There is a story to this one. Our neighbor has been wanting an old garden bench to sit outside that she could decorate but had not found anything to her liking. Sunday, the day before garbage day, the day that people in this neighborhood put stuff out. It is also tradition around here, that if you have any big items you want to get rid of, you put those out that day where the garbage is. There are lots of people that drive around and pick up stuff. Mostly scrappers looking for metal.
Sunday Tammy and her mom were going into town, and on the road going past the boat launch, saw a small plastic bench sitting out by the garbage, so they called the neighbor and let her know. She immediately sent her husband and the three girls out to get the bench. The neighbor pulled off the road the best he could, and the oldest girl ran over to where the bench was and started to make her way back to the van with it. At that moment, a golf cart comes tearing up the pine tree lined driveway with an old guy driving, hollering, HEY! YOU ARE STEALING MY STUFF!
The oldest girl quickly tells him, no, she is not stealing, that they thought it was out there to be thrown away. The neighbor gets out of the van instantly to explain the same thing. This guy is yelling now calling them theives, saying he is going to call the cops. He parks tight behind the van with the golf cart and starts writing down the license number with paper and pencil he already happens to have. My neighbor says, HERE! Use my phone, call em! The guy continues to call them thieves and says he has his own phone. He then tells them, he wants $40 for the bench and this problem will go away, or hes calling the cops. He also claims to be a retired sheriffs deputy from Saginaw county, and keeps telling his wife who has now appeared on the scene to "Go GET MY BADGE!" He it telling the neighbor in front of the girls that he is going to jail, now the younger girls are terrified and crying. Steve once again tells the guy to call the cops, and he did. The Sheriffs car shows up in just a couple minutes. Steve explained to the officer what was going on and the officer knew right away that there was no intent to steal anything and that the guy was being unreasonable. For some reason the neighbor forgot to tell the officer about the part where the guy was saying he was going to get his badge, or the part where he said the problem would go away if they gave him $40 for the old plastic bench. The neighbor girls (foster kids whose only contact with the police has been when they are taken from a home) are terrified that they are going to haul the neighbor off, that he just wanted to get them away from the scene, which he did. The oldest girl, 13, was just plain angry.
When he gets home, he is telling me all about it. Of course there is a lot of kidding at him, but I was also forming a plan. The next day I went and got the older girl and asked her if she would like to work on a project. We could build a bench instead of stealing one. (Kidding her too ;) :)) She could give it to her Foster mom as a surprise when we were done.
So, that is what we did. We went around behind the pole barn and sorted through a bunch of scrap stuff I had been saving if only to burn. We picked out some old sections of privacy fence that were torn down when I move the little barn. The one section of fence I built 32 years ago. THe girl did a lot of the work. We used primarily hand tools other than a jig saw at the end, and a cordless screwdriver to assemble our parts. She used the handsaw to cut apart the fence sections. I sawed when she couldn't but she did a lot. She determined the bench seat and arm heights by sitting on various things and measuring. We spent a lot of time learning how to read a tape measure and use a square to draw straight lines. We would buld a little, then sit back and look at what we created for a few moments, and discuss our next steps. at the end, we had a square topped bench that looked really good in my opinion and could have been finished, but she then asked if we could put a curve on it. I smiled and said SURE WE CAN! So we did, and we also added some curve to the arm rests. When we were done, she went and grabbed her foster dad so he could help me move the bench over to her house and she could keep her foster mom busy. I declined to be there when she led her mom out with her eyes closed to show her what she had built for her. I wanted it to be from her, not me. I got the story later on how thrilled the neighbor was with it. Better than anything she could have imagined she said. My hopes in all of this was to bring a little more closeness to the neighbor girl and her foster mom, because they are now in the process of trying to adopt the girls.
Putting all the drama from the day before behind I had a wonderful day helping this young lady create something out of discarded stuff and making something really quite nice. When we were finished, the girl just kept saying and smiling, look what we made out of nothing! :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/bench1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1471440560)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/bench2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1471440562)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/bench3.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1471440562)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/bench4.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1471440560)
Nice bench and a great story. You did real good!
Good Story, Thanks for sharing it.
Now that is much better than going to jail. Looks nicer too. 8)
The story warmed my heart. But what is up with the geezer and his plastic bench. The world would be better off without some people on it. Muggs ::)
You are a good man, Jeff! :)
The bench looks nice. You are a good tutor, Jeff smiley_clapping
Excellent bench and helping the young lady. My grandson had a cubscout outing one time where they went to a woodworkers shop and turned yo-yos. The best complement the kids gave about it was that the outing was more fun than sitting home playing computer games.
That is a great story and will remain in that young girls mind for her whole life. The bench is just amazing and she must be proud of it. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff:
While having fun she probably learned more than you can imagine.
I hope you will consider doing it again, preferably with a different project.
Many kids today have no idea what tools to use or how to use them.
Gerald
Jeff, that is a good story with a good outcome. I am sure the girl enjoyed the project and learned a lot from you. She and the foster parents will certainly share some good times visiting on it.
Someone should have epoxied the old plastic bench to the driveway in front of the curmudgeon's house so that he could enjoy it for perpetuity since it was such a valuable possession.
Caveman
;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) ;D
I wonder too how many $40 did he make off that bench before Steve got there.
A good job. Great kids. Great helper too.
Wooden handmade bench value $___.
Working with and teaching a kid - Priceless.
(For everything else there's The Forestry Forum)
Time spent mentoring our young folks is the best time we can spend. The problems we are seeing around our country now would not exist if more people took up such time to work with our youth. Well done Jeff. You are an inspiration to us all.
Love the bench and story :)
Your a good man Jeff
Always good to help kids.
Nice job on the bench and being a fine example to the world.
That young lady will have a memorie the rest of her life and will always be greatfull to you Jeff. We need more mentors and less retired out of the picture folks.
Crazy story. Glad something good came out of it :)
Good on you, Jeff! Not just saying "man that is screwed up", but going farther and actually turning it info a positive ;)
Not many things more rewarding than teaching a child something that boosts their self esteem. It can melt your heart and make you realize that we need way more of this. Great job Jeff.
Quote from: Dudaks on August 21, 2016, 08:42:54 AM
Not many things more rewarding than teaching a child something that boosts their self esteem. It can melt your heart and make you realize that we need way more of this. Great job Jeff.
Even better in case like this where the young lady was working hard to build something to make someone else, her mom, happy so the enjoyment just spreads. Heck, just look how happy this has made the rest of on the FF.
that is a really nice bench thanks for taking the time to help her 8) 8) good thing I don't live any where near your neighbor ;D
I'll bet that project made ole Jeff feel good too. I know the feeling. Spent a couple of days in my shop teaching a 15 yr old to make his own baseball bats. Now he's looking into making custom bats for sale..
Great story of achievement after a grump in the road. ;D
Nice job, you are a great neighbor. I know you had fun and felt good too!
8) 8) Great Job!! 8) 8)
8) smiley_clapping
I just now read this thread. Very nice work, Jeff.
Fantastic ending to what could have been tramatic for the youngster, nicely done on all accounts!
you are leading this forum by example
Nice job,