed by , Daughter 1 the following September, Daughter 2 three years later, Daughter 3, a year and a half later, ..and eventually Son, 3 years later. There were also about 15 different short-term teen-foster boys in those years. The gentle matriarch has worked her whole life, hard. I went to college nights for a few years, she worked outside the home part-time while the kids were growing. She spent frugally, loved lavishly, and has always cared first and foremost about her family. She is a gentle giant who has brought love, fun, discipline, imagination, good food, and artistic, creative homemaking to our big family....and as I write this she's preparing for Easter Dinner...

Red fiche- table with impatiens

It's an odd practice, in a way, but one I've come to like: you set a piece of old indoor furniture outside, and just let it weather, ......forever. I grew up in New England,where there were a lot of roadside antique (or junk) stores, which converted to fruit and vegetable stands in the growing season, or Christmasy craft stores and maple syrup places in winter. At any rate, I'm accustomed to indoor furniture outdoors, and since Nana likes it, everybody's on board at our house. She's selective, however, and requires that the pieces have some interesting, enduring quality. In the case of this red table, it served it's first 30 years as a sturdy table for fiche at Bethel College. When BC became BU, the fiche lost out to digital media, and the sturdy table hitched a ride 45 miles south to our Lakeville back yard, where it is now learning to give itself to a new audience of human admirers, plus a few daddy long-leg spiders, and a specimen or two of summer-sno...

I was invited back to Paragon for a day of fun

On a gorgeous August 13 morning, Sandie picked me up at home so that I could tour the new Paragon office and hang out with lots of great work friends for lunch on a river cruise aboard the Mississippi Queen. Jesper and Bill Lunch was a banquet of fine food, drinks, and desserts, which we enjoyed while leisurely cruising the vital Mississippi, including a couple of the locks, and a great view of the Stone Arch Bridge near downtown Minneapolis. Martin met me with a huge cucumber, which made it seem just like the old days for me. Paragon occupies a bright new suite with terrific views in all directions. Mid- morning I got called into Martin's office. When I stepped in, there were already people there, and they presented me with a handsomely-framed collage capturing many of my fondest days with this extraordinary collection of work-friends. I am a blessed and lucky man!

PTCPapa

Search This Blog