A Garage Raising and a Last-Minute Ham Dinner

Dad never wanted anyone to get hurt on his land and was very cautious when others came over to visit us or to work with him or to use his tools. This is not to say many of the projects he himself initiated were not sometimes dangerous. But when others came over, safety was always his first concern. That’s why we were all amazed when he proposed his idea on how he was going to build his new garage. Dad just assumed all the neighbors would come over and he would have a garage raising like an old barn raising. We walked from house to house, and in his most charming manner, promoted his project, set the date, and promised a big ham dinner to everyone afterwards. The only one he didn’t tell was Mom—until one day before when he brought home this huge ham. She was really upset because he was expecting over twenty people. Virginia had to scamper around to come up with the rest of the food and help Mom prepare it. Virginia was skeptical, as I remember and warned Dad (she was never intimidated by him) in her inimitable way when she said—only half kidding, “Floyd Guild, if we make all this food, there better be someone here to eat it!” And darned if he didn’t pull it off just as he had planned it. A fine garage was built in a day. A sad footnote to this story was that George Rohrer, who had helped build our garage on that day, tried the same thing a year later but nobody came, not even Daddy, so he built his garage all by himself. Daddy unashamedly noted that George’s garage roof sagged in the middle and ours was straight as an arrow. Some’s got it. Some don’t! Daddy’s garage soon boasted a forge with a hand-crank bellows, which mesmerized me as its fire glowed white hot and spit red and yellow sparks. He had both a wood-turning lathe and a metal turning lathe, several grinding wheels, steel and brass-brush burnishing wheels, a table saw, a band saw, a jig saw, and a drill press. He was an excellent arc welder who could make neat, perfect welds. He also had an acetylene torch for gas welding and cutting metal. He could make all the parts he needed for his inventions right there in his work shop. Bob and I, and the girls as well, spent hundred if not thousands of hours watching him fix and build things in that garage.