My Woodworking Grandpa !!

I too love older people my friend and compadre in machining and woodworking is a sprightly seventy six year old , and he is a great guy too, and a great maschinist .Glad you found a relationship with Spec sounds like a one of a kind You have a lot (like me) to learn and these old boys and girls know a lot we don’t Kindest regards and God Bless Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

great post Don….thanks for sharing and reminding us what we have around us….and to not let it go untapped or get lost…

-- Splinters - Living and Loving life in the Rockies - http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/ - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5220040

I, too, say thanks to you for the reminder.

Really enjoyed your post. We should also remember to share the knowledge that we have, whether it is woodworking or some other skill. There is a little of “Spec” in all of us.

-- "A goal without a plan is a wish."

thanks don ,
it’s very sad to see the change ,
from caring about people ,
to caring about things .
everyone likes to talk ,
but only in listening ,
do we learn !

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

Don, this is a nice post. It serves as a reminder that with woodworking, as with most things in life, the real joy comes, not from producing, but rather in giving and sharing what we have learned with others. A lot of us are self-taught and would welcome an opportunity with which you have been gifted.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Thanks Don, you are speaking from my heart. I wishI could relate stories like that via the written word. As Don says , do not forget that generation and lets pass on our skills and knowledge.

-- Bill - If I knew GRANDKIDS were so much fun I would have had them first.

Thank you for the enlightening story. I gained my love of woodworking from my Grandfather as he made beautiful pieces in his shop – using mostly hand tools.

Some cultures revere the older generation and listen to their wisdom and advice. In our fast food/in a hurry culture (USA) we mostly ignore them and treat their experience with disdain.

Wisdom and experience can be passed on if the recipient is amenable….otherwise it is lost and will have to be learned again…at what cost? Like the old saying – If you don’t learn from history, you are destined to repeat it.

It is sad when a generation is lost and all the experience and wisdom with it…glad to hear when it is not…I always try to find the time to listen…it has saved me alot of time and trouble too.

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

Wow, what a great experience. I know what I am going to do tonight, thanks for the reminder.

Dean

-- Making sawdust is what I do best

Hey Don
I don’t know if I could teach you that much and I’m not 80 but if you want to you can mow my lawn.:-)) Just kidding guy . I am so touched by your story and your consideration, love and respect for spec. The world needs more people like you. And as is the point of your story is ,as I see it, I will endeavor to keep your thoughts in mind when in contact the older generations and everyone who need to share a story or life experience. Thanks for your wonderful and caring post.
Jim

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Thanks for the kind words guys….The reason I did this post is because I went by his house this morning…and he was doing very poorly, and it really struck me how little time he has left. When I came home I spent allot of time thinking about Spec…and I realized how much he has really given me over the years…and what a gift he has shared with me. Not JUST his woodworking skills…but his advice, his wisdom and his friendship.

I just wanted to share this with everyone…and encourage some to reach out to those like Spec. They may not have the woodworking skills like Spec did to pass on…..but they do have a life time of wisdom and experience to pass on…and all most want in return is someone to listen and be a friend.

-- Don S.E. OK

Very special story. Very special man! Thanks for the nice post.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Don Thanks for the great story and about the need to share our skills and to receive them graciously from others.

Thanks.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Don,

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I would have loved to have had such a teacher and friend. Now that I’m getting old, I have often thought how nice it would be to have a young lady who would like to pursue woodworking—not that I am skilled enough to really teach her, but that I would like to be an encouragement to someone younger.

-- "But godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6

lightweightladyleftie,
Just grap some young lady or boy at the church and ask them to help you do something… You never know what tidbit of knowledge you throw down they may pick up.

-- Don S.E. OK

In some ways it is too bad time has to march on.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Bob,
I know exactly what you mean.

-- Don S.E. OK

Thank you for the touching post Don. It reminds me of all the time I spend with my next door neighbor. He too is getting up there and allways seems to have a story to tell. He has allways had a business of one kind or another and they all have their own story. Sometimes when I haven’t seen him in a day or 2 , it seems like he just lights up when we get a chance to talk. I appreciate all the wisdom he has to offer and am very glad he has become a freind.

We all need to stop and listen a little more. I have heard the quote ”The best classrooml in the world, is at the feet of an elderly person” I beleive that with all my heart. You can learn more from someone who has actually done something, then you ever can from a book or on your own. Some day I hope to find someone local that I can work with side by side.

Also some of you have seen that I am trying to pass things on to my daughter the same way I am still trying to learn. I just wish she had more time to spend in the shop.

As a final note, I just want to say a big ”thank you” to all the LJ’s out there that have been there to help all of us newbee’s to enrich our skills. Your posts and wisdom is what this site is all about.

