Father's Day

Tech Republic wants to know what geeky pursuits my dad inspired me to discover.


http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/what-geeky-pursuits-did-your-dad-inspire-you-to-discover/7189


My dad was born in 1905 and to my knowledge, never saw a computer. The one phone we had was pretty much off-limits to the kids, just in case the company he worked for needed him to work overtime.


When he attended school, he actually used a slate (a low-tech iPad, I suppose). It did support text and graphics, however.


What he did have was tools by the dozens. When I inherited his tool collection when he and my mom moved into an apartment, I got at least three dozen different hammers, several of which he made.


A couple of weekends ago, my daughter and I were raking the back yard and she found a fairly large thistle. When I cut it out with a knife my father had made, she asked about it. "He MADE it?" she said.


Yup. He made knives, chisels, hammers, even an anvil from a length of railroad track, so that he could use the anvil to make other tools. (I always hoped that the railroad track came from an inactive line.) Several of my chisels still bear the marks of the original files they were made from. He had a tap and die set, and made his own bolts.


With the tools he made, he made furniture, some of which I still have. I have a small bookshelf he made as a wedding present for my mom in 1933. Up until my mom's death last July, she kept a larger bookshelf he had made in her room in the nursing home.


Because of his interest in woodworking, he had a large collection of books on antiques and furniture repair. He also repaired furniture for the local museum. He said they picked him because he was old enough to remember what the undamaged piece would have looked like.


On a visit to Upper Canada Village, I remember him snorting when the young lad in the carpentry shop talked about a tool and had the wrong use for it. He asked my dad if he knew what it was for, and my dad proceeded to tell him about that and other tools for the next 15 minutes.


I asked him on my first visit to the village if they had used the sawmill to cut the boards for the bridge into the village, and he pointed out the circular saw marks on the raw lumber. "No," he said.
"the saw marks would be vertical."


He was handy, and loved working with his hands. And he loved talking. Lies, mostly, as I found out, but more interesting than the truth might have been.


So was he a geek? I suppose. He loved a problem, loved tinkering, loved figuring things out.


He could repair just about anything my brothers and sisters and I could break, and we kept him busy.


Even in retirement, he worked as a handyman, making things last just a little longer.


I think I will tidy up the workbench this weekend, and maybe I will make something.


It's what he would have done on Father's Day.

It's all about education

My other blog at Wordpress is more miscellaneous. This blog will focus on education. Admittedly it's all about education but this blog will, I hope, allow me to consolidate some of my thinking after close to 40 years in various classrooms and teaching occasions.