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(10-24-2018, 08:11 AM)®smpr_fi_mac® Wrote: Hopefully I'll be of mind to start getting rid of my crap before I die.
Therein lies the rub, methinks. How many people have good intentions to downsize, but pass, or are otherwise incapable, before they get around to it? None of us knows what tomorrow holds in store, much less X years down the road.
If you are going down a river at 2 mph and your canoe loses a wheel, how much pancake mix would you need to shingle your roof?
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I’m just coming into middle age, and my parents have already started passing things on to their kids. Smart move, that.
I understand wanting to pass on everything to the next generation. On the other hand, Robinson Crusoe didn’t care about the ship’s carpenter’s tool chest until he got washed up on the deserted island.
My grandfather was something of a handyman and had a few good tools. But he passed away when I was a kid. I now have a chisel and a whetstone he owned. But that’s it. Do I wish I had more? Sure I do. But if I had gotten a whole load of his tools all at once, I probably wouldn’t have treasured them like I do these.
Sometimes we don’t appreciate things until we lose most of them. There’s something to be said for salvaging a few fragments from a wreck.
Steve S.
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Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.
- T. S. Eliot
Tutorials and Build-Alongs at
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(10-24-2018, 06:46 PM)hbmcc Wrote: You can always do what my father-in-law did. Show up the day before his funeral in a steel box welded shut. He was shipped from the Cook Islands to WA State. It would have been OK, but the required vault was too small for his shipping container. They drilled through 1/4 inch steel and opened a wall with a jaws of life.
Cook Islands are a long way to come, well, that's one memorable way to arrive. Somehow, I think he must have been a real interesting person.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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(10-29-2018, 09:30 AM)Admiral Wrote: Cook Islands are a long way to come, well, that's one memorable way to arrive. Somehow, I think he must have been a real interesting person.
Yes, a bit. He was a postal clerk. It didn't matter where he was; if a total stranger was from Eastern WA, he knew their family. Really gregarious.
The Cooks were his snowbird destination. He swore they made him healthy so he stopped the wrong prescription while there that winter. The body was welded into a steel box, witnessed by authorities, and shipped back--to prevent carrying illegal drugs. They had insurance with the funeral home and the owner knew him.
No one seemed overly surprised about the circumstances of his return. Some probably expected him to be dinner in a soup pot.
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I'm probably a bit younger than most here (37) and my kids are just starting school. I do have a lot of tools, both mechanics and woodworking, but I don't really consider any of them sentimental. I hope that my kids have their own collections of tools long before I'm gone. They're good tools, so maybe they'll find some useful ones for their collections when I go. Most of my mechanics tools were acquired while working as a mechanic in college. I keep those because I use them.
I suppose I do have a couple of mechanics tools that are sentimental. I have a set of Snap-On wrenches that I won in a Ford/AAA Auto Skills contest in high school. There isn't exactly an "upgrade" beyond that, so why would I get rid of them? I also have a Craftsman toolbox that I got for graduation. I use it as the top box of the set in my woodworking tools.
I've cycled through woodworking tools over the years, upgrading as I go. I don't have any high-end hand tools. I do have an Akeda dovetail jig, which seems hard to get these days. None of my tools are things I'm holding onto with the intention of passing down. As my kids get older, I have them help me with all kinds of projects. Maybe they'll want something because of those memories? Who knows.
I do have some decent furniture that I've made and we still use. It's certainly not heirloom quality, but it is nice and solid. It has survived the kids quite well. It would be nice if they wanted them, but I intend to use them myself for a long time. Maybe I'll use them up? I have plenty more that I want to build.
My Mom was big into quilting after she retired. After she passed, we didn't keep the tools she used, but we kept what she made. She got pretty good at it and some are some really nice pieces. Others are nice, but really aren't our style. I'll hang onto them for my kids later, but that's not a lot to store.