Thank You

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Don, thanks for the story, and I don’t mean “sea story”, I have had many “Specs’” in my life over the years, I have lost them, maybe due to the stupidity of youth,(my own) they have either passed away, or I have moved away, either way you don’t always appreciate them fully until they are no longer around, my last one was named Floyd, he was a retired welder, not a woodworker, we each made home brew, and spent a lot of time sampling our products together, once after a couple of weeks of not stopping by, his wife told me that he had missed me not coming over, so I tried to make it at least every other week, if not every week, he was a fountain of knowledge of the history of this area, having been born and raised around here, he passed on the day before my daughters wedding, and I felt as sad as I did when my Dad passed away, it has been 12 years now, since Floyd has gone, and I still miss him. I still miss my Dad also, I used to sit on the floor and ask him question after question about when he grew up and when he was in the war, (WWII), SeaBees, Tinian, he helped to build the building that the “A bomb ” was put together in, he told me that he had ask an officer “what is this building for?” and his reply was ” I can’t say, but the war will be over soon”
it will soon be 22 years since I lost Dad, and there are still questions I’d like to ask him.
So Thanks again Don, for the reminder, I think we all have some “Specs’” in our lives, we need to learn to appreciate them.

-- Smitty!!!

Don, maybe “Spec” is short for” SPECIAL”!!!!!

-- Smitty!!!

Don, thanks for the post. These kind of stories seem to be most common in the woodworking world. I love how this craft brings multiple generations together.

-- Cody Crisp - http://www.ruggedcrosswoodworks.com

thankyou don for the wonderful life story, a blessing indeed to find
spec, and to have them share there lives and all that they have
learned, and how right you are, his generation is one that will never
be here again..im sure you will cherish all the time you have left
with him…enjoy it, and thanks for being a kind friend to a man who
needed the kind of friend you are to him.

-- The Grizzone

Great story Don. You should write a book. I’m at the age now when I’d like to pass on what I know to my kids. My daughter though seems more interested than my son. He’s in the corporate world too. However, my first grandson loves to work in the shop with me. So there may be hope yet. He’s only 5 but he sure has the knack for construction. The baby I’m holding is my second grandson. Of course I’m proud. Thanks again.

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

cool story, It would have been cool to have taped all those stories, so you could have kept them or even given them to his children?

-- If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem!

Don, Thank you so much for the touching story. So many of of us have been blessed to have a “Spec” in our lives at some point. Different people have influenced my life in so many different ways over the years, but Jack is the one who had the greatest impact on my woodworking career. Being around him as he worked totally changed my perception of quality woodworking. Sometimes, early on, he was very critical of some of my projects, but later I realized he was simply teaching me the right way to do something. I think maybe he saw something in me, because I never knew him to do that with anyone else. I will forever be in his debt for that.
Without Jack, I seriously doubt my work would be near what it is today.

Again,——Thanks again for sharing.

-- Kent Shepherd * The goal is-----More Tools!

Neodogg,
That would have been a cool idea…wish I would have thought of that. But there was never a “Set time” to sit and talk…it always just seemed to happen. At time’s we would spend hours just working on things and the past would never come up, just talking woodworking…and then other times right in the middle of something he would start off with something like…”You know, that reminds me of …” or out of the blue he would say “There was this time at …”...and I would/will sit like a small child at listen to him as he takes me on a trip through time with him. All the work stops and we just sit…him talking and me listening.

Just watching his eyes as he talks is mesmerizing….they are old, bloodshot and wrinkled…but you can almost see what he is seeing in his mind. Most of his stories, are just that…a story from his past….raising his kids, his parents…and most have a happy end to them.

And many of his war stories and funny…pranks him and his buddy’s pulled, the trouble they got into etc. But the times he decides to really open up to me…and shares the horrors he has seen in war, the faces of the men he has killed, the faces of dead buddies…still haunt him after all these years.

To watch him as he shared the story about Sargent McKinney…well…you would have to be a hard hearted man to not have tears in your eyes as you watch him relive those moments….As he laid in the field with three bullets in him..thinking it was his time as more bullets hit the ground all around him…trying to drag himself to cover….then seeing the “Sarge” zigzagging as he ran to his side…feeling the sarge pick him up and run with him to the closest fox hole….the relief and joy he felt as the sarge rolled him into the hole…and then the shock and horror he felt as he saw the sarge straighten up with a funny look on his face…and then tumble into the hole on top of Spec with the back of his head missing.

You could almost feel the roller coaster of emotions he was going through as he shared this story…from the shock of being hit, the fear of dying in a battle field and never seeing his wife and baby son….the pride he felt as a “Buddy” ran out in a hail of bullets to try and save him…the relief he felt as he hit the bottom of that fox hole…(by now the tears are rolling down his face and his voice is soft and cracking)....to the guilt he still feels and the horror and shock as he buried his face in his hands as he tells of holding the Sarge in his arms screaming for a medic at the top of his voice.

Hell…it made me break down like a little baby as he shared this with me.

-- Don S.E. OK

Wow…I hope he is feeling better….

I felt lost when my oldpa passed away…..he had spent so much time with me and I listening to him….he told me stories too….and showed me his own love of wood and working with it – not against it. I wish, everytime I finish a job or project that he could be with me to share it….he always took the time to tell me how proud he was of my achievements…..even though mine were so far below his skill….that little encouragement from such a master made me work all the harder to impress him…

It’s funny how nowadays these folks have to work so hard to find someone to listen to them, respect their experience and share a little friendship….being old should not be a curse. It is sad as they go and then we have to wait until someone steps up to try and fill their shoes….

What a great experience you are able to share Don….and thank you for sharing it with us

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

Excellent story …I’ve never been too busy to lend an ear to an “experienced” person : ) Some of my best memories in life are of hearing and learning from the “old timers”

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .