This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
What Happens when Stillness comes
Yesterday I spent the entire day with my friend Sherwood. We worked together in an ancient shop that began in 1856. The Peace surrounding us was amazing. The stillness that enveloped us was almost enough to take your breath away.
At a certain point there was a stillness that is almost unimaginable. Even the countryside around the old shop was still… not even a bird was singing. It isn’t often that you are able to know such a moment in life of 2010.
Not every moment was still however. Sherwood and I became the 1856 carpenters for a host of Youth that had traveled from all across Canada for the National Science Fair competition in Peterborough. These kids were typically bright.
Some of the Youth that I talked to tried to explain their Science experiments/projects that they had transported from their home areas – ranging from Newfoundland to British Columbia – and from the top of Canada to the bottom. They came from big cities and big schools to the smaller schools in Canada from tiny communities. But their effort to explain was hard as they had to “dumb down” for me to understand. Yikes!
This was their day off and they had decided to come and see something of history.
Normally when we have children come from the earlier years of life their attention span is not terribly long. They are bright too, but younger than these Youth. The questions the Youth of yesterday had more depth… sometimes even more thoughtful than the adults that stand in our shop.
The adult’s most often stated thought is, “I remember my Grandpa having that kind of machine or that kind of tool…”
The Youth in turn would state, “Why does it work like that or do that?” or “How does it work?” or “Can I try to make it go?”
I should mention here that these students rolled in on giant buses rented just for them to come this distance to Lang Pioneer Village at Lang, Ontario.
The logistics of the day was unique in that the students came in two groups – one in the morning and one in the afternoon… with a two hour gap in between the morning and afternoon session.
It was at that two hour pause that I became aware of the absolute stillness. As Sherwood and I sat waiting we heard the nothingness.
On a comical side, just after the Youth of the afternoon group walked out of the shop Sherwood told me about the fact that soon he will not be able to hear at all… and pointed to his hearing aids. These amazing little gadgets that he listens with just told him that the battery was low and would soon die… and then it did.
In a 1856 Carpenter Shop about a half hour drive by car from the city, there are no hearing aid batteries. Kind of funny.
In the quietness we shared Sherwood began to talk about times of long ago. We were sitting beside the now quiet Stove. His thoughts drifted back to his boyhood days often. The memories were rich and the rolled.
I had share with the Youth that came in that the Stove was the Internet of 1856 – it was the original Social Network in Canada. It is not Facebook or Twitter or Email or even the computer/cell phone that we have today. The Stove was where the men gathered to talk and be warmed.
Sherwood spoke, “I remember the old stove that my Dad used to sit beside in his shop with his friends. The men would sit just like you said around the fire and talk. I was a little boy then and I remember…”
Sherwood is in his mid 80s now… and boyhood is a long way back there over many years of life. Yet the memories flooded back again and again.
Sherwood had brought along his father’s old tools The bag of tools that we opened in the shop yesterday were well over 100 years old… in fact it was about 100 years ago that a young Mr. Martin, Father of Sherwood, had traveled as a “Cooper” to the Apple Orchard areas of Ontario to make Barrels for the Apple Producers.
“Dad was able to make 100 Barrels a day. He was good at what he did.” Sherwood said quietly. “Look at the Hammer… see the worn spot… that was from his thumb and fingers gripping the handle…”
I turned the different apparatus over and looked at each part. One piece of Copper’s Tools was a wood plane for shaving off the barrel top. It was a modified plane of sorts. Where wood planes normally have a metal blade – this one did not. Instead the Blade was made of Iron Wood. The grain of the wood was very clear on the blade and the edge of the blade was very sharp – even after 100 years and many years before that of usage. In fact you could cut yourself on the edge now!
In the 1856 Carpenter Shop there are Barrels that were hand made by the Coppers of long ago. As Sherwood looked around he pointed to one Barrel that sat in the corner, “There is a Barrel just like Dad used to make!”
In fact we found two such barrels – both in not very good shape.
In an old wheel barrel that was sitting in the corner, was a pile of hand carved small boards together with some wooden hoops. It was a bucket that had fallen apart… a small barrel like structure that would have been used to carry smaller amounts of garden produce perhaps.
Sherwood and I began to try to putting it together. All the while Sherwood told me more stories… and amazing stories they were.
After perhaps 20 minutes of trying the bucket suddenly popped into its right shape and “Voila!” it was a bucket again! Amazing!
Sherwood was as amazed as I was as we sat looking at the bucket. He said, “Dad was able to make 100 of these a day!”
It had taken us, using our four hands helping each other, over 20 minutes. Sherwood again offered, “We need a plate put under the bottom of the barrel to hold it up high enough… then we need some wood frames for the outside of the staves to hold them in place… that way you can put them in place and then place the hoops over the outside… I wish I would have watched my Dad make the barrels.”
This little bucket brought out more stories.
These memories flooded back after pauses of the stillness in the shop.
Amazing Memories and Amazing Stillness… amazing.
These words today will never accomplish what I need them to do – relate to you what two friends experience alone in a shop of 1856. Even the visitors like the Youth or the Adult Sponsors and Teacher than came with them – would ever know the great joy that Sherwood and I experienced yesterday.
I have been to “my 1856 shop” many times over these past years as a volunteer… and it has been a joy. But yesterday it was different… I had shared my wonderful moments with a very dear friend… and… well… when the stillness came… it was amazing… and when we remembered “Dad” and looked at his old tools… we shared the moment together.
A few weeks ago Sherwood said Goodbye to his wonderful wife Helen. After the pauses and the stillness he shared more about the most beautiful woman in his life… and the moments around the old Stove were… well… amazing.
Thanks Sherwood for being apart of my life. I am a rich man with friends like you.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment