RE: Marry Ruth's Post...regarding the Engineer who does upholstery on the side. And future plans for awnings and upholstering furniture.

My grandfather self started a business doing awnings and upholstery 40's thru about 80's. Your post reminded me of him. He had a 2 story shop at the rear of his property. Sadly, it had to be torn down when they sold the estate.

For the awnings...after they were purchased, they would hang them in the spring and remove them in the winter at no charge. Can you imagine that today?

With the furniture, he built or purchased only high quality frames, and people re-covered the piece multiple times as styles changed.

My father still has his hand written ledgers, and include a few people who still owe him money. LOL.

In addition to the furniture, he had a coal delivery business which he gave to his youngest brother, a moving business as he had the large trucks, and a blue berry picking business. My brother still has his blue berry truck. He was a true entrepreneur.

There's a story, which I don't know is true, due to his fine sewing skills, he once sutured a man for the local doctor who had partaken in too much drink.

It was nice for these memories to come up because of the post from Mary Ruth. I wanted to share them instead of looking outside at the dreary weather.

Thank you for sharing these memories. Although not true of my family, I can remember when such enterprising endeavors were more common.

In fact last night I just finished reading a book "Salt Water Farm" that describes a family living such a life just before WW2.

Of course it is impossible for any of us to know intimately a lifestyle different than that we were born into. But, wrong and difficult as many things were in the 1930's, '40's and '50s, there were many, many good things too. A more general level of courtesy and good manners, lack of public obscenities and such enterprise as you speak of your grandfather having.

Wonderful memories, mmtsh! I love hearing personal histories which give a glimpse into such a different time in history when the lifestyles were so different from our present ones.

Do you use those pictures in your decor? One of my pending projects is to frame all my ancestor photos for a 'rogues' gallery'. Hopefully I'll get to it this winter. I have other memorable items from ancestors. Two that come to mind that I treasure - a handmade cedar trunk that my blacksmith GF made to store his tools and he'd be amazed (and probably appalled!) to know I use it in my house as a coffee table. The other is a pocket watch fob made of woven hair. It is from my GF's DM so would have been from the early 1800's. These items made of hair are made similar to macrame and I can't even imagine how intricately difficult they would be to make but women made them for their husbands or relatives made them after the death of a loved one as a memento (called memento mori or mourning jewelry).

Like you I treasure the memories of my ancestors.

quote:

These items made of hair

Our family had a gold ring, a band with woven hair around it. Very difficult to do I am sure. Unfortunately that is one of the things I have lost. Now in doing our ancestry genealogy, I feel closer to the woman to whom this belonged.

I enjoyed reading about your wonderful memories, Mmtsh.

mmtsh,
I am so glad I shared that story! I am looking forward to seeing Larry (that upholstering guy) again soon.

He welds the frames for the awnings himself and then covers them with the Sunbrella fabric.

I hope he can weld an arch trellis for me!

Thanks so much for sharing your story! I enjoyed reading about your grandfather and his entrepreneurial endeavors!

My grandfather was a self sufficient farmer, blacksmith and whatever else he could do. They were survivors in those days!