In a message dated 97-12-20 12:46:05 EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

> I grew up working
>  in my father's woodworking shop from an early age and see wood as material
>  that is easily broken down and rebuilt into any shape, form or assembly
that
>  can be thought up.

John's description of working with his father is really fine. My experience of
working with my stepfather, an electrician, was something else altogether. The
closest I can get to the depth John describes is my mother's love of wild
plants. I spent a lot of my childhood wandering around in the woods looking
at, and paying with, the plants, which includes trees.

But for me the mystery was in helping her build stone walls around the
property. I consider stone to be a difficult media. Though I like to whittle,
wood, for me, is not as interesting a material to play with.

My mother's father was a master finish carpenter, and I remember spending
hours with him in his shop, his specialty was spiral staircases. My memory is
mostly sorting nails and other odd hardware into baby food jars. He was a
collector of junk, which is a trait I inherited, to the chagrin of my wife.
His shop was in the basement below the garage and was an incredible mess of
wood, sawdust, and hand-built power tools; all isolated from the house and
family. He had power tools that he had built from scrap found at the junk
yard.

My interest in historic preservation occured because my mother would drag the
family around to all the historic villages and sites that were available. (She
just now handed me a small paper bag from Greenfield Village, one of this
years trips, with three marbles in it.) I think I was about 14 years old
visiting Colonial Williamsburg and was looking at the log walls of a "hunter's
shed" when I had an epiphany, and realized then what direction I wanted to go
in. It was not until much later that I realized the media for me would be a
combination of stone and words.

][<en Follett