Our grandfathers grew up in the same world.
My granddad didn’t get his first ride in an automobile until he was almost grown. Electricity and indoor plumbing were something that only well to do folks had in their homes. Clothes were washed on a washing board by hand, and no one in their neck of the woods had a gas burning stove. Refrigeration was an ice box, and a sit down meal in a restaurant was considered a formal occasion.
My granddad was a builder during his working years. He spent decades as a master carpenter, running his own construction business. He had every tool under the sun, but the most interesting ones, were the old tools he’d used when he was young. All of them were hand-powered, manual types.
It was fascinating to think that when he first learned the trades, everything was done by hand. Those old fashioned ways came through in all of the work he did, too. It was all sturdy, and built to last. Wonderful stuff.
Not only do I like your opinions, but I would have liked to have met your grandpa and to have seen his work. God bless!
It was fascinating to think that when he first learned the trades, everything was done by hand. Those old fashioned ways came through in all of the work he did, too. It was all sturdy, and built to last. Wonderful stuff.
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I’ve dabbled in finish carpentry and have done quite a bit of framing. When I look at what those guys produced using nothing but hand tools, and primitive ones at that, I am in awe.
——It was fascinating to think that when he first learned the trades, everything was done by hand.-——
That amazes me. I can’t imagine sawing boards all day.
The old finish work amazes me too. Despite all of our mechanization, beautiful finish carpentry is a thing of the past.
My father was born in 1906 too. He grew up in rural NW Ohio. (He was A LOT older than me, by the way!:-)). I wish he were still around to hear some of his stories. I do remember him talking about being out in a field, hearing a loud noise, and wishing and hoping that it was a plane he was hearing. It turned out that it was! He was very excited! I know that his family had a car and that at the age of 7 or 9 he drove himself to the dentist in the next town to have a tooth pulled. Life was different then. He was a math teacher. When the first calculators came out, he was amazed that this box, the size of a typewriter, could do what we now consider just the basic mathematic functions: + - × ÷.