A Tiny Woven Box

My dad is having shoulder surgery today. He has an excellent surgeon, the best of care once he gets home, challenging physical therapy and no golf for several months. That's right, no golf for Grandpa Arnie. My dad's "grandparent' name is Grandpa Arnie, a nod to Arnold Palmer, who is also a golfer of some note! His name is Don, but we all call him Arnie.

My dad is also known for his inventiveness. He can see a need, design a product and then go down in the basement and build it. At a young age, he taught me how to hold a hammer, gave me a hammer and let me build things. He taught me how to fix things around the house, letting me help, showing me how to use a wrench, a screwdriver, a drill. I liked to sort the nails, nuts, bolts and washers into jars and buckets on his workbench. He taught me how to sharpen a knife the proper way, which makes me the knife sharpener in our family!

One time, when I was 11, our Girl Scout Troop was having a Father -Daughter Basket Dinner. The idea was that the girls made a dinner, packed it in a basket and the dads bid on the dinner as a way to raise money for the troop. My mom helped me make the dinner, but I didn't have a basket. Not sure what to do, I asked him if he had anything I could use. He said he would look around in the basement. Later, he called me downstairs and showed me what he had made. A box shaped basket, with a plywood base, corner uprights and woven thin pieces of wood. Perfect for carrying a dinner to a party!

That box stayed in my room, filled at different times with stuffed animals, magazines or records. It went to college with me and was filled with drafting supplies for my design classes. Now, 34 years later, the box sits on a bench ( a bench actually made by my sister, Melinda)in my hallway, filled with books, waiting to be read. Something from my dad, made with his hands, invaluable to me. A simple project that told me he loved me and wanted me to have a basket for the dinner. A simple project made with simple tools that reminds me to be inventive, to be creative and to perhaps think outside of the box.