[wdfifteen]

I came across this while cleaning out files in my computer. I don't know where it came from, but I know why I saved it. I could have written it, and so could many PPOTers. It made me smile and nod my head as I read it. Tools handed down to me by my uncle, father, and grandfather were stollen by an employee, and I miss them, more because they reminded me of my elders teaching me how to use them than the value of the tools themselves.

By John Niolon
I imagine it's a natural part of getting older and I'm sure we've all done it. You start considering your mortality and the inevitable distribution of your "stuff". For years I've scrimped and saved and swapped and inherited and appropriated my stuff. And, in my own humble opinion it’s a formidable pile. And it's kinda scary sometimes when I realize that I've left my shop unlocked for three days.
I've been through several hobbies and usually sold out of one to buy into another. Model airplanes, bicycles, cars, ham radio, cars, woodworking, cars, metal working, trucks… and on and on. Each hobby necessitated the purchase of a sometimes unique set of tools. Through the buying and selling and swapping of all these endeavors, the one thing that has remained in place was the tools.
I've always had a morbid fascination with tools of any kind and a great respect for those people who can use them to create what is in my opinion…art. Whether it's a fine piece of furniture, a remote control airplane or a nicely done piece of fabrication and pipefitting on a steam generator; when it's done properly…it's art, and those who do it are artists. There are a lot of machinists, fabricators, pipefitters, maintenance-utilitymen that are on a level with daVinci when it comes to taking a spark of an idea and creating something unique, useful and beautiful. But I digress…..
So, I've collected all these tools and tried to emulate these artists. Sometimes it was successful…..sometimes not. Wrenches, sockets, hammers, saws, tig, mig and stick welders, plasma cutters, torches, transits, yard tools, tractors, meters, gauges, mics and calipers and in multiple quantities sometimes. Hell, I've got more vice grip pliers than some people have total tools. Several thousand dollars worth of "stuff". There is also a value that can't be calculated in dollars here. Some of these tools belonged to my grandfather, my dad and favorite uncles. Just by the simple act of holding them, I can be in a place or a time that was so special to me, a feeling that I can't duplicate any other way. I have a transit that belonged to my father… it's over a hundred years old and we used it for years in his business. Years of memories with him, both good and bad, but more good than bad. I can just set up the tripod for this instrument and have the most wonderful comfortable feeling you could ever imagine. A simple Lufkin 50 foot metal tape in my hand revives thoughts of times with my uncle, the brick mason, laying out a foundation for a block wall. I can still feel the cold on my face from that January morning. I didn't really enjoy being there freezing then, but I'd give a months pay to have him here now and measure that same foundation. No one can appreciate that but me.
(There is more to the story, but he goes on about kids and Peter Egan and kind of lost me. )