Raconteur - The Brandegee Blog

Ramblings on Crafting Useable Art (and other things that I find interesting)

Raconteur
Posted on June 12, 2013

Bob, our caretaker for our country cabin was an extraordinary person, a man Ada and I were fond of and miss very much.

He was a crack shot which made would-be trespassers wary. He was also a gifted athlete, not limited to marksmanship. His greatest regret was that he had turned down an offer for a tryout for the then NY Giants; he didn’t want to leave his young wife. He did play semi-pro ball though, apparently very well.  He once mentioned that Eddie Feiner (I think that’s the right spelling), the softball pitcher of the traveling 2 person team “The King and his Court” once came to town and Eddie agreed to play the local nine on the sole condition that Bob not play.  Eddie had heard about Bob.

Bob was a great source of news, including stories of events up to a century in the past.  Bob tipped back and forth in our twig rocker as he regaled us with tales of the locals week in week out whenever we were there.  He told us of the farmer who ran his son through with a pitchfork after a failed discussion about how to handle hay.  Also about the local who had burned down a large outbuilding to get at the galvanized roof; it seemed that rather than occupy the house on his property, the man preferred living in a tin roof lean-to he had built.  And scores more.  He was our Bedford County Garrison Keiler.  I wish I’d taped him; he was a gifted raconteur.

Bob also mentioned one day that he had been American clog dancing champion about 20 years before.  That was a casual aside to us, after he had cut cubes for me from a large butternut tree that had fallen on our land.  This stand is a 16" cube; I’ve also made thicket back chairs from them.  I think of him whenever I sit on them.

Inanimate objects sit comfortably on this.  People need a cushion.

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