We did stuff like that in my old high school
metal shop with real machine tools and not erector sets
wood shop that could do furniture starting with slabs of wood
Monuments to cast iron scattered around the floor, with Walker Turner or Milwaukee-Delta on the nameplates
Tools that our fathers and uncles had learned on.
and then there was the instructor’s project room - molds for fiberglass boats and the Link Trainer he was building.
There were five instructors in the shop department, for a graduating class of 75 boys, grades 7-12.
Kids came into the shop, 12 years old and junior high, that owned better hand tools already than some working carpenters I know now
and could sharpen them too
Grandfathers and fathers and uncles and cousins had taught 'em, kids could earn a day’s pay.
Not playstation, not video.
Shavings and sawdust.
Swarf and slag
And then they learned the big stuff,
thickness planers heavy and powerful
Jointers like a solid iron aircraft carrier model
table saws with no plastic in 'em
Bandsaws and blade welding from
dark blue sharp coils
lathes, pale gray and Rockwell, well-oiled
Vertical mills, chewing a little more keyway with every turn of the crank
Welders spitting blue sparks and puddles of yellow-glowing liquid steel
surfboard making? too easy
how about an engine rebuild
or putting a 40’ trap boat together again
they did those
or a dining room set of mahogany, with inlays
drawn with T-square and triangles and french curves
wood chosen, selected, matched
jigs and patterns
planed, sawn, joints cut
fitted, glued, scraped, finished
all gone now, sold off.
Shop teachers retired
everybody is going to college, i guess
get degrees in psych or business
open up crafte shoppes that fold soon
wouldn’t know a mortise from a mortar
a tenon from Pavarotti
they have a tech school now
i have worked with some of the instructors there
not in the schools but out on jobs for real
that 12 year old kid from a generation and a half ago
could have taught them a lot about roofing,
let alone fine woodwork
Only dinosaurs know how to make things now
and fix them.
the zoops and zings from the kid’s rooms,
as they conquer swarthy invaders on a cathode-ray screen.
or converse online with potential molesters
as i fix things and make things
and get sawdust on my scales in the workshop
fossil, i guess
doc…