I was reminded of a story Aunt Thelma told me of My greatgrand father Richard Powell.
One day the Powell family were to meet at Richards home and replace his old roof with a new , in that day the people made shingles from wood. The way they made them was thus,cutting the logs in blocks and then splitting the block with wedges then the dressed the shingles with a draw knife. This knife was a very sharp blade about 16 inches long with a handle at both ends. You used the knife to smooth the shingle and
you did this by drawing the knife over the wood towards you, removing bit of wood to make a smooth service.
The Powell family's were all there and as the ladies helped grandma Betty prepare a meal the men worked making shingles.
The most important part requiring skill was using the draw knife. Grandpa Richard was doing that chore.
The knife slipped and cut into the leg of Richard overalls. Richard began to carry on in a loud voice. I have cut my leg off. His young stronger sons carried him into the house laying him on the kitchen table.
Grandma Betty began to try to pull up his pants leg to see how bad he was injured. Richard said cut the leg of my pant quickly ,I am going to bleed to death!
grandma did just that even tho the clothing was new, as she pulled the clothing from grandpa's leg there was revealed to his whole family a scratch of about One inch on his shin.
Aunt Thelma said Grandpa was always a big baby!
2 comments:
Your story about the wooden shingles reminded me of a visit I once made to an old farmhouse in Austria which was open to visitors. There was a barn full of wooden farm implements.
The guide explained that every farmer's son who wished to go into farming was first taught carpentry. This was because every thing they used on a farm was made of wood....their house, barn, furniture, all their implements, their irrigation, their plates, milk buckets, their shoes, etc, etc, etc!!!!
I remember Thelma telling us that
story. I don't really see how
those shake shingles stayed on the
roof with no nails...do you?
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