"My Old Tools" wrote:

.... a fine rememberance of his family. Thank you, Ross.

My grandmother worked at the old grocery store in Point Arena, CA for
easily 45 years, probably more. Same sort of establishment, in a
beautiful, but remote area of the California coast. Even today, it takes
most of a day to drive there from the Bay Area, and yet it isn't all that
many miles. You just can't go all that fast up State Highway 1. Not that
you'd want to. The coast is a beautiful place.

What I remember about my grandparents most fondly is that they always had a
huge garden, and raised all kinds of fowl, as well as a few larger animals.
There were three chest freezers full of food in the outbuilding, and the
pantries were always full of jars and crocks and the like. And the two of
them together couldn't have totaled 300 lbs.

When I got a little older, I noticed that there were some 'nice things'
showing up in their home. And as they had always been frugal, this seemed
a bit out of place. But these were things being produced by the 'artist
community' in Mendocino County, beautiful things, now gracing their modest
home. And I came to understand that my grandmother, who knew almost
everyone in the south part of the county, understood who was having trouble
paying the grocery bill, and what they needed, and so went out of the way
to invite people over to dinner, and sent them home with food, and love,
from their abundance.

They're gone now, passed on maybe fifteen years ago. When my father
handled their estate, he found notes in the wills, and on most of the art,
that it should be returned to the artists, or their families, with their
thanks. And that was done with gladness and gratitude for the loan of
their talent.

My grandfather asked me, before he died, what I wanted from the estate. I
told him honestly, that he and gramdma had given me everything I ever
needed in this life, and more. Now that I have taken up working wood, I am
curious as to which woodworker from Ft Bragg made to glorious dining room
table and chair set, sometime in the late seventies. Grandma told us the
old one had been just fine (the old one now is serving the fifth
generation, at my son's home), but that this woodworker really needed the
work, and it was so beautiful. I'd bet, remembering the piece, that the
builder spent more than a few minutes in Jim Krenov's shop...

And we plant enough vegetables for the neighborhood to enjoy to this day,
and remember Gladys & Dutch fondly as we do.

Patriarch