On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 6:25:22 AM UTC-6, Greg Guarino wrote:

Back a little further, in the '60s, my Dad found a shuffleboard tabletop
on the beach, perhaps in the trash outside the club. Never one to abide
something potentially useful going to waste, he managed to wrestle it
into the car and bring it home. I was very little, and can only remember
the story from having been told, but it was apparently in pretty rough
shape. I suspect this is the reason he got a belt sander.

That top, sanded and refinished, started its second life as the bar in
our basement. My Dad would hold court with the neighbors from behind it
on many a weekend evening.

Nice! What a great save. To appreciate that even more, think about all the time, labor and money he saved to recycle that.

I had a friend of mine years and years ago that was trying to figure out what to do with the old oak flooring found in the trailer boxes hauled around by 18 wheelers. He had some neat things, but the amount of work he had to do to get it to usable condition was prohibitive. Too much of every kind of debris you can imagine was ground into (and then driven over by fork lifts)that flooring. Nails, screws, metal banding clips, staples, gravel, dirt, wire, you name it. He got it for nothing because it was worth little more.

Now a an old shuffleboard top... just the right size for a good bar!

Robert