Dad and Woodworking. Rachel.

Wow. So many memories that I don't know where to start.....

When Melissa and I were little we wanted Barbie furniture so Dad let us have a bunch of his old pieces of wood and we found some red fabric. We glued the wooden pieces together and covered the couches, chairs, etc. with the fabric to make a box full of Barbie furniture.

When we lived in Boston I remember Dad and Kerry Duke outside in the driveway with the power tools....I don't remember what they were building but I remember watching them cut wood and work on the house. I also remember his renovating the Newmanway house - mostly the attic. I always wanted to help and I'll never forget when he was telling me that the pink panther insulation would make my entire body itch so badly that I would cry if I played in it. Note taken - I'm still scared to death to get close to insulation.

In eighth grade I came home excited to tell Dad about my "mouse trap car" assignment. We spent days building a massive mouse trap car. Actually, we cheated a little by using a rat trap because it had more power. When I brought the car to class everyone was amazed with it.

Another project in ninth grade was a "pulley and lever" assignment. Dad and I spent days building a huge contraption that had many pulleys, levers, etc. and in the end it poured a box of cheerios into a bowl. Once again, my class {and especially my teacher} was amazed with the end result.

I used to love to sneak out to the wood shop and watch Dad work. It was one of the best times that I could get some one-on-one time with him, talk to him about things and spend time with him. I loved when he was really excited about the project he was working on and how he would explain everything that he was doing. He always let me help hold wood, put nails and screws in, stain the wood, etc.

I was always so nervous seeing Dad use the big table saws. I never wanted to say anything but I would hold my breath and say inside my head, "Don't cut your hand off....don't cut your hand off.....don't cut your hand off...."

In recent years, since moving from Utah, I have found myself several times a year saying to someone, "Darn! If only I could get to my dads wood shop I could make the coolest {fill in the blank}" Now that I have three boys they always talk about things they want to build with Grandpa. Especially Jordan and Joshua who are builders at heart love to talk about when they will get to work in the wood shop with Grandpa Hite again.