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ANTIQUE TOOL TALK # 33
(by Bud Bolt - February 01, 2010)
Well folks, today I want to visit with you about the first tool I remember. To get this story in perspective, it’s important to remind you that I was born on a dry hill farm south West of Riverdale, Nebr. At that time, my parents were fairly prosperous and continued to be so until 1932. That’s when the rains stopped and soon thereafter the dust started blowing and of course, they or no one else realized this was the first of several years of drought and what became known as the Great Dust Bowl Nothing grew for years. Actually in our area until 1939, with no crops – no feed or pasture and no income to purchase feed, Dad & Mom’s animals were soon dying of starvation. By 1935, from a heard of 30 plus milk cows and over 30 work horses, they were down to 1 cow that still produced milk and one team still strong enough to pull a wagon. The hogs and chickens were all hauled off by the government to stop the spread of disease.
Now, if you have not lived through this dreadful event or at least seen documentaries on it or perhaps studied it, there is no way to explain it.
The dust blew for years. There were times when nothing green existed for miles in every direction, unless on a river bottom where there may be a few trees These were the hardest of the hard times, especially for farmers.
My folk’s went from being so called prosperous in late 20’s to penny less by 1935 and lost there last farm in 1936 and was evicted, forced to move from the farm that was fulfilling their dreams in 1929. Three of the nine of us kids were born there.(I was the youngest).
So, now, let’s get back to tools. My Dad had a 1926 Essex and for reasons I was too young to understand, the connecting rods needed to be tightened every few miles. It was no small job as the oil had to be drained; the oil pan removed then each rod disassembled to perform the tightening process.
Naturally Dad needed a place to do so and as we had no shop, he dug a pit trench. He could drive the car over – then crawl under it in the trench to do this job.
Now during the dust storms, the pit as we called it would fill with dirt and almost daily it had to be dug out. About this time (1935) dad’s brother in Kearney, Nebr., (approx 6 miles from the farm) was terminal, so Dad & Mom went in almost every day to be with him. Nearly every night after supper Dad & one of us boys would head to the pit to tighten the rods on the Essex. I always felt real proud and important when Dad would ask me to be his helper. Mostly that meant holding the kerosene lantern for him.
Apparently Dad needed a special tool to remove the pan screws so he made one out of an old screwdriver. I sure wish I knew how he did it as we had no electricity – no shop and no welding equipment, etc. He must have used a blowtorch.
Regardless of how he made it, he did so and we proudly display it in Area A – Board 45-C item # 18.
Needless to say when I look at this tool, it brings back many memories. Some of the horrible dust storms, but mostly those precious times being Dad’s little helper. If I were to do it now, it would take a much bigger pit.
Hope you can come by and see this and approx 7,000 other tools. We are located at 1650 Broderick St, just up from the Chinese Temple and we are open Tuesday thru Sunday, 11:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Closed on Mondays - and while you are here, we will talk tools. Antique Tools, that is.
By Bud Bolt
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