Gentle Galoots,
'Tis time to revise my bios as life has changed a bit since my last.
I am 57 with 3 grown sons, 3 wonderful DILs and 2 g'daughters that I
dearly love. I am retired and have been gone from Illinois State with
severe migraines and spinal injuries since 2001 so I have had a long
time to enjoy retirement between headaches. After a trip to Mayo
Clinic the migraines have been controlled and even virtually
eliminated, so I am now a recovering migraineur! Life has taken a turn
for the good.
Tools of all sorts and descriptions are a passion. While old
technology is first on my list, I find myself attracted to old washing
machine motors, scroll saws I have made or are so old nobody else
wants them, and my 6 ft. lathe with which I turn walking sticks and
rolling pins. My shop ranges over the three rooms of an old basement
and has been affectionately known as "Tool Hell" since it has somewhat
the sense of descending into the bowels of same, but after reading of
the shop entitled the Magnetic Anomaly I may have to change the name
to something less literally descriptive!
I don't get a whole lot done to be honest, though I have good
intentions! My collections can be loosely categorized into three
groupings. There is the 18th century tool box and tools upon which I
dote, there is the 19th century tool box which is the biggest tool box
with so many lovely tools and then there is the 20th century tool box
which I consider part of my working tools. Unfortunately, my shop is
packed to the rafters with all those tools that have never been
categorized and all the wood that has not been worked or carved. To be
very honest I have more tools than any one man deserves or could ever
use, but that has not lessened my desire to keep collecting with the
aspiration of doing something useful. But, improved health has just
now begun to open possibilities. And as an old colleague of mine has
observed, "If nothing else, it will make one hell of an estate sale!"
She and I worked together too long, I'm afraid. I like virtually
everything that is old, odd or just new to me!
As I probably said before somewhere, my interests are eccentric and
eclectic. I will do bench work on most anything, ignorance being no
drawback! Victrolas, clocks, old appliances, early electric tools--
before plastic was invented, early radios etc. I like to carve wood
and my tools far exceed my abilities! But, that does not keep my
granddaughters from adoring admiration, and that is all that matters.
Any expectation of excellence went out the window a long time ago.
Today it is about fun!
Books, guitars, playing music, word-wide correspondences, wood
collecting, travel, keeping tabs on a far flung family, sharpening
knives, keeping the Associate Dean happy until I can convince her to
retire back to civilian life---- take up most of my time. Wood figures
prominently in life. My youngest son in the Coast Guard spent 15
months in the Persian Gulf and sent back furniture pieces and wood
that I can't yet identify from places that are mostly sand! My eldest
son, a chef, raids my wood pile to rescue the Apple wood for his giant
BBQ and the middle son, a marine biologist saves me pieces of Live Oak
from the Gulf area. So, I keep them all on the look-out making sure
the old man has wood with which to play.
Actually, I have one project this year which was most enjoyable. We
spent a few days with middle son and DIL over Easter and he and I
built a bookcase using the finest #2 pine we could find! He is 26,
finishing a doctorate, working full-time, but he and I had never
worked on a major project together. It was the most fun I have had
with a pile of wood in a long time. I introduced him to a world of
tools he had never cared much about, but it was my DIL who really
caught the fever! When she comes here she spends a lot of time
playing with the non-powered tools down in TH. The torch is not so
much passed as a new old tool enthusiast is born!
One final plug is in order. I bottom-feed when I can, but when I need
a fix and I need it now, I go to The Honourable Anthony Seo. He has
taught me more about old tools than anyone or any book, for which the
LOML may never forgive him! Paul in Normal
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