Saturday, June 14, 2014

A Pair of Pliers and a Jackknife

Pa carried a pair of pliers and a jackknife with him all the time, except when he went to church.  He said there was likely no call for either pliers or a jackknife in church, although he suggested some other tool might have come in handy on those Sundays when the preacher went on with no stopping in sight.
He carried the pliers in a little pocket on the side of his ever-present bib overalls, and the jackknife he toted in a regular pocket.  Scarcely a day passed that Pa didn't find a use for one or both of these simple, but handy tools.  It seemed a fence wire was always breaking, the pliers could fix it.  A bolt had loosened, easily repaired with the pliers. A nail needed a little hammering—once more the pliers appeared.  And at the end of a hot day when it was time for a cold beer from the ice box, the pliers snapped off the cap.
Same with the jackknife, which had a larger blade and a smaller blade.  The smaller blade was the sharper of the two, brought into action when a pencil needed sharpening, a rope must be cut, a sliver needed removing from a finger, or some whittling was necessary, such as fashioning a new stopper for the water jug.
The larger blade came into play as a substitute screwdriver, to scrape dirt and grime from a farm implement, to slit open a letter, or pry a board lose from a wooden crate.
            “You never wanna leave the house without a pair of pliers and a jackknife,” Pa reminded me regularly.
 Simple tools, for a simpler time.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Doesn't take a fancy tool to fix an ordinary problem.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 20, Wausau Historical Society, 10:00 a.m. Presentation. Stories from the Land.

June 21, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County 9-4.

June 28. Over Fifty High School Class Reunion, Wild Rose High School.

July 12-19. Writing Retreat, Rhinelander, WI.

July 23.  Jacksonport Historical Society, Mr. G’s, 6:00 p.m. Jacksonport, WI. Horse Drawn Days

July 26, Wild Rose Historical Society, 10:00-2:00.  Booksigning.  Part of Wild Rose Days.

July 29, Ephraim Historical Foundation. 7:00 p.m. Barns of Wisconsin.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):
The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.
Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division St.
Wild Rose, WI  54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org

               










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