Galoots:

I have been hanging about here mum for quite a while, and have thought
many times that the pleasure I have derived and information I have
gleaned from so doing warranted a delurk. But tomorrow, thanks to the
generosity of Galoots Brendler and Reynolds, I will be learning to make
Shaker boxes, and so great have the benefits of hanging around become
that the delurk has become mandatory.

I lived in South Africa for the first twenty-some years of my life, but
now live in the US, having come here to study political theory. I did
that in New Jersey until recently, but am now in Baltimore, where I
will, for one year anyway, be teaching political theory to other people
at the University of Maryland.

I'm 31 and married, and it was our purchase of a house some years ago
that started me on the slope, though in a roundabout way. A window
needed replacing, and- not knowing any better- we bought something from
Home Despot and had their subcontractors install it. I watched. I
watched two guys spend a few hours tearing out the old window, screwing
in the new one, running a bead of caulk (none of this with much finesse
or care), and then pocket more money than I was making in a month as a
teaching assistant. After that, I got a book and did *everything*
myself. Tore out kitchen and bathroom, re-plumbed and re-wired,
dry-walled, laid hardwood flooring, installed cabinets (though I did not
build them) and maple countertops, etc. There was a fair amount of
electron-killing involved, but I was nonetheless doing things with my
hands, and enjoying it, and from there it was only a matter of time till
I heard the siren-song of old iron and steel, and I have done my bit to
drive up old tool prices since. My skills are still very rudimentary:
I'm still learning to make the tools work, never mind make them make
things, but I'm loving every minute I get to play with them.

It is unfortunate in a way that I came to wood and tools only after
leaving South Africa, because my dad has been a woodworker (for fun) all
his life; I'm sure he would have loved to have me in the shop as a kid,
and I hope I have his equanimity if my kids show no interest in
woodworking. But it's great to have discovered this common interest
while there is still time to share it together; I have a late-model
Stanley no 7, a saw and two Berg chisels of my dad's that I know I will
always treasure. (The rest of my family, who have no interest in tools
or wood, find the conversations the two of us now have incredibly
boring.) Incidentally, both the words "galoot" and "git" (as in "great
galoot/git" or "thundering galoot/git") were terms of affectionate
paternal mockery while I was growing up- so maybe he was subtly pushing
me slope-wards.

It will be a long while before I can add anything to the collective
wisdom of the porch, but I'll be listening in the corner. This is truly
a fine society of scholars and gentlemen, and I'm pleased to be here.

Simon
______________________________________________________________