My mother still uses the original awnings installed on her house
when it was built 50 years ago in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was just talking on
the phone with her and
asked how the same awnings could have lasted this long and why she was still
using them. She explained, as she had done many times when I was a kid, "you
know, if you use something a lot, that keeps it from wearing out."
It seemed backwards back then, but now it makes sense. She adds,
"They lasted because we always took good
care of them." I can vouch for that. We certainly never had servants or
money to buy new awnings. When I was about 10 years old I inherited the
awning job
from my older brother. At the end of the summer I would take down the
awnings,
make any needed repairs and stow them
away in the attic of the shop. I learned how to do effective canvas repairs
and still have the sail-maker's kit my dad put together for me (leather palm
thimble, steel needle puller, hook knife, sharp awl, blunt awl, bone
burnisher, marlin pin,
spool of Irish linen cord, needles, ball of bee's wax, and WWII cloth duct
tape (the
real stuff) for quick spot repairs during the summer. The tape repairs
always had to come off for more effective repairs at the end of the
season). I learned a little about pipe fitting when a tree limb fell and
broke up
one of the awnings because they were stretched on a framework made of 3/8"
iron gas pipe. This was also my
introduction to working with lines and pulleys. Then, late in May, I would
pull out the awnings, dust them off, hang them on the windows, let it rain
on them once, then treat them with water repellant (take a quart jar, 1 part
paraffin shaved into 10 parts mineral spirits, add a little chunk of bee's
wax for flexibility, (Don't tell any one, but we
would also add a tiny bead of mercury to prevent mildew on the canvas)
and then set the jar in the sun for a week, shake daily to dissolve the wax.
Brush on
one light coat over all the awning and another light coat on the sloping
top.)

An approaching hail storm was always
fun because I got to dash around the house, walking on beds (not otherwise
allowed),
leaping in and out of windows, etc., to furl and stay the awnings preventing
substantial
damage.  If I was quick I could save an hour of taping up the rips and a
whole
afternoon of canvas repairs later in the fall.

Two years ago I was back home in the summer and those awnings were still
going
strong. Is it possible they would last another 50 years? Not without my mom
hollering at me to get out there and work on the awnings.

Why does she still use the awnings when they had central air-conditioning
installed
back in the early 1980s? She once figured that the awnings saved at least
$18. in electricity every summer plus she knows they keep the sun from
damaging the
finishes and furnishings inside the house.

In the late 1980's I happened to be back home in Nebraska for a visit and
was helping
my dad take down the awnings. For some reason chores like this seemed like a
lark when
my dad was around. But, it was a bit of a struggle because the steady
prairie "breeze"
had been picking up all morning and the awning canvas would catch the wind
just like a sail.
The air conditioning contractor was there servicing the condenser unit.
The contractor asked my dad if he would like to have all those old
awnings hauled to the dump. I guess that is a routine part of their
business:
install air-conditioning and haul away the awnings.
My dad just stood there, looking at the guy.
At first it seemed like he was he was carefully considering whether to have
them hauled away, then my dad glanced at me and I could see
by the twinkle in his eyes the answer was a foregone conclusion. My dad
stood there for some little while longer. The contractor was getting
impatient and I
thought my dad was formulating one of his famous comebacks to send this guy
on his way, but it began to look like his thoughts were wandering.
I was a little disappointed when my dad just opened the door on
the guy's van inviting him to leave and said, "What, and take away all our
fun."
The guy looked puzzled, hopped in the van and pulled out into the road. We
stood
there watching the van speed up over the hill and eventually
sink down over the horizon. The wind freshened a bit, shifting to the west.
My dad
wheeled around to me, shouting, "All hand on deck. Up the mizzen with ya.
Strike the sails and
hall down that canvas." In a flash I recalled all the imagined and amazing
sailing trips my dad and
I went on while working together with the awnings when I was a kid.
There we were again, a couple of yeomen, furling the sails into neat pleats
under
the yardarm just off the coast of Zanzibar then whiling away a long hot
afternoon
on deck repairing the sails while drifting through the doldrums on the
Sargasso Sea.

Not a bad days work for a couple of land-locked Nebraskans.

--John Leeke, Cusons Island, off the coast of Maine, November, 2000


John
by hammer and hand great works do stand
by pen and thought best words are wrought

John Leeke, Preservation Consultant

mail: 26 Higgins St., Portland, ME, 04013, USA
Phone: 01-207-773-2306
email: [log in to unmask]
website: www.HistoricHomeWorks.com