I posted this in the General room, Steaks&Anvils asked me to post it here.
Well, there it is. I know it may not look like it, but this is a pretty magical thing right here. I moved it today into my new shop I built and decided I needed to tell folks about it. Before I can tell you about the magic, I have to tell you about the guy that had it before me, he was my grandfather. His name was Waylon, but I knew him as Gran Gran. Gran Gran had a lot of adventures growing up, but that's another story. He worked for Ford when the factory was in Dallas. He built cars as well as B24's at one point before leaving for the War. He served in the 24th Rainbow Division of the US Army as some sort of communication tech. He didn't talk alot about it, but he did say he helped run telephone lines as they advanced into Germany.
Gran Gran came back home after the War, went back to Ford and retired there when Ford left Dallas. Gran Gran had this wooden storage unit in his garage in Crandall Texas. I remember it very well, since he was always "piddleing around" in the garage. Over the years he built furniture, worked on cars, restored antique trunks, rebuilt and repaired a few travel trailers, and rebuilt several bicycles for kids, as well as lots of other things. In fact, he bought broken bikes and mixed and matched parts and pieces to make bikes.
What I always remember about this set of drawers and pigeon holes is that was where he kept 'stuff'. He had stuff for fixing plumbing, wiring, cars, boats, bikes and toys. It just seemed that whenever he, or we needed a part or a bolt or something, he would go out and dig around in the drawers and always found something that would work. This was moved to his new house when they moved out of Crandall and stayed there for many years. Gran Gran taught me, by direct instruction and by just doing what he did, that it's good to know how to fix things. He taught me to take pride in my work and to do a good job, even if its just me that knows it.
Gran Gran passed away many years ago, and my grandmother "Granmommy" told my dad to bring my brother and me to get whatever tools we wanted. We weren't in a hurry to go clean out his stuff, but after awhile we got together to talk about it. I told dad that the only thing I wanted was this, that I would love to have some of his other things but this was what I wanted above all else. We agreed on a time and met at Granmommies to load some things up. Dad started to open drawers to unload the contents. He kind of looked at me like I was crazy when I told him I wanted the stuff in it too. We carefully loaded it up, it actually is made in several layers of drawers. I brought it home and have had it since.
So what makes this 'magic'? I can't tell you how many times I needed some odd bolt, or nut or washer, or something that I just couldn't find. Many times I have said to myself and to my sons 'let's go see if Gran Gran has anything that will work". More often than not, in fact most of the time after some digging I find it. I have of course added 'stuff' to it. Lots of pocket parts have been dropped in since I got it. But I'm still finding his stuff that I can use. Another thing it has is it's aroma. I can't begin to explain what it smells like, old wood, oils, dirt, I'm not sure. But when I get close and especially when I open a drawer I smell it, and it takes me right back to his garage, 'helping' him work, watching him, and hearing him say as he walked over to it to dig for what he needed "well, let's go see what we can do".
