My dad and the gap between my teeth
I have a gap between my two front teeth. My dad has one, too. This makes us inexplicably similar.
Named Richard Evelyn McNeill. His mother named him after me. Usually, he signs just an E. I like that the E stands for Evelyn. Richard E. likes words, the way they sound, their origins, their meanings. And he likes puns.
My dad has tools. A train car full. The train car lives in his backyard. He feeds it more tools to ensure it doesn't get hungry.
When my dad was a young grown up, and a young married man, he silversmithed for money. He created silver and stone jewelry. He liked turquoise. And squash blossom necklaces. Maybe it is my mom that likes the necklaces. And something about shadow-boxes. He retired from jewelry making for a living, but some of my best dad memories are making jewelry with my dad at Christmas. We had a cold room in our brown building that had a sliver smith table, a torch, the stamping supplies, and a little heater to keep us from becoming hypothermic.
We would design the piece first. Over a few years we made a bracelet, earrings, a necklace, and a hairpiece. I remember cutting the silver from a larger sheet. We would cut the piece about the size of the stone we selected, but a bit larger. I always liked black stones. The torch was connected to a propane tank, and my dad had a flint and steel clamp contraption to light the flame. It would make a loud sound when it was lit, and always made me jump. My dad would touch the silver pieces together and would have a long wire of silver, some liquid that he kept in a lime juice squeezer and he would solder (which I've always pronounced "sodder") the pieces together with that torch and the long wire, and that liquid. He also had a little tweezer thing that he would use to reposition the stone, and sometimes prod it while he worked with the flame. After the flame he plopped it in a container full of cold water. What was that liquid in the lime juice squeezer? It didn't smell like lime juice.
I remember keeping my hands in my pocket as much as I could to avoid the cold. I would pick out the stamps and my dad would hammer designs onto the piece. He would paint black something onto the jewelry. It made the stamps darker. Then we would polish it. I loved the polish. He had different wheels and bars of something that looked like soap or chalk and rub it onto the wheel. Then he would hold the now black silver piece and rub it against the wheel. That wheel would whirr against the pressure from the stone and his fingers. Then the wheel would get hot and he would take a break. There was a fluffy wheel that looked like a shaggy dog that I liked the best. When it would spin the long shag on it would stand straight up and it looked like a spinning cloud.
My dad. He is a thoughtful man. A smart man. A man of commitment. He is respects people, the way they think, and the challenges of life. He is content with little. I've never known him to be ambitious, but he makes the best of where he is and what he has. He likes movies. He can watch the same movie over again a hundred times. He can quote the entirety of Lonesome Dove.
My mom always made him a German Chocolate Cake on his birthday.
I love German Chocolate Cake.
This is me. |
This is my dad. |
Named Richard Evelyn McNeill. His mother named him after me. Usually, he signs just an E. I like that the E stands for Evelyn. Richard E. likes words, the way they sound, their origins, their meanings. And he likes puns.
My dad has tools. A train car full. The train car lives in his backyard. He feeds it more tools to ensure it doesn't get hungry.
When my dad was a young grown up, and a young married man, he silversmithed for money. He created silver and stone jewelry. He liked turquoise. And squash blossom necklaces. Maybe it is my mom that likes the necklaces. And something about shadow-boxes. He retired from jewelry making for a living, but some of my best dad memories are making jewelry with my dad at Christmas. We had a cold room in our brown building that had a sliver smith table, a torch, the stamping supplies, and a little heater to keep us from becoming hypothermic.
This is a recent photo of my mom and dad. |
I remember keeping my hands in my pocket as much as I could to avoid the cold. I would pick out the stamps and my dad would hammer designs onto the piece. He would paint black something onto the jewelry. It made the stamps darker. Then we would polish it. I loved the polish. He had different wheels and bars of something that looked like soap or chalk and rub it onto the wheel. Then he would hold the now black silver piece and rub it against the wheel. That wheel would whirr against the pressure from the stone and his fingers. Then the wheel would get hot and he would take a break. There was a fluffy wheel that looked like a shaggy dog that I liked the best. When it would spin the long shag on it would stand straight up and it looked like a spinning cloud.
Richard E. loving the ocean after retirement. |
My dad. He is a thoughtful man. A smart man. A man of commitment. He is respects people, the way they think, and the challenges of life. He is content with little. I've never known him to be ambitious, but he makes the best of where he is and what he has. He likes movies. He can watch the same movie over again a hundred times. He can quote the entirety of Lonesome Dove.
My dad is a good man. |
I love German Chocolate Cake.
How old were you when doing the jewelry making? I have some of the same memories, the building was COLD around Christmas. The lime squeeze bottle contained flux to make the silver solder flow better. I remember he would push the flux around the piece in circles with the flame of the torch until it was reduced to a white film. One of the other things I remember very distinctly was that the silver-smith bench was made of a pure asbestos sheet. Great fire retardant, bad inhalant. I'm sure OSHA,CPS and any other number of acronym-ed government agencies would have had fits but had they known...such a great childhood.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous. I am sure we are great friends. :) Yes, asbestos. I think the entire room was full of it. I think it was in the ceiling, too. Not sure. Flux! I remember. I called it the flux capacitor. Thanks for the reminder. I was making jewelry with my dad from 10-14 probably. It was only once a year, but I loved it.
DeleteYes it was some flux capacitor he would use to help the solder run like water. Do you recall the color of the silver when it glows with the heat, taking it right close to the point of melting? Its a certain glow to get the silver hot enough then touch the solder against the two pieces and whammo the solder was every where it was supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteHe then also had a tool to curve the silver around the stone so the stone would hold. Also the thing that shaped the ring part to the right diameter. He used a mallet and pounded the ring against the medal round shaperer thing until the ring was the right size. Dad used open flame gas heaters when he was going to get serious in there. The coldness had allot to do with it was a vault with I think a foot of concrete all the way around. The cold would continually seep through the walls no matter how warm the air got.
This is Clifton by the way in case I get a screwy name that shows up. :)
I make my hubby a German chocolate cake on his birthday too! Yummy :-)
ReplyDelete