Good Morning on this unusually warm mid December day. With a warm cup of coffee in my hand and the sun light breaking through the window I thought that I might sit down and share some morning thoughts. Thought I truthfully do not know where they are going to go exactly.

So let me begin with a simple thought and see where it unravels....

My father was a carpenter, and his brother was a carpenter as well. And the man who taught them was my grandfather and he was the master carpenter of them all. At least that is how I remember it. Growing up I would spend my summers and weekends learning the family trade and honestly trying to make a dollar or two. Funny how I do not really really remember how to do much of it now.

As a small child I did not know much about the family business but I did know that my grandfather had a garage. In his garage a many of things got fixed. In my childhood mind he could fix just about anything. He had tools hanging from the wall and an assortment or screws and nails and there was this one little blue cabinet that really looked out of place that he kept god knows what in.

My grandfather did not have much money and would always tell me that it was cheaper for him to fix something than to pay someone else to do it. He worked on his trucks and his lawnmowers and just a number of many things. I mean this was in a time before they put computers in such things and you could do it yourself if you had the time and skill to do so. I was always happy to help out and would routinely grab him tools from the wall or his work bench, well because as my grandfather used to say once he was on the floor he did as many things as possible before he got back up again. Oh the things that old people said to me that make since now, but that is a story for another time.

In my family hierarchy my grand father was king and he just had a way about him. A way that seemed to make everyone feel special in my childhood eyes. The funny thing is that I don't ever remember him talking about his father. All I knew was that my grandfather grew up on a farm and his father passed when he was a youngman. So in my childhood mind my great grandfather was a farmer.

No fast forward into my adult years and as it would turn out I would not follow the family business. I had different plans with my life and they did not include spending my days working in a small little wood shop. Not that there is anything wrong with such things, I just had different ideas. And many years later after my grand father had passed and my own father was retired I would learn that my great grand father was a carpenter as well. He just sold his little wood shop and bought a farm to feed his family during the depression. But not only was he a carpenter he was actually a cabinet maker and the way my father explained it, is kind of like the master of carpenters if you will. And that little blue cabinet in my grandfathers shop, well his father had made that.

In that moment, I realized why my grandfather kept it all those years. Just a small little blue cabinet that was his physical reminder of his father. And what he kept in it was the memories of his dad and his youth. And in that moment I also realize that, that little blue cabinet is probably gone now and no one in my family has it. Not that it had much value but I kind of wish I had that cabinet, if for nothing else because he was important to my grandfather.

And when I sit in here in reflection, in my little house, with my little cup of coffee and the sun breaking through the window. I look around and can not see much of anything that my father or grandfather made. Which is funny, because coming from a long line of carpenters you think that would not be the case. Oh such is the fate of the son that did not follow in the family business and joined the army.

So now dear reader, I ask you this. What is something that you have perhaps learned about your family as an adult that you did not know. Or what little reminders of your distant familly do you have sitting around ?

Thank you for reading and more importantly thank you for sharing. This community has become a dear friend of mine over the past year.