Blasts From The Past

[Pappy]

I was getting my laptop out of the bag after a trip and I found a thumb drive I didn't know was in there. Plugged it in and was pleasantly surprised to find some old photo files. One file, labeled "Pappy's People", was folks I have met over the years. I met David Marks and Graham Blackman at a Woodcraft event. and show. The ones that brought back good memories were the people from BT3Central.

Jim Boyd and his wife Liz stopped by one afternoon. We had occasion later to visit them at their home.


Jim and me on the break deck at the Playpen.


A few of us met at the Houston woodworking show in 2004. Unfortunately, the only name I remember is Loring.


Also in 2004 Rod Kirby brought his wife, Carol, to Houston for a quilting convention. A few of us got together to take him around and out for lunch. The two places he really wanted to see were Rockler and Harbor Freight.


I made a trinket box for Carol and a custom frame for Rod. The frame hung above the work bench in Rod's shop until he passed. Carol mailed it back to me and it now hangs in my living room with the picture of the five of us that Rod chose to put in it.


Last, but most certainly not least, was our founder the famous (infamous?) Sam Condor coming to the house when he was in Austin on company business. I had to have a picture in front of the Playpen.


For dinner Sam wanted TexMex and we had just the place at the time. He was still talking about the salsa months later!

[LCHIEN]

great times, long history.
wonderful memories.

[MosheTreutel]

Wishing you and your friends good health

[leehljp]

The picture on the bottom with the date listed in 2004? but I think it was 2002 or 2003 with Lee Styron and two other former members here. That was over Christmas, and my wife and I were visiting her mom in Pascagoula, MS, so I took a day to go over just past Mobile AL and meet Lee and two others.

As for the top picture, Rod Kirby came through Tokyo for a few days just prior to his visit to you guys in Texas. An interesting story occurred that afternoon - but not related to Rod.

I left a boring business conference about 10 AM and met Rod for about half an hour, then instead of going back to the conference decided to go home to Nagoya (about 300 kilometers) early because it was raining cats and dogs. I did not know that a typhoon was coming in and due to hit Nagoya about 4 PM with full force. I got my tickets changed and got on the Shinkansen (bullet train) due to arrive in Nagoya about 3 PM. Well, I arrived at 3 PM and when I got off the Shinkansen, it was raining sideways. I managed to get down to the subway and take a subway/train to Toyota City. Half the distance (About 30 miles) was underground and the last half above ground. After we emerged from underground, I called my wife and asked her to pick me up at the Toyota Train station. She replied: "I'm not getting out in this. Fend for yourself!" I didn't really blame her with winds at about 70 MPH at the time. By the time I arrived at Toyota Station, rain was like bullets. There were no buses, only one taxi. I got into that one taxi and he took me to my house about 3 miles for the Toyota Station. It cost me the equivalent of about $20, but I paid him the equivalent of $40(IIRC)but I was happy to do that. Tipping is not done in Japan but in that case, it was OK.

BTW, that was the last Shinkansen into Nagoya that day due to the high winds. (The Shinkansens run every 10 to 15 minutes normally.) And because of the winds and rain, The train that I was on - was the last train from Nagoya to Toyota City until about 11 PM.

My wife still does not regret - not getting out to pick me up!

[pearson]

always great to find some old photos. Threads like this always hit me with a wave of nostalgia. Someone mentioned old magazines and I instantly thought of those early Apple https://apple.pissedconsumer.com/customer-service.html ads—back when computers looked more like science projects than tools. Crazy to see how much tech and design has changed. It’s the same with woodworking tools—old catalogs are like a time machine. Makes you appreciate both how far things have come and what’s been lost.