Mainely,Bob Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 You sound like my youngest son.He doesn`t say much but he sees everything. One of my favorite sayings is "I can do it and I aint a genius".It took my son Joe to point out"You may not be a genius Dad,but you have way more situational awareness than most of the population". I had to ask him to explain "situational awareness".He explained that I paid attention to what was around me and especially what to avoid or include in order to make things go more smoothly.I guess I have been getting by with using whatever was handy or what others had cast off for so long that it was just second nature to me. Joe is all about what works,not what is shiny and new. Many times one of his buddies will run to the store for a new gadget only to get back and find Joe has fixed it and moved on to the next problem.He thinks along the lines of "what do I need" rather than "what do I need to buy" and when he does buy something it`ll be something used,usually from the scrapyard or flea market/yard sale. I like to think he learned this from me but the truth is he just took what he observed and built on it to make it his own.Joe doesn`t wear the cool shoes or designer clothes(though he could if he wanted to)so he`s not considered among the "elite". Can`t help but notice though when all the cool guys show up most of them are wearing at least one thing my son made.A ring here,belt buckle there,knife sheath over there... If you`re anything like my son you feel little to no attachment to the people of your generation.Joe finds them even more amusing than I do. During his last visit he was telling me about a conversation between 2 of his female friends about a pan one of them had bought."They went on for 40 minutes about a cake pan Dad.They even had to stop a few times to text their friends and send pics thru their cell phones of the pan" he said shaking his head in disbelief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 4, 2010 Author Share Posted December 4, 2010 Anyone remember gingham gowns? How about Linsey-woolsey (less often, woolsey-linsey or in Scottish English, wincey)? It is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft.. Many have used a out house, but was it a one holer or a two holer, or the fancy one with the sliding board with a proper sized hole for the family members? Know the difference between a union suit and long johns? A union suit is a one-piece under-garment that dates back to the mid to late 1800s. They were invented in Utica, New York as an alternative for constrictive women's underwear. Despite this, union suits traditionally have been worn by men, typically to stay warm while farming, hunting, hiking, camping or doing any other type of outdoor activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 4, 2010 Author Share Posted December 4, 2010 The first week of school, the college campus police saw a car that had driven up onto the sidewalk and a pair of legs sticking out from under the car. Imagine their surprise when they rushed over and found Whitesmith under the car changing the oil. He was using the sidewalk as a ramp, much safer than using a car jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 Well I STILL have a set of tire irons and have used them too. I used to have a friend that owned a garage in a small town and we would sometimes make "field calls" where we would go into an actual field and change the tractor tire on the spot. Lots of farm equipment tires are still changed with hand tools... those pneumatic machines are just for automobile and truck tires. I've got ATV's and wheel barrows and riding mowers that are usually hand mounted (and demounted). I kept my families freezer filled with fish and game from the time I was 12 until my mid 30's. I loved the work too! There were some years when hunting was hard and I covered hundreds of miles afoot to get my game... wish I could still do that! Even at 12 years old I rode my bicycle up to about a 15 mile radius around our town to fish. I remember especially one afternoon when we were fishing a hole in a creek that flowed through the local city park golf course... the creek came through a culvert under the raised bed of the RR tracks and gouged out a large hole. We were approached by a couple of cowboy golfers that were kind of laughing about us fishing there... they asked the age old question "catching anything"... I will never forget the look on their faces when we showed them our stringer which had about a half dozen fat rainbows on it from 14" to 16"! They almost ran for their cars headed home to get their rods... but the action was mostly done for the day! BTW both rainbows and browns in the 5 to 7 pound range are occasionally caught in that creek... when I was a kid there were no browns there yet though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 The first week of school, the college campus police saw a car that had driven up onto the sidewalk and a pair of legs sticking out from under the car. Imagine their surprise when they rushed over and found Whitesmith under the car changing the oil. He was using the sidewalk as a ramp, much safer than using a car jack. Been there, did that. EMS was already en route before they determined that I was OK and working on the car. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 When ya got more hair growing out of your nose and ears than the top of your head! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 hmmmm, I'm guessing a straight 8 isn't quite the same as a flat 4??? and the post hole digger, my dad had one, sort of like a shovel with a big screw???? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 5, 2010 Author Share Posted December 5, 2010 Straight 8 cylinder is all 8 in a straight row, Engine looks like it is 6 feet long. Made from 1931 with 220.7 cu in (3,617 cc), to 1950-1953 with 263.3 cu in (4,315 cc) displacement. The 70 series had 263.3 cu in (4,315 cc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobago Posted December 5, 2010 Share Posted December 5, 2010 You grew up thinking Jean Shepard's radio show, LP's and live shows were the height of great story telling and comedy. Excelsior, Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
used-iron Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 I have loaded trucks with a cable shovel ( Unit ) repowered with a Chrysler straight 8,major gas hog. Not a good job, the motor was to big for the Unit. Then it was repowered again with a Buda diesel.Dug ditches with a cable hoe (Bucyrus Erie) powered by Walkashaw gas. Drilled water wells with cable tool rigs by Cyclone, BE , & Speedstar powered with everything from continetal, ford ,buda, detroit ,and allis chalmers. Those are just some of what i can recall. In later years we ran rotary drills. All the while the machine shop was running nites to fix the above collection of iron. At that time it was line shaft ,converted from hit and miss (Stover)to electric motor about the time i started. When i started we were still hand sharpening drills in an oil forge.Thank goodness for the bit service,and then carbide bits. Now retired to the machine shop full time.Yes all the machinery has been updated in the shop and the drills are all sold off. Started the summer i was 14 as gofer and was to dumb to run at first chance.Am 61 now and my kids call me a dinosaur. Lee from NYS land of taxes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 6, 2010 Author Share Posted December 6, 2010 repowered again with a Buda diesel. I used a sandblaster with a flat head straight 6 Buda engine directly coupled (via clutch) to a air compressor. Thing would run at 100 CFM at 100 PSI and would cut through metal if you were not careful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wshelley Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I have a fond memory of my brother trying to kick start an old Maytag engine that our uncle gave him. We were in the back of my dad's El Camino and he was getting frustrated since it refused to start. He gave it a mighty kick, it backfired and tossed him clean out of the truck! Ward Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caius Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 they make post hole diggers with engines? this is news to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willis Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 You wake up and think your dead because nothing hurts. You got both a small coke-in a bottle-and an ice cream sandwhich for 15 cents, and you could return the bottle for 3 cents. You live near the coast and Santa Clause shows up on either a shrimp boat or a tug boat. The first 4 years of your life you lived in an old CCC cottage and know what CCC stands for. You can remember when all the now upscale resturants on the bay were fish houses where you went to buy fresh fish, shrimp, oysters or crab and they furnished you ice out of their ice rooms for your coolers. When your parents piled you, your brother and all the cousins in in back of a pickup and drove you to the swimming hole or the river for your bath during the summer. When diving for turtles on the river the person left in the boat had to keep an eye out for inquisitive alligators and kept a can of rocks on hand to throw into the water near you as a warning when one got close. When you could go out to the lighthouse and watch the horseshoe crabs swarm ashore to mate. Yes I spent a lot of my early years in Florida near the coast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Hey our town has WPA sidewalks still in most places. I was conceived in a WWII barracks, does that count? (course it was married student's housing in the 1950's when my father was there...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I must be a man out of time...everything but the last and I'm still a young bugger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 they make post hole diggers with engines? this is news to me. Yea but now they're called gas powered augers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viking-sword Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I'm not as old as some, but I grew up driving an Oliver tractor that wasn't even half wore out and was tickled when we got fairly new Minniapolis Molines as replacments. My dad and grandad always took Rc cola and lard sandwiches to the fields that they cleared themselves with sticks of dynamite bought down at the hardware store, and oh was I so glad when we got our first vacum cannister milking machines so we got an extra hour of sleep in the morning. And Rachel Welch Was the hottest women on the tv! Wes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchymist Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 you can use a draw knife and a spokeshave. Do you remember how to start a gasoline blowtorch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old N Rusty Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 mowed grass with a reel mower and never used a drop of foreign oil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old N Rusty Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 know how to sharpen a reel mower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Ill be teaching my grandkids to use a drawknife in another couple of years tGLWatCDR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyancarrek Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Your phone was on a party line and only had 5 or 6 numbers . . . . (ours was OXF-258) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 My parents had a telephone that you had to crank. The operator then came on and connected you. One of my first automobiles used a crank to start. There was an OLD blacksmith out back of my dad's business. Used to shoe mules among other endeavors. Spent many an hour watching and was as sad as his family when he up and passed on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuk Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 im a youngin but i know what and how to use an adz, and drawknife, and could probaly figure out in short order how to use a spokeshave. also know how to use and sharpen a sythe properly. i think i was born in the wrong time period :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.