Tool Box

Didjy'ever hear Dolly Parton's song "Coat of Many Colors?"

Well...

Class has started up in the Apprenticeship program at work. And I'm really excited about that. They've figured out a way to make the class hands-on (insurance problems last time around), and we'll be learning drafting.

Very cool.

Anyway, for the hands-on portion, we had to acquire a bunch of tools. Simple stuff: chisels, plane, dovetail saw, steel square, scraper, tape measure... that kind of thing. I went digging around in my father's stuff to find his tools that I could use. So now, I'll be using his plane, his chisels, his square, his dovetail saw, and a few other items.

And while I was rooting, I came across a tool box. It's actually about a foot shorter than it should be. Stuff sticks out. But I needed something to put the tools in. I had it sitting in the kitchen, ready to take with me to work the next day, and he noticed it. "Ah! You dug up my old tool box! Great."

He told me that he got that when he was building our house.

That's all I needed to know.

At work, Columbine Boy, my partner in the hardware department, sort of snorted at my toolbox. "Huh. Couple of pieces of pine stapled together. Where'd you get that."

"Wellll," I replied, "it worked for my father when he built our house out of it from the basement to the attic, so I think it ought to serve me pretty well."

Columbine Boy didn't have a word more to say on the subject.

And I'm proudly lugging around those few pieces of pine stapled together that constitute my father's toolbox.

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