Fran

It was my dad's. I never did get around to asking him just what it was, because I didn't want to embarrass him. Now that he was gone, I wish I had asked.###

My dad grew up during the depression, being born in 1925. Things were different then. You didn't just throw things away. There weren't nearly as many things to begin with, so those you had were precious. Who knows what that seemingly useless piece of wood could be used for. For now, it was precious, my dad made it for his dad, who kept it until he died, and then it went back to my dad. Now it is mine.###

This much I do know about it, he was never able to finish it. He caugth rheumatic fever that year, and was never able to go back and finish it. He was in bed for over a year, and had to learn to walk again. He never was able to finish school.###

I was surprised he would want to work in wood at all, since he had been out for several months the previous year, after hitting his knee with his axe while chopping wood. He told me he didn't even feel it until later. When he went back to the house he noticed the blood.###

So here it sits in front of me, a mystery that that has been handed down 3 generations, and will be handed down to the 4th and 5th. I'm not sure what it symbolizes, other than my father, and the sadness of those almost 2 years spent in bed.###

Ironically, the heart murmur caused by the fever had a alot to do with his death. Those 2 years followed him to the end.###

Someday I will sit down with my son, and eventually my daughter, and explain the story behind the unfinished piece of wood. I hope someday they tell their children about it.###

I hope we will learn not to be a throw-away society. Maybe this seemingly useless piece of wood can help be a story about the values we need to embrace. Perhaps someday we will have the best of both worlds melded together.###

I put the odd looking wooden object back in the cabinet, next to my father's childhood pull toy and his doll. Yes it was different then.###