Bill Needs
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Recent Additions
    • Portraits
    • Animals
    • Nature
    • Architecture
    • Scenes of Marietta/ Cobb
    • Travel
    • Minimalism
    • Abstract
    • Nautical
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Recent Additions
    • Portraits
    • Animals
    • Nature
    • Architecture
    • Scenes of Marietta/ Cobb
    • Travel
    • Minimalism
    • Abstract
    • Nautical
  • Blog

Pen & Ink Blog

Grandpa was a carpenter

1/19/2018

5 Comments

 
Picture
Cleaning up after a recent construction project, the odor of saw-dust and wood shavings brought back childhood memories of my Grandfather.  

A quiet man, he allowed me to hang out as a child while he built our frame home after the war.  From an early age I was fascinated to see how a plan and numbers sketched upon a wood plank resulted in the precise removal of wood by a hand saw or plane, then two pieces of wood were purposefully joined.  Grandpa must have seen my fascination. He gave me my first handsaw when I was 8 years old without any explanation or expectation.  He was a quiet man.
I built my first boat when I was 12.  It floated, but required as much time bailing water as time paddling.  (That ratio changed with gobs of roof cement applied to the hull.)  There comes a quiet satisfaction for a kid to sit in a boat of his own creation, moved by a meandering stream under a midwestern sky. Many wood-working projects followed in years to come.
50 years later I visited an art museum. Not really my first visit, but for some reason this was the first time I really admired art. I saw and studied and found myself intrigued by the planning and careful crafting required by a solitary artist to build an appealing picture or a sculpture.  Was that an echo I heard?

5 Comments
Nancy
1/20/2018 10:58:28 pm

Love this little article. So happy you got to experience this with Grandpa. He was a quiet Christian man. So many happy memories of he and grandma and the time I got to spend with them in the summer. I was able to spend a week with them.

Reply
Bill Needs
1/21/2018 07:20:58 am

Thanks for the comments Cuz. Would you please forward this website to your brothers? They may have similar memories and, if so, I'd like to hear them.

This Spring I hope to refine this sketch and make it more suitable drawing. I'll let you know when I finish it. I hope to also develop a drawing from that photo (I think taken by Peg or Weezy) of grandma in her garden.

Reply
Lynn Rechsteiner
1/23/2018 07:28:20 pm

Love this Bill- so touching. Reminds me of a story from Hans. A family member often gave him tools and other building objects as gifts. He attributes that to his ability to become an engineer. We have such an impact on those around us, thankful you had one on me. Hugs.

Reply
Bill Needs
1/23/2018 08:11:13 pm

Thanks for your comment Lynn. No surprise to me that Hans received the same kind of gifts, which ultimately formed his life-plan and his values. 'Guess that's only one of the reasons why we connect to deeply when we get together..

Of course, the beer also helps. :-)

Reply
Rebecca link
2/25/2018 07:36:43 am

Great post, Bill. I am enjoying your blog! Keep it up!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Bill Needs

    Archives

    April 2023
    January 2022
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All
    Welcome

    RSS Feed

© COPYRIGHT 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.