Original oil painting by: Grandfather’s wife
Grandfather says after he retired, he spent some time repairing old furniture for an “antique” dealer. Woody was his name and he made soirees into the Pennsylvania countryside to buy old stuff from “pickers” (folks who buy and collect the stuff for resale).
Woody acquired and sold to Grandfather quite a few of the tools Grandfather uses to this day.
Anyway, Grandfather accompanied Woody on one of his trips and on the way back they got to talking about deep subjects; and then Woody ran out of gas. It was after midnight and we walked up to a darkened farm house and knocked on the door. Woody cautioned me to stand to one side, in case the farmer shot at us through the door.
Grandfather says he doesn’t remember the details, but Woody eventually made landline telephone contact — that’s all there was, in those days — with his wife.
It appeared to Grandfather that Woody was lucky Grandfather was along, to corroborate Woody’s story.
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is an octogenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
Woody’s establishment (long since succumbed to urban sprawl) was a rambling shed with every object you might think ever existed in the countryside, for sale under its roof.
Woody kept a junkyard dog inside overnight to deter burglars.
First thing he had to do when he opened up for business was find the dog poop.
Old furniture is often cracked here and there and Grandfather sometimes used “butterfly patches” across them.
The web is full of directions for making them using power tools, usually a router, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iryk-76bmH4
Grandfather preferred to work entirely with a hand chisel and fashion the patch non – symmetrically, i.e. close-fitting but a bit “out of shape”.
No way it could be mistaken for machined work.