Sept. 02, 2007 - 21:23 MDT

APPRENTICESHIP

For one who has difficulty in learning and is coping with a young person's lack of coordination, things aren't easy.

After cutting my finger to the bone trying to open a jackknife at a young age the adults in my life made sure that anything that could cut was kept out of my hands. Didn't tether my ambitions though.

The big ones had mercy though, a cabinet maker uncle brought me my very own hammer and a huge bunch of nails. Little by little I did learn a few things. How to hold a nail before striking it, how to keep from hitting my fingers, how to aim my blows to the nail head to avoid bending the nail and things like that. Then learning not to put a nail too close to another nail in order to prevent splitting the wood was a gradual learning process. Finding out that intentions and incantations made not a bit of difference, if they were too close -- the wood split !

I remember objects of my labor, several four by fours about two feet long so loaded with nails on all sides it was hard for me to pick them up they seemed so heavy.

What little I learned stood me in good stead when it came to various childhood efforts of joining pieces of wood for two by four skate wheel skooters and such things.

The same uncle later on gave me a few lessons in using a handsaw which included the use of a square and a carpenters rule (the folding kind). It took me a long time to master cutting a straight line after struggling mightily with the square and remembering which side of the line to cut on.

Along the way as I grew older the use of a plane came into my sphere and along about that time a bit of chisel work was learned.

It was depression time and about the only material I could get hold of was scraps from various carpentry projects in our neighborhood. But I had fun. In Junior high Shop consisted in learning to work metal a bit and things like that. So there are no majestic school efforts of mine on display in my family, but what I did learn was put to use and more as I began to work out in the adult world.

My working life was mostly working with my hands, assembly, machine shop and such.

After I retired two of my projects were in daughter's old house fixing up her closets, shelving and such and in their new house I did the same. I was getting to the age though that I could drill the holes and such and get screws started, but waited for daughter's man to finish driving them.

My dreams ? Sort of switch back and forth, dreams of being young and perfecting nail driving and being retired and doing work for daughter in her home. Fortunately they are both pleasant.

It was in no way formal, but I did serve a long and profitable APPRENTICESHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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