OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

63677 dickerson <maggsd@s...> 1999‑06‑08 obligatory bio: a (sawdusty) life of dave
   to assembled Oldtool listers:
   greetings and here is this (if must be):
   remember  it  well  to  this  day. shuffling or as that guy Judge Bork
   would  say,  slouching,  into a yellow-hued Quonset hut type building.
   long,  narrow and leaky. neon tinged gloom. smell of oil and blood. in
   front,  and  if  memory serves, separated from the throng by a cage of
   mesh   fencing,  sat  the  presiding  officer,  Mr  Cotter.  ah  yeah,
   'Chrome-dome Cotter.'
   "Welcome to the first day of 7th Grade shop class!"
   it  would  not  be  an  exaggeration to say that a youthful student of
   American  Civil  War issues, Single-Wing formations and the best means
   of keeping horse stalls mucked out, found this new encounter something
   of a put-off.
   'tuned out' was a phrase not much current in those days but that's the
   course  the  youth  took.  zero-out  was  the  response  in  kind from
   'Chrome-dome.'  might  have been a D-, can't recall for sure. all that
   is  clearly  remembered  was  that  there  seemed  to have been a huge
   quantity of plastic-embedded pennys produced....
   fast  forward  11  years.  not-as-callow  youth returns from year long
   tropical  vacation provided by Uncle. whilst away, youth (you know how
   it's   pronounced)  had  been  contemplating,  amongst  other  topics,
   cabinets  or perhaps colonial furniture. barrows some 'ShopSmith' type
   equipment  outcome  of  which was a bench type seat from 5/4 material,
   with  mortise and tenon joins, not precise enough to qualify as joints
   one confesses, (pinned with dowels, of course, that being the colonial
   way)  and  legs  after  a  pattern  but  with  each of the four having
   individual  characteristics.  product  still  in one piece to this day
   albeit  never  finished  and now having various crayon inscriptions as
   complement.  still  convinced  that  those  colonists  probably used a
   better model Shopsmith.
   forward  again to circa 1977 (+/- a few Stroh's dimmed years in there)
   and  an  article  in the 'Friendly Free Press Sunday mag.' the gist of
   this  piece  was  that  an  intrepid  student  woodcarver named Armand
   LaMontagne   from   North   Scituate,  (whadda  great  name  for  your
   hometown!),  R.I. had duped the wizard who controls the anti-qs at the
   HENRY  FORD  MUSEUM.  a  terrific  story.  if  you've  heard  it, i'll
   desist....Mr  LaMontagne,  using  handtools, his thorough knowledge of
   the  woodworking  tactics  of  the  masters and a convenient acetylene
   torch,  created  a  replica clever enough to fool the experts. therein
   was  revealed  an interest that could incorporate the best of two fine
   arts: cabinet making and fraud! that's for me....
   however,  as tempus has fugited, the glow from welding rigs dimmed and
   Stroh's  having  vacated their wonderful Detroit river facilities, the
   notion  of incursion into the realm of classic furniture has faded. in
   fact  the  only  outcome of recent wood butchering endeavours has been
   one  rather lame Adirondack chah (not to be confused with char , refer
   to  previous paragraph) after the fashion of HWNWNBMBM (oh never mind:
   Norm).  stop me before i mill again...if you've worked around spooling
   jet  engines  for  almost 4 decades, the buzz of a routah doesn't make
   much of a dent. what?
   so  now,  may  an infrequent question or comment be posed? will assume
   (that old saw again) so,
   sincerely, and wish ah coulda got here sooner,
   d dickerson, Austin, TX (only since '83)
   ps: "Measure Twice, Cut Once" ain't a bad book
   Private      replies:      maggsd@swbell.net      Public      replies:
   OLDTOOLS@listserv.law.cornell.edu     To     signoff     or    digest:
   listserv@listserv.law.cornell.edu Archive:
   http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/archives/OLDTOOLS       Quote
   sparingly.



Recent Bios FAQ