I went home for Christmas and had a single task to accomplish: find a legacy from my dad and grandfather. No big deal right?
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- The metal chairs I used to stare at
I didn’t know my grandfather, Jack. He died when I was 4 and a half so I don’t have a single memory of him. When I think of him I am immediately transported to my grandparent’s front yard and these old school green metal chairs. But no picture of him. It almost seems like I am 4 again and I am staring at his feet in the chair.
I asked my family about him and I heard both good and bad. Either they worshipped the ground he walked on or they hated how he treated his family, especially my grandmother.
So, on to my father for a legacy because I don’t want the legacy of my granddad. But what kind of legacy am I wanting? That’s what I was after. I just wanted to find something, anything that I could relate to my father about.
One of the things I’ve decided to take up is leatherworking. I can’t afford the tools and space for woodworking but leatherworking is possible. And that decision to choose leatherworking this past December is what set me on my journey for a legacy. You see, one of the core tools for leatherworking is a rotary punch. And I remembered my dad had one! He wasn’t a leatherworker but he did work with leather harnesses for horses and I remember that tool. Now where was it?Had it survived? Was it in his things in storage? Was it still in the old barn that hasn’t been touched in over a decade? Now I had my mission over the holidays: find that piece of my dad’s history.
