Some of Dad’s things, the ones I kept.

When my Dad passed away back in October, we cleaned out his apartment and divvied up his belongings. I selected a small cardboard box full of my Dad’s things, nothing of any real value just some trinkets. I wanted to talk about some of these items now that I have had time to contemplate them. The most intriguing item, by far, is a book about Catherine the Great. In case you are unaware, she was the Empress of all the Russia’s from 1762 through 1796.  That was a time when we were fighting the Revolutionary War.  She was born a princess in Germany, Catherine the Great converted to Orthodoxy and was married to the heir to the Russian throne, the Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, grandson of Peter the Great. Anyway, here was a book on her life in my Dad’s possession. I have started reading it and am about half way through and still for the life of me, I can not understand why he had this book. If you know Dad you know what I mean. It is another example that I did not know my Dad at all. When I mentioned this book to my Sister, she was as shocked as I was that he had it. At first, she thought it may have been Mom’s but the printing date on this book was after their divorce so we know Mom did not give it to him. It made me wonder, had he ever read it. I consider myself an amateur history buff and am truly enjoying reading it, I have never really investigated her or that moment in time in Russia. I am finding the book fascinating, even more than that every time I pick it up I laugh, I laugh because I can not for the life of me figure out why Dad had this book and would love to know if he read it and what his thoughts were on her rein over all the Russia’s so long ago.

There are many other items that I have in my little box of goodies that I would like to talk about. One is a sharpening stone, an old one with different grits on each side. I remember it from when I was young, Dad would pull it out with a bit of three in one oil to sharpen his pocket knife. I remember watching him sharpen it, long slow strokes, back and forth on each side of the blade. When I was younger, I somehow remember it was a Case XX knife, the XX indicated the quality control on the blade hardening had been completed. The first tempering they stamped the first X and during the second treatment they stamped the second X – hence the XX. Dad told me once about what those XX’s meant and with a moment on the internet I found his explanation dead on. I have no idea what happened to that knife but in my box, I have the last knife he had, an Old Timer with three blades. When I first saw it, I remember smiling, because I have the exact same make and model of this knife. When I got back home and was able to pull it out of my box and compare it to mine, I was surprised to find that we must have picked them up around the same time because the wear on each was very close. How funny I thought. Another item that I always remember him carrying was a little metal lighter cover for his Bic lighter. It was silver and had some turquoise stone attached to the front in an American Indian motif. I remember one of my Aunt’s had picked it up for him on a trip out west a long time ago. I also found a ring that she had gotten for me, I remember the ring but can not remember how or when I gave it to Dad.

Another thing in my box was a set of 4 Audels books. Audel published books that were training manuals for many of the different trades. These were the original how to books. This set, Audel's Carpenter & Builders Guide 4 vol. set, circa 1946 were in perfect condition. They are the leatherette bound hard covered pocket sized books. I read all four volumes and found them truly fascinating. Here in simple, easy to understand terms was a guide to becoming a good Carpenter/Builder. The depth of knowledge inside these leatherette covered volumes was incredible and I am positive that Dad used these often. I can assure you he could teach a class about all the information contained here in this four volume set. Some of the information was, of course, dated and while most of the tools available have changed but most of the techniques remain the same. Some other key differences between 1946 and now are we no longer use asbestos for insulation and we no longer mix our paint from scratch using white lead, boiled linseed oil, turpentine and coloring pigments. I had to laugh reading some of the things that were common practice then. A good carpenter was good and hard to find and that is still the case today. I remember talking to dad, after I was living in Florida, about how to use a rafter square. I was building a shed and needed to construct my own rafters and wanting to do it right so I asked the only expert I knew who could explain how to use the myriad markings on a rafter square to produce perfect rafters. Of course, after a few long distance calls and many questions I was able to use a rafter square to produce the desired results. I still have that square as well.

There are a few other little things in my box from Dad’s place. My dog tags, from my years in the US Navy. No idea how he wound up with them but he had them. I also found an OLD pair of nail trimmers, not like the normal clippers that are sold today. These were more like a pair of lineman pliers and were manufactured by Revlon. Never wanted to used them but I knew he likes them. The first step was to boil them for about 15 minutes to kill anything that may have been on them. I also picked up an original invitation to my own wedding. Bride designed it and had it printed, along with matching matchbooks, of which he had one as well. Matchbooks? Bride and I can not remember what we were thinking with that addition to our wedding reception. I also found pictures of different things, some of me, some of him and some of other family members. I even found a picture of a friend, one whom I have not seen since high school. Oddly enough, I have recently reconnected with her on Facebook – weird huh? There were pictures of Dad as a young man serving in Europe while in the Army. He looked very much the same and at the same time, very much different. I found some pictures from my Boot Camp graduation, I do not even remember these pictures even being taken let alone me giving them to Dad. No one from my family made the trip to Orlando Florida to watch my graduation from Boot Camp so I am still confused as to where the pictures came from. I remember no family coming sucked so I made sure, when my brother went to Boot Camp in Great Lakes Illinois I convinced Mom and we both made the trip.

There is also the triangular draftsman scale, they are rarely used anymore but it was used to make accurate measurements when drafting – it was not to used as a straight edge for drawing lines. This one is the only one I have ever seen made of wood and not plastic. I also found a very old slide rule concrete calculator. It was used by picking how wide you want the slab to be and then slide down length in feet and the other scale would ask the thickness and it would tell you how much concrete to order. All very simple math, the answer could be provided in seconds with the simplest of pocket calculators, but this was made before there was any such thing as a pocket calculator. There is also, in this box, the lighter cover with a different American Indian motif that belonged to my Aunt. Dad’s Sister was killed in a house fire on my birthday in 2000. That was a horrible thing and a horrible time. I remember being glad that Granny was not around to witness the loss of another of her children. I got the early morning call that day, expecting Dad to be on the other end wishing me a happy birthday. It was my Sister giving me that news, that is horrible news to get at any time but on my birthday it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow. I will say that every birthday since that day I wake up thinking about my Aunt.

There are also some other odds and ends in my collection of Dad’s things, nothing of any value but important to him in some way so that makes them important to me. Seems weird that my Dad’s life has been reduced to my memories of him and a little cardboard box of goodies that make up the sum of the physical mementos I have to remember him. I have been thinking a lot about Dad lately, Mom as well and I am sure that my memories of them will live within me for the rest of my life. I loved each of them, in different ways at different times but I always loved them. I am sure that I was loved by them, in different ways at different times but I know they always loved me. I do not think the death of both my parents this year has completely sunk in yet. When Bride’s Mom passed, her Dad was killed in a car accident some time ago, she told me she almost felt like an orphan. Her family has no Aunts or Uncles or cousins and no Grandparents so her family is pretty flat starting with her generation. I have Aunts and Uncles left but no Grandparents and I have not had the feeling of being orphaned with both Mom and Dad gone. Not because there are other family members still around though, I do not think anyway. I have never been close with 99% of my family, when I joined the military I took off and never looked back. Never looked back, mainly because I was not living my life for anyone at that point, except myself. I suppose that is the ultimate tribute to my Mom, Ashley Jeane Woods and my Dad, Marlin Alden Smith. They raised me, like all parents should, to jump in with both feet and live your own life. That is what I have been doing since I left all those years ago and I have never been happier in my life – in a bizarre way, they prepared me well for the trip.

I love and miss my Mom and Dad.