"WHO" Made Me Who I Am?: Part 1

In the beginning there was this.....really! Oh, okay, it was my brother Daniel. Let's get to it then. Who made the Frugal Propellerhead what he is. After the post on the table saw situation, I started thinking about how I got into the "do it yourself" end of life. I believe that people have dispositions, but they also have to make decisions. Decisions that they not only want to, but will do what's necessary to learn how AND to actually put those ideas into action. In that light, there are a number of people who I'll credit with being my "role models". Although, my father was an engineer, he was a Chinese engineer of the elder generation. Meaning that people of his social class didn't do physical labor with any regularity. They had "people" for that! In fact, he even brought some of those "people" to the United States to do the things that needed to get done. When my dad passed away some years ago, it was with soft hands and very few scars. My brother Daniel wasn't anything like that. While he's an electronics (Not really electrical), engineer with a degree in Physics (weird huh?), he always did things himself. Furthermore, he never let Polio which left him with virtually no use of his right arm, get in the way of doing much of anything. He's a high-level management guy with a Japanese electronics firm making big money, but he recently repaired his own washing machine. He's also 7 years older than I am (although my closes sibling in age), so growing up, he was my role model. There was many a days where I was his other hand, while he worked on the old Chevrolet Vega, building model rockets or cutting a piece of wood. Along the way, I learned that if you really want to, you can pretty much do anything for yourself. Being a life-long photographer (like me), he's far less comfortable in front of the camera than behind it (just like you-know-who). So the image above is a perfect stand-in for him. It's an old (we call it "vintage" these days) drill, with a press stand. These things could be found in kit form back in the late-60's/early-70's that would allow a person to do most anything (at least the commercials said so) in place of a real "shop". I don't remember the circumstances, but he either earned the money, or somehow convinced my famously frugal mom to buy it for him. We used it in all it's various forms for a number of years because he wanted to build things, and we were not only too poor to own "real" tools, but my Dad never saw them as a priority. In fact it was my Mom who would scrounge scrap lumber from neighboring construction sites and make step-stools and things like that!

There was a hiatus of fixing and building when I was turned 10, after my brother left for college. But 10+ years after that, I met Jeff (I've always had good luck with "Jeff"s in my life). We met playing church league ball (football, basketball, and softball) and he being about 10 years older than I, so for a time he pretty much took over the role of my brother. Jeff was an engineer (detecting a trend here?); he was the operations manager for an oil mill. Although an engineer, he was the exact opposite of my dad who was also basically the operations manager, but of a textile mill. He not only would get in there an work on the machinery himself, but he would routinely wear the mechanics style (Dickies) uniforms complete with name patch (with a fake name) at work!

Although my brother put me on the road of believing that a person could do things for themselves, it was Jeff that put the specifics in place. He had build his own shed/shop in the backyard. I don't mean he went to Lowes/Home Depot and bought a kit. He just flat-out built it on his own. In fact, he had even began digging a big hole in his backyard for a pool before his company transferred him away. Inside this shop, he had a bunch of tools ranging from drill press to table saw. None were bought new. They all came variously from pawn shops to garage sales, to auctions, picked up at a fraction of the original costs. So yeah....he's the one whose responsible for teaching me that. Oh yeah, did I mention that Jeff's avocation is amateur acting and he has appeared not only on stage in many productions, but also can be seen as an extra in some real Hollywood movies?

 

Then there's my father-in-law, Bob, otherwise known around here as "Bob the Builder". Bob is a "self-made-man". He left his native California to pursue his future bride in Amarillo, Texas when he was 17. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but here's what he did in the next 10 years or so. Started out living in a little Airstream trailer, did odd jobs till he earned his GED, became a fireman, worked construction on the side, earned a college degree, became ordained as a minister, earned a Masters degree, started working as an administrator for colleges in financial aid, became a pastor, retired (as the Dean of Enrollment Management), went back to work for a college on student management software, then recently re-retired and is in the process of moving out here!

This is what Bob actually looks like. He can build pretty much anything. It may or may not be pretty, but it'll work and it'll last. I'd say that about a quarter to a third of the furniture in our house was build by him or he had a hand in it. Significantly, he buys me tools. As I began the "putting down roots" stage of my life, of course he was there. And for a number of birthdays and Christmases, he either gifted me with tools or money so I could buy tools. Right now, my plan to upgrade my table saw from the base $300 is due partly to his contribution for my birthday this year. 

And then there's my friend Pat. I use Japanese "Pull" saws to represent him since, as I've said before....he's a "craftsman". He's actually half Okinawan from when his dad was stationed at the American airbase there. He is a bit unusual in the he mostly spent his formative years in Germany when his dad was stationed there and speaks German well, probably better than his Japanese, although I'm no judge of either! This little tidbit is maybe all you need to know about him to draw some conclusions. He has a BIG table saw made out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) that he designed and built himself. He's also responsible for the most nicely built piece of furniture in my house; the big audio/video cabinet that I spent a year on-and-off designing. The drawers have classic dove-tailed joints, there are pocket-doors, and it's completely modular. Oh yeah: he took my original design and put the whole thing on CAD with animation showing how the drawers and doors would work before we cut the first piece of wood!

So, is it any surprise that I feel a little bit like Luke Skywalker when I go into the garage to work on a project?