Getting Back to Giving Back

Getting Back to Giving Back

Since Dad's passing last Fall, several thoughts come to mind.

One is - Dad was a huge believer in working with his hands, & liked new things. He often had several projects on at any one time, and the thought of failure at making or doing something he was interested in, never stopped him. He just continued practicing, trying different ways of doing something, and reading up on how other people made things
.
Dad loved making knives, and was working on making one right to the end, the day he passed away.
I remember getting him a nice, very thin Case folding pocket knife, and the next day he had taken it all apart, to check out how it all worked, the shape of the blade that was hidden in the handle , what the spring looked like, and the specs on the pivot!

One of the things he always was very proud of me doing, was wanting to teach the kids in the family about motorcycling - which he also enjoyed in his youth, - teaching them to work with their hands - he went to Bates Voc School in Tacoma to learn boat building, and me wanting to pass on some of my knowledge with Velocette motor cycles, with my Ed Gilkison School of Velocette.

I still get asked about how the kids are doing on their projects, though I had to temporarily stop my 'school', as my main income- earning customers projects, were getting sidelined, and not worked as much as needed and finished as quickly as I had hoped. This was mostly because of my own health issues, and not because of anything the kids had done.

I've been looking how to re-arrange some things in the shop, to make room for four of the kids projects to be set up and worked on - without interfering with customers bikes and projects , resuming my Ed Gilkison School of Velocette. & seeing what I can do to make it all happen this time around.
Getting back to trying to pass on a bit of my Velocette Specialist knowledge and not to just having it lost, like so many of the small shops I have known and worked with over the years.