A Good Ol' Texas Boy

My uncle sent me this link today. My grandpa has been featured in an article for his local newspaper. He does woodcarving as a hobby and he's loves to share it with others.

I remember staying at my grandparents house for a couple of weeks one summer. During that particular summer, my grandpa decided to teach me how to woodcarve. He gave me a little pocket knife and a block of wood with a bird sketched on it. He worked with me and worked with me to show me all of his tricks of the trade. My carving left a little to be desired, but he praised me on what a great job I did. I never forgot that.

My grandpa has many great carvings to his name (that have many admirers). Among them are a set of ice block holders. I don't know how to describe this to you other than it looks like a huge set of plier-type things with chains connecting the handles. It was a tool they used way back when to carry ice blocks in to people's early refrigerators. The cool thing about it is, he carved the whole pliers and chains out of one continuous piece of wood (and it's huge)!! Another famous piece of his is a 2ft+ tall carving of a bull. He carved it out of a wood that is extremely hard (maybe walnut??) and that's what made it so special. You can see it in the background of this picture (it's the large, black woodcarving in the back).



He also carved the now infamous set of working pipe wrenches in all sizes (mentioned in the article... and yes, you can actually turn the screw on each of the wrenches and they will open and close the mouth of the wrench... incredible!!). This carving I'm sure is willed to either my father or my uncle. That's why he would never sell it to anyone... not even the Smithsonian (see article)!



And of course, some of my personal favorites are my grandpa's own little creation. I don't even know what you want to call it, but he carves balls inside of a cage of wood. These balls will move around, but never fall out. Every time I ever attempted to carve one of these, I would find myself with an empty cage... but no ball! This is one he carved for me to hang from the rear-view mirror of my car when I turned 16!



I've learned so much from my grandpa over the years. It still amazes me today what a wonderful storyteller he is. He can make anyone feel right at home with his "Good Ol' Texas Boy" charm! I'm so happy that he's MY grandpa!!