Two Infinities

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

Preparation
In my previous post I showed a cabinet top I bought a Home Depot for $4.13. Today JY and I built a wooden stand for the cabinet to sit on, making an inexpensive work bench. Four 2 x 4's and a piece of plywood, cut and screwed together. Humble, I know, but fun.

It put me in mind how my brother, John, loved carpentry from early on, and how, contrary to what kids with college ambitions were supposed to do, he took "shop" in junior high. His project, an end table, sat between the twin beds in our bedroom long after all the kids had grown and gone.

Some years after graduating from college, John bought a decrepit house and remodeled it in a grand way. Both he and my mother are pictured below in the finished product. One can glimpse his work with the cornices, the book cabinets, the fireplace mantel, the over-the-top kitchen in the background.

In digging through old family photos trying to find some record of John's carpentry work, I came across an old Artesia Daily News clipping where John and one of the Watson boys were pictured for having won prizes in the state science fair.

Like taking shop, John also took shorthand in high school, probably the only boy in the class and surely the only student with college in mind. When he did enrol in engineering studies in 1972, he recorded the professors' every word and transcribed it longhand back at the dorm later. He did very well in school that year.

It amazes me now to think back on all that.

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