The Wood Shop

[Tony Falotico]

Received this from a friend via e-mail today, thought you'all would enjoy........

Granddad's Paradise

When I was a kid I would pass time with Granddad in the old barn he'd set up as a wood working shop. "Granddad's Paradise" as the sign on the door boasted. Later, in his twilight years when his hand-eye coordination deteriorated it became known as "Granddad's Random Amputation Center".

Anyway, in the old days, after a demanding day of farm labor and once again surviving Grandma's loving attempts at murder by means of lard-soaked starches, we'd retire to the shop to become one with the wood. The thing I remember most was the old Craftsman table saw... the centerpiece of the shop and his only power tool. At first it was the loud noise that frightened me, but that was soon replaced with the dread of the gosh awful smell that nearly always followed. Neither seemed to bother Granddad, and you could tell by his smile that he loved that saw. Sometimes he would abruptly stop what he was doing, walk over and turn it on just to make a casual cut on a piece of wood. I thought this was strange given how meticulous he normally was about first measuring and defining a line.

Then one day he hurried over, threw the switch only to discover a split second too late that it was unplugged. The saw remained silent, but the barn rumbled with what sounded like someone quickly accelerating a Harley Davidson under a blanket... followed by the smell. He quickly cussed the old barn cat whose eyes were as big as mine, and also watering in self-defense, but I wasn't buying it. Cats are not design to contain such pressure without becoming a projectile, and Omar had never left the ground.

From that day forward I called it the old Crapsmans saw, and learned to step outside during cuts to unmeasured lumber. Maybe that's where the phrase "cut one" comes from... I don't know, but I miss the old fart.

[Steve Ash]

I had to read it twice Tony ( yeah I'm a little dense at times ) but I caught it the second time.....good one, Thanks!

[Fred Voorhees]

Tony your story reminded me of my grandfather. He was the one who gave me my love for woodworking. Darned if he could have only lived long enough to see some of the things that I am turning out! My grandfather was also the one who nurtured my love for the local dirt track stock car racing scene. The races was the real true thing that we had together. Every Saturday after he would come home from work, he would hurry and get showered up, eat something and then it was he and me heading out to the Flemington Speedway. We shared that experience for, God, I guess about almost twenty years before age caught up with him and he couldn't really put up with sitting in the stands for the needed amount of time. As with the woodworking, my Pop-Pop died before I attained some proud goals in the sport of auto racing such as writing for a number of publications, my announcing duties at a particular track, some publishing work that I did myself, radio and television commentating work and work in the public relations section of the sport. He would have been mighty proud.

My grandfather also had a Sears Craftsman table saw and in fact, he had two of them. He didn't have a big shop. It was just a small shed in his back yard of a row home on main street of my hometown. But he managed to do things back there that were pretty neat. I remember a long time ago, he helped me with a cub scout project. When I got old enough to begin to need to borrow his tools, it seems that I was the only one to bring them back in a timely fashion and in as good a condition as when I took them. It was this reason that he willed me his stuff when he died. I used the Craftsman table for a while before building my current shop and I finally got rid of the old girl. She wasn't very accurate in her old age. But, I do still have a few things in my shop that were my grandfathers and I cherish them to no end. Man, I really miss my grandfather. I sure do wish he was still around.:(