My Dads Shop

Best wishes for your Dad's health, Charlie.

I lost my Dad 2 years ago this fall. One of the most difficult things for him in his last years was having to move with my Mom to assisted living because of her dementia, and the resulting loss of his shop.

He was able to adjust to the situation to some extent by keeping some of his model boat making tools with him. You are a good son to keep his needs in mind.

I'm proud of Dad for the way he always treated Mom with respect even when the going got tough. He was a great example of how to live a life that made the people around him richer.

Walt
 
Charlie,

I feel your pain on this issue. It's no fun but, always remember something... Grace and elegance are defined not by the outcome of your decisions but, by the manner in which you dealt with them. Tough decisions and actions ahead but, you'll rise to the occasion and do the right thing. Getting old is not for sissies and that applies to both parents and their offspring.


Ray
 
That shop reminds me of one i saw in Bat Cave NC But that was 23 years ago and i think i had just gotten married and spent the weekend in batcave at a B&B.
 
I am sure your dad spent many a happy day in his shop. It Looks wonderful. I wish him well.
 
And were will the treasures go? I look at shops like this, of old men that collected this stuff for a lifetime. I know where every tool that I have came from, my grandfather, my step-fathers father, my father-in-law, my father. My uncle that stood in his garage with me and said "take whatever you want", he died a month later. I took 4 Kennedy boxes of machinist tools, dozens of pocket knives, 8 firearms and 4 compound bows. My uncle Paul's machinist tools are why I now have a Bridgeport and 2 South Bend lathes, I was determined to learn to use the tools he gave me as he passed away! I cherish every one of those tools, I can tell you where each of the 20 hammers (at least) I have, came from! This is a fine legacy that also needs a place. I wonder what will happen to my collection, we have no children. So, I look at shops like this and hope that the tools go to the right place. I think Paul would be pleased with the way I preserved the legacy he passed on to me. I hope my nephew will learn to appreciate these treasures.
Larry
 
Farmer Dodds said:
It's going to take me another 20 years to get my shop looking like that. Then it will it will be time to move to a smaller one.

Good luck sorting it out. Start with small stuff first, it won't look so bad.

Stan
Click to expand...

I'm a guy at the other end of the problem. I am stuck in a tiny Section 8 apartment with a loving
LPN cat. With my perfect wife dead ten years and none near to replacing her', am surrounded by
Tools and materials (utterly illegal, but I can sweet talk the maintenance guys. My mind and body
Are failing ,and I can get up Gumption enough for less than an hour a day. The kids are out improving the world and not yet ready for Making Things. You know as well as I that if I get rid of it all, they will fight over th memories. Of course the value is not worth what it meant to me.......
After reading all the other painful tails above from the other end of things,????.......BLJHB.
AND thanks for reading my ***** and grumble.....
 
Its no ***** and grumble, I hear ya loud and clear. I'm still trying to figure how once a day was a day and a year a year. Now days seem as
minutes and years like a month. I dreaded the day when the number 2000 came about, now is 2014, how in hell - 14 yrs????????

sam

edit curious whats a LPN cat? mines a tuxedo boy cat
 
It's a beautiful space , just looking at the pics you can feel all the creative energy the space has. The best to you and your dad.

Respectfully
Rich
 
heart breaking story. but from what little i know about you , youl do whats best. both of my folks are in their 80's any my father inlaw just turned 94 . had to stop his driving. that was tough enough , can,t imagine what your going thru.
i'll stop my rambling. thanks ron
 
Charley Davidson said:
Here's some pictures of my dads little shop in the mountains of North Carolina. He's a classic hoarder (& the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) My dad has piddled in all kinds of wood working but I think his best talent has been carving. Here's some pictures of his little paradise.

Unfortunately it is a very big problem with him & my mom as he needs to get rid of some stuff so they can move into possibly an assisted living home. I know he needs to keep some of it but he thinks he needs and can keep it all. Big problem.
Click to expand...

that place looks like a place up in the brown mountains.
nice shop sorry your dad is not able to keep his tools its sad that we all get old.
the man I work for had to go to a assisted living home.
he had a lot of tools like that he had for years he is 89 years old hard to see him go he was like my dad.
I am 49 years old I started to work for him at 16 33 years of a man like your dad helping me not only with tools but with life .
at one point we had to take his car that was hard to do I was at the shop one day and his wife called me and ask me to pick his car up to have
it detail .
so I did the next day I gave her a call and seed his car is back that im going to drop it off .....
she seed no you take it home its yours **** I seed I cannot do that that pop car and she seed no you keep it
o well what was I did not take it home it in the parking lot at work using it as a company car.
that was hard for me to do and all the tools that he had I am using today what I a saying is you need to get
some of the tools so you can look at em and think of all the good times your dad had I use pop tool every day
in my shop and if I pick up a tool that he gave me and use it that makes me fell good because
he was a man that was hands on don't go buy new fix it
and with the way your dad shop looks that man was a fix it man make him smile and keep it alive and pass it on .
 
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