Thank you!

wrote in message oups.com...
: October is when for a time at least the migger is replaced by the
: jeweler's torch and the powered hacksaw gives way to a Gigli.
: Circular cut-outs from flanging dies are rooted out of the junk-box,
: chucked into the lathe and magically transformed into wheels of every
: kind. Itty-bitty ball bearings picked up at swap meets and
: 'Clearance!' bins are tracked down. Designed for the ultimate in
: aerospace hitek they are surprised to find themselves being pressed
: into maple wheels, secured with a dab of uncertified JB Weld. Launched
: not into space but across a living room floor, they still fulfill their
: mission with the steely purr of whirr.
:
: Odds and ends of spruce come to light from where they were tucked away
: months or even years before. Now is their moment of usefulness,
: justification for the death of a tree. They become the keels and
: cross-pieces of kites, delicately tapered, silken cords across the
: chord of their bows, covered with tissue paper, hemmed with glue,
: shrunk with water and sealed with a mist of banana oil, the way my
: grandfather showed my dad and Dad taught to me a million years ago in a
: less complicated world. Distant in both time and space the
: well-remembered skills are exercised once again, keeping them fresh for
: the moment they can be transferred into younger hands and used to
: produce things of real worth. Things that last. Things never seen on
: Saturday morning TV and more valuable than gold because of it.
:
: A slab of spruce six inches wide failed to make it into the air by a
: thirty-second of an inch, it's thickness shy by that amount of the
: honest quarter-inch needed to make the ribs for one of Roger Mann's
: delightful little flying machines. But perfect for caskets, chests and
: boxes to be filled with Treasure, Jewels and Secret Codes.
:
: Doesn't have to be wood, of course. Steel, aluminum or composites,
: they're all grist for the mill of whimsy, like Keith Stewart's
: case-hardened steel egg to be hatched by a plastic duck.
:
: Even when they are of wood, boxes don't have to be bricks.
: Containers for dreams take any shape; of Pollywogs or Hearts and be all
: the more suitable because of it. A bit more work but it's only
: October; the Big Birthday still two months away. Time enough for the
: gluing and sanding and finishing. Time enough to turn brass shim stock
: into neat little four-knuckle hinges with a bit of brazing rod for the
: pin. Inlays, too, if you care for that sort of thing, which I do.
:
: A bit of scrimshaw for the boys, is always fun. Ex-Navy (and a Chief
: to boot) the traditional Fouled Anchor is a favorite of mine, scribed
: not into a whale's tooth nor ring of bone but the densely finished
: lid of a brass-bound box eminently suitable for boy-stuff.
:
: - - - - - -
:
: Some of us build airplanes because it keeps the Dream alive. Simple
: and light, with a hand-carved prop that must be flipped to bring the
: engine alive, such machines hark back to an earlier age. Yet a basic
: tenet of airmanship is that the more you fly, the better you will and
: those simple machines rise above the ground with a stately grace and
: lack of speed that makes an airfield of almost any patch of ground.
: Which is good, because in America flying has become an elitist
: activity, province of the wealthy in which the average man has been
: forced out of his hangar, off the airport and ultimately, down from the
: sky.
:
: To build those machines of yesterday we are forced to invest in
: ourselves, mastering a host of skills many deem useless in the modern
: world. Stitching fabric to ribs earns us smiles of condescension,
: scarfed joints in wood the damning of faint praise. Old Fashioned
: Stuff of no interest to folks so busy making money that 51% means
: picking out the upholstery or selecting the color of paint for their
: 'homebuilt' airplane.
:
: How will such people will be remembered by their children? And their
: children's children. What core of useful skills do such people
: consider vital for the well-being of their off-spring? That the rules
: don't apply to them? I wonder about such things. Not very often nor
: for very long, but I still do.
:
: October sees airplanes shifted to the back burner while the skills to
: build them are focused on Dream Machines of a more basic sort, designed
: to show a youngster they are beloved members of a family that respects
: and encourages their particular Dream, wherever it may lead. Oddly
: enough, in doing so, their Dreams become remarkably similar to our own,
: molded by the reality of their generation and impressed with their own
: personality but built upon the same foundation and constructed with the
: same core values honored by their parents.
:
: -R.S.Hoover
: