Tom Watson wrote in
:

snip of a good piece of insight
He knows that he is doing it good and right and that is how he was
taught and that is how he does his work.

It is not really the appreciation from outside that drives a good
mechanic - it is the memory of those that he learned from, and the
desire to earn the respect of those mechanics who are no longer even
alive, that drives them.

To be accounted "a good mechanic" by those who still know what that
means - is enough.

I mean that - even if your judges are long dead - their approval is
enough.


My son courted and married a wonderful young woman, the daughter of an
old school union carpenter in the commercial construction trades, in and
about Oakland, CA. A skilled man, whose work had been hard on his back
and knees as well. Seems falling from a roof will change your stamina
some.

What Mark knew about me at first was that I was a necktie wearing
management type who drove a fancy pickup truck, and he was a bit
suspicious of management. When he got the chance to see some of the
furniture I'd built (none of it in the Goddard Townsend class, but
still...), he figured I was probably OK. When he started talking about
low angle adjustable block planes, and I gave him one of mine, LV's
best, he was pretty sure I at least knew tools a little.

Last fall, he brought me one of his father's old Stanley #7 handplanes.
I guess I passed his test.

Our shared grandaughter is three months old now, and as cute as any I've
ever seen.

Thanks for the post, Tom.

Patriarch